Niblock, Phill

Touch Strings [2 CDs]

Label: Touch Country: UK

"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, and he's also worked with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo.

Touch Strings features three new pieces completed between 2007 and 2008. "Stosspeng," a piece for guitars and bass guitars performed by Susan Stenger and Robert Poss, premiered at the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria in April of 2007 after recording sessions to obtain materials for the piece took place at Robert Poss's Trace Elements studio in New York. The material for "Poure" was recorded in Johan Vandermaelen's Amplus studio in Aaigem, Belgium, and premiered at Schuurlo, Sint-Maria-Aalter, Belgium on September 12, 2008. Performed by Arne Deforce on cello, "Poure" was commissioned by the Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie, CRFMW, Liege, Belgium. "One Large Rose," performed by The Nelly Boyd Ensemble (Robert Engelbrecht, cello; Jan Feddersen, piano strummed with nylon strings; Peter Imig, violin; Jens Roehm, acoustic bass guitar strummed with nylon strings or e-bow), was made with the musicians playing from a score, and recorded acoustically in real time, with four recordings of 46 minutes each superimposed, until a final mix was completed at Experimental Intermedia, New York in October of 2008."-Touch Records

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