In early 2015 I came across a piece of music that was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It was called "Africa Express Presents: Terry Riley's In C Mali," which didn't ring any bells for me at the time, though it involved a number of musicians I like, including Brian Eno.

When I hit "play," I was surrounded by a cloud of music that seemed to contradict itself at every turn as if it was in a state of suspended animation, but it kept changing all the time. It was filled with energy and...