CD – Unsounds

Phill Niblock passed away in January 2024 at the age of ninety. It was a tremendous loss for all fans of audio art and experimental music. The minimalist composer had been active since the mid-sixties, and lived intensely through various musical epochs carrying us all into an expressively richer and more hybrid world. An evolution of the compositional approach which – similarly to some of his sounds – occurred slowly and through almost imperceptible transformations. Drone music would not be the same today without Phill Niblock, who was among the first to experiment with multiple harmonic variations, together with prolonged timbres, stratifications, and slight modifications of extended notes (those that were once defined as drone notes, i.e. long notes that accompany the piece for its entire duration). Niblock through the continuous experience of Experimental Intermedia, an artistic collective he created together with Elaine Summers, Philip Corner and Trisha Brown way back in 1968, has always contributed positively to a reflection on the development of technological innovations in the field of the arts, as well as dealing with cinema, photography and video, media with which he often enriched his performances with while developing a socio-anthropological narrative, infusing inspiration and multimedia aptitude for future generations of artists. Experimental Intermedia also functioned well as a historical archive of all the activity carried out in that period in their Lower Manhattan studios, given that almost all the recordings of those seminal concerts have been preserved, including the first performances of important composers like George Lewis, Malcolm Goldstein, Eliane Radigue, and Arnold Dreyblatt, to name but a few. ‘Intermedia is when you enter the image and remain enveloped in it, becoming part of the image’ – this was the creed of those avant-gardists and of those who knew too well both the extreme rigor and the creative expression of the master, who now with this release is being rightly celebrated. The two tracks presented on this album were created in close collaboration with the composer shortly before his death and are typical of Niblock’s musical signature – extensive and rich in nuances. ‘Biliana’ was written specifically for the voice and violin of Biliana Voutchkova and ‘Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel’ was performed by the ensembles Modelo62 and Scordatura (it should be also noted that Yannis Kyriakides mastered this composition). They are both fascinating, engaging, and hypnotic works – monolithic sounds, driven by incessant energy. They are released here by Unsounds, in collaboration with the Echonance Festival.

 

Phill Niblock – Looking for Daniel