PHILL NIBLOCK : Touch Three

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Format: 3CD [TO:69]
Shipping Weight: 0.2lbs
Label: Touch

3,443円

'This is Phill Niblock's third release on the Touch label. Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V. Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. Touch Three is minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones, and the result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti's choral works, but a little more phased. He says: "What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly." These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using a Powerbook G4, Pro Tools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Pro Tools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space. The recordings were generally done quite closely miked. One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones...the microtones are doing the work.'

Tracklist
1-1 Sethwork 21:50
Acoustic Guitar [Unamplified, Played With E-bow] ? Seth Josel
Engineer [Recorder Samples] ? Michael Peschko
Producer [Deutschland Radio] ? Frank Kaempfer
1-2 Lucid Sea 20:26
Engineer [Guitar Samples] ? Michael Peschko
Producer [Deutschland Radio] ? Frank Kaempfer
Recorder ? Lucia Mense
1-3 Harm 24:44
Cello ? Arne Deforce
Recorded By [Recording Of The Tones] ? Johan Vandermaelen
2-1 Parker's Altered Mood, AKA, Owed To Bird 16:27
Alto Saxophone ? Ulrich Krieger
Recorded By ? Thomas Ankersmit
2-2 Zrost 23:32
Soprano Saxophone ? Martin Zrost
2-3 Not Yet Titled 22:20
Engineer ? Melvyn Poore
Trumpet ? Franz Hautzinger
3-1 Valence 23:02
Recorded By [Tones] ? Johan Vandermaelen
Viola ? Julia Eckhardt
3-2 Alto Tune 25:08
Alto Saxophone ? Ulrich Krieger
Recorded By ? Thomas Ankersmit
3-3 Sax Mix 25:08
Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone ? Ulrich Krieger

Credits
Design ? Jon Wozencroft
Mastered By ? Denis Blackham
Photography By ? Phill Niblock

Notes
"These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using my Powerbook G4, Protools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Protools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space (Deutschland Radio, Cologne). The recordings were generally done quite closely miked.
One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones. The microtones are doing the work."
Tones for "Harm" (March 18, 2003) recorded in the Orpheus Institute in Gent, Belgium, direct to hard drive; piece finished in Berlin and premiered at Maerz Musik Festival; commissioned by Maerz Musik.
"Sethwork" and "Lucid Sea" commissioned by Deutschland Radio in Cologne, Germany; the recording of the samples was done at Deutschlandradio Studios in Cologne.
"Sethwork" (2003) constructed in the Experimental Intermedia Studios in New York.
"Lucid Sea" (August 8, 2003) constructed in Gent.
Tones for "Parker's Altered Mood, aka, Owed to Bird" (2004) and "Alto Tune" (2004) recorded in Berlin in Ulrich Kreiger's apartment.
Tones for "Zrost" (2004) recorded in Martin Zrost's work room.
Tones for "Not Yet Titled" (2003) recorded in Volker Straebel's apartment in Steglitz, Berlin; the piece was commissioned by and premiered in a Musikprotokoll concert in the Steirischen Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria.
"Valence" (2005) was commissioned by the Q O2 Ensemble, Brussels, and the tones were recorded in Johan Vandermaelen's studio in the Belgian countryside.
The cover and disc face give the wrong track order for disc 1.
First edition, in matte gloss digipak