The Squid's Ear Magazine
Victo Buy 5 for $7.00 Sale !



Riley, Terry played by John Tilbury: Keyboard Studies (Another Timbre)

There is uncertainty of when pianist John Tilbury recorded these three solo keyboard works by his associate and friend, legendary minimalist composer Terry Riley, performing "Keyboard Study #1" and #2, along with "Dorian Reeds" using piano, electric organ, harpsichord & celesta, captured with excellent quality in superb performances from Tilbury at the height of his powers.
 

Price: $15.95


Quantity:

Out of Stock
Reordered on 5/4/2025

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 3.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



John Tilbury-piano, electric organ, harpsichord, celesta

Terry Riley-composer


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




Label: Another Timbre
Catalog ID: at193
Squidco Product Code: 32032

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded in Hamburg in the late 1970's, or early 80's.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Terry Riley and John Tilbury are both giants of experimental music. They were friends from the late 1960's onwards, and John has performed Terry's Keyboard Studies several times in concert, as well as recording them for BBC Radio in 1971.However, the recordings on the CD are not the BBC recordings. In fact John can't remember exactly when the recordings were made, though he thinks they took place in Hamburg, Germany, probably about 30 years ago. He can't recall the details, except that everything was recorded in one day - which was quite a feat given the amount of over-dubbing in Keyboard Study No.2.What is clear is that John was at the height of his considerable powers at the time the recordings were made.Aside from the legendary 'In C', the Keyboard Studies are probably the most frequently performed of Terry Riley's works. Written almost 60 years ago, virtually at the same time as 'In C', the Keyboard Studies are like short sketches for the performer to develop. At the time Terry was developing a semi-improvisational practice as a young keyboard player in San Francisco, and it is his music from this era which shot him to prominence in the late 1960's. He has continued to work as both a performer and composer, and has had a particularly close relationship with the Kronos Quartet, writing many works for them, and for his son, the guitarist Gyan Riley."-Another Timbre


Artist Biographies

"John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.

Tilbury studied piano at the Royal College of Music with Arthur Alexander and James Gibb and also with Zbigniew Drzewiecki in Warsaw. 1968 he was the winner of the Gaudeamus competition in the Netherlands.

During the 1960s, Tilbury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded and a member of the Scratch Orchestra. His biography of Cardew, "Cornelius Cardew - A life unfinished" was published in 2008.

Tilbury has also recorded the works of Howard Skempton and John White, among many others, and has also performed adaptations of the radio plays of Samuel Beckett.

With guitarist AMM bandmate Keith Rowe's electroacoustic ensemble M.I.M.E.O., Tilbury recorded The Hands of Caravaggio, inspired by the painter's The Taking of Christ {1602). In this live performance, twelve of the members of M.I.M.E.O. were positioned around the piano in a deliberate echo of Christ's Last Supper. The thirteenth M.I.M.E.O. member (Cor Fuhler) is credited with "inside piano" as he interacted and interfered with Tilbury's playing by manipulating and damping the instrument's strings, essentially doing piano preparation in real time. Critic Brian Olewnick describes the album as "A staggering achievement, one is tempted to call The Hands of Caravaggio the first great piano concerto of the 21st century."

Another notable recent recording of Tilbury's was Duos for Doris (like The Hands of Caravaggio also on Erstwhile Records), a collaboration with Keith Rowe. It is widely considered a landmark recording in the genre of electroacoustic improvisation (or "EAI").

In 2013 he collaborated with artist Armando Lulaj in FIEND performance at the National Theatre of Tirana (Albania)."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tilbury)
5/7/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"California Composer Terry Riley launched what is now known as the Minimalist movement with his revolutionary classic IN C in 1964. This seminal work Provided a new concept in musical form based on interlocking repetitive patterns. It's impact was to change the course of 20th Century music and it's influence has been heard in the works of prominent composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams and in the music of Rock Groups such as The Who, The Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream, Curved Air and many others. Terry's hypnotic, multi-layered, polymetric, brightly orchestrated eastern flavored improvisations and compositions set the stage for the prevailing interest in a new tonality.

While working on a masters degree at UC Berkeley in 1960, he met La Monte Young, whose radical approach to time made a big impact and the two made a life long association.

During this time Riley and Young worked out many of their seminal ideas while working with influential dancer Anna Halprin.

During a sojourn to Europe 1962-64 he collaborated with members of the Fluxus group, playwright Ken Dewey and trumpeter Chet Baker and was involved in street theater and happenings.

In 1965 he move to New York and joined La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music.

1967 was the year of his first all night concert at the Philadelphia College of Art and he began a collaboration with visual artist Robert Benson resulting in more all night concerts.

Recordings of In C, A Rainbow in Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band and the Church of Anthrax were all issued by CBS Masterworks in 1968-69.

In 1970, Terry became a disciple of the revered North Indian Raga Vocalist, Pandit Pran Nath and made the first of his numerous trips to India to study with the Master. He appeared frequently in concert with the legendary singer as tampura, tabla and vocal accompanist over the next 26 years until Pran Naths passing in 1996. He has co-directed along with Sufi Murshid, Shabda Kahn of the Chisti Sabri India music study tours 1993-2000.

Terry regularly appears in concerts of Indian Classical Music and conducts raga singing seminars.

While teaching at Mills College in Oakland in the 1970's he met David Harrington, founder and leader of the Kronos Quartet and began the long association that has so far produced 13 string quartets, a quintet, Crows Rosary and a concerto for string quartet, The Sands (1990), which was the Salzburg Festival's first new music commission and SUN RINGS (2003), the 2 hour multi media piece for choir, visuals and Space sounds, commissioned by NASA.

The Cusp of Magic (2004) another quintet for Kronos features Wu Man, pipa, and was released on Nonesuch records in 2007.

Cadenza on the Night Plain was selected by both Time and Newsweek as one of the 10 best Classical albums of the year.

The epic 5 quartet cycle, Salome Dances for Peace was selected as the #1 Classical album album of the year by USA Today and was nominated for a Grammy.

The orchestral piece Jade Palace was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the Centennial celebration 1990/91. It was premiered there by Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony.

June Buddha's, for Chorus and Orchestra, based on Jack Kerouac's Mexico City Blues was commissioned by the Koussevitsky foundation in 1991."

-Terry Riley Website (http://terryriley.net/biography.htm)
5/7/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Keyboard Study No. 1 (1964) 17:50

2. Keyboard Study No. 2 (1965) 30:57

3. Dorian Reeds (1964/5) 23:50

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Avant-Garde
Piano & Keyboards
Solo Artist Recordings
Ambient, Minimal, Reductionist, Onky Sound, &c.
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Compositional Music
Top Sellers for 2022 by Customer Sales

Search for other titles on the label:
Another Timbre.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
Lamb, Catherine
Curva Triangulus
(Another Timbre)
Inspired by the geometric and illusory work of artist Bridget Riley, Catherine Lamb's "Curva Triangulus" borrows from Renaissance music that she "warps" by interjecting geometric musical figures, performed by the Proton Ensemble of Bern using traditional, new and historic instruments, all underpinned by the 16th century microtonal Vicentino arciorgano organ.
Arnold, Martin
Flax
(Another Timbre)
Commissioned in 2020 by pianist Philip Thomas, whose health prevented him from performing the work, Canadian composer Martin Arnold's 79-minute hypnotic solo work for piano emphasizes the keyboard's upper register in slow moving textural melodies influenced by innovative 50's & 60's bop pianists, performed in 2022 at the University of Huddersfield by pianist Kerry Yong.
Golub, Phillip
Filters [VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Greyfade)
Approaching the concept of endless repetition, New York composer and pianist Phillip Golub (Tropos, Sarafand Ensemble, Cecil McBee) presents his debut solo piano album, a contemplative set of system-based looping phrases that open up to improvisational variety in live performance, here in four renderings that defy the categorization of a "loop".
Rileys, The (Terry Riley / Gyan Riley)
Way Out Yonder
(Sri Moonshine Music)
The 2nd live release from the duo of iconic American composer and minimalist pioneer Terry Riley and his guitarist/composer son Gyan Riley, comprised of spontaneous improvisations and compositions by both Terry and Gyan captured during three performances in Canada, Japan and the US, with Gyan performing on electric guitar and Terry Riley on piano, voice, melodica and electronics.
AMM (Tilbury / Prevost)
Place Sub. V
(Matchless)
AMM (Eddie Prevost on percussion and John Tilbury on piano(+)) performing a 1 hour, 1 minute and 1 second live concert at the 2012 Festival of Traditional and Avant-Garde Music in Lublin, Poland in a beautiful melding of unconventional approaches to improvisation.
Smith Quartet with John Tilbury
Morton Feldman: Music for Piano and Strings Volume 2 [DVD-AUDIO]
(Matchless)
The 2nd volume of "Music for Piano and Strings" by Morton Feldman is performed by The Smith Quartet with John Tilbury, presenting "Patterns In a Chromatic Field", and "Piano, violin, Viola, Cello", on DVD audio to allow for the length of these large works.
Jennings / Cage / Tilbury / Lexer
Lost Daylight
(Another Timbre)
Pianist John Tilbury is captured with remarkable clarity by Sebastian Lexer as he performs works by composers Terry Jennings and John Cage (with Lexer on electronics); superb performances!
Tilbury, John / Eddie Prevost
Discrete Moments
(Matchless)



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Zorn, John / JACK Quartet
The Complete String Quartets [2 CDs]
(Tzadik)
The JACK Quartet presents definitive interpretations of John Zorn's eight string quartets, composed between 1988-2017, in a two-disc album presenting Zorn's evolution through avant-garde techniques and deep musical traditions, with virtuosic performances of intricate works like "Cat O'Nine Tails", "Memento Mori", or "Necronomicon"; includes a 36-page booklet of notes, scores, and insights.
Lounge Lizards
Live In Berlin 1991 Vol. 1
(Intuition)
Captured live in Berlin in 1991, this album showcases John Lurie's Lounge Lizards at their creative peak, featuring Michael Blake, Steven Bernstein, and Bryan Carrott in a powerful ensemble blending jazz, avant-garde, and wit; recorded over several nights, it documents their evolution from satirical beginnings to a genre-defying force of sophisticated improvisation and bold musicianship.
Yamamoto, Eri Quadraphonic
Fly With The Wings
(Mahakala Music)
A warm and lyrical new quartet from pianist, vocalist, and melodica player Eri Yamamoto alongside Chad Fowler on alto sax & flute, Kevin Thomas on bass, and longtime collaborator Ikuo Takeuchi on drums, blending groove-driven jazz, free improvisation, and tender balladry with Yamamoto's distinctive touch, highlighted by playful interplay, beautiful melodies, and a soulful, unhurried charm.
Davies, Rhodri
Telyn Wrachiod
(Amgen Records)
Continuing his investigations into ancient Welsh Harps, the Telyn Wrachïod (which translates to the Witches Harp) used pegs or brags emerging from the string-holes, in Welsh called gwrachïod, which could be adjusted to press on the strings to create a buzzing percussive sound used for dancing, here in improvisations by Rhodri Davies using a Urquhart bray harp.
Bailey / Toyozumi
Breath Awareness
(NoBusiness)
Derek Bailey's 1987 trip to Japan yielded a number of important recordings, including a duo with Mototeru Takagi, a trio with Sabu Toyozumi & Peter Brötzmann, and this concert at IMAI-Tei with Toyozumi, one of the first generation Japanese free improvisers and the only non-American to become a member of the AACM; here in three duos and Bailey's solo "Diaphragm".
Borca / R. Brown / W. Parker / Workman / Nicholson / Murphy / Ibarra / Taylor-Baker
Good News Blues
(NoBusiness)
A vital member of groups led by Jimmy Lyons, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Joe Morris and William Parker, bassoonist Karen Borca is heard in two Vision Festival performances under her own name performing her own compositions in trio, quartet and quintet formations with luminaries Rob Brown, William Parker, Reggie Nicholson, Susie Ibarra, Todd Nicholson, Paul Murphy and Newman Taylor-Baker.
Modney (Modney / Wooley / Gentile / Roberts / Pluta / Symthe / ...)
Ascending Primes [2 CDs]
(Pyroclastic Records)
Exploring tuning systems and the extremes of harmonicity and dissonance through compositions that employ prime numbers of players in solo, trio, quintet, septet, and undectet (11) configurations, violinist Modney takes listeners into transcendent and turbulent spaces spanning improvisation and composition, detailed in a 24-page booklet with collages from Ellsworth Kelly.
Ono Lennon, Sean
Asterisms
(Tzadik)
The chameleonic styles of Sean Ono Lennon are in full force on this instrumental record, merging rock, jazz, experimental and cinematic styles in captivating ways, performed with the spectacular ensemble of Devon Hoff (bass), Yuka Honda (electronics), Johnny Mathar (drums), João Nogueira (Wurlitzer), Ches Smith (drums), Michael Leonhart (trumpet) & Mauro Refosco (percussion).
Rothenberg, Ned (w / Courvoisier / Halvorson / Fujiwara)
Crossings Four
(Clean Feed)
Crossing styles, generations and approaches to improvisations, multi-reedist and composer Ned Rothenberg's quartet of Rothenberg on clarinets & alto sax, Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, Mary Halvorson on guitar & effects and Tomas Fujiwara on drums perform five Rothenberg compositions and one by Rothenberg & Courvoisier, of spectacular timbral, rhythmic and melodic intersections.
Schouten / Courtois / Doronzo / Janssen
VOSTOK: Remote Islands
(Relative Pitch)
Inspired by Judith Schalansky's book "Atlas of Remote Islands: 50 islands I never set foot in and never will", the debut of the chamber improvising trio of Fie Schouten on clarinet & basset horn, Vincent Courtois on cello and Guus Janssen on piano, organ, harmonium & harpsichord reflect on these pristine and untouched areas of the earth in sublimely sophisticated conversation.
Nakamura, Toshimaru / David Lee Myers
Elements
(Surface World)
Two like-minded electronic sound & feedback artists, David Lee Myers, aka Arcane Device from NYC and Toshimaru Nakamura from Japan, use feedback matrices & modular electronicsÊ(Myers) and No-input Mixing Board (Nakamura) in a remote collaboration of alien overlays, sonic extensions and disruptive digressions through 12 complex and varying compositions.
Monteiro, Alfredo Costa
Abstand
(Hitorri)
Contrasting motion and static notes, Portuguese sound artist living in Barcelona, Alfredo Costa Monteiro uses a combination of two wind instruments--accordion and melodica--and the harmonic differences between their natural textures to create beautiful ebbs and swells of consonance and dissonance, applying feedback tuned to one or the other instrument to create subtle beat frequencies.
Mirarchi, David
Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam
(Unbroken Sounds)
Composer, poet and saxophonist David Mirarchi seeks to transform the written word into melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and structural materials, using experimental compositional techniques, here recording in Brooklyn with trio of bassist Mathias Hojgaard Jensen and drummer Eliza Salem for a two part work transmuted from a two-part poem contrasting city life and nature.
Feldman, Morton / Apartment House
Violin and String Quartet [2 CDs]
(Another Timbre)
One of New York School minimalist composer Morton Feldman's later works, this extended composition spread across two CDs invokes waves of beautifully suspended, weaving strings from four violinists and cello, performed by the UK Apartment House ensemble violinists Mira Benjamin, Chihiro Ono, Amalia Young & Bridget Carey and cellist Anton Lukoszevieze.
Hemingway, Gerry
Afterlife
(Auricle)
Taking what he describes as a road he's never been on, percussionist and improviser Gerry Hemingway turns in an astute album of original songs, Hemingway's voice expressive on work he explains was originally influenced by Dylan, Geeshie Wiley, Lou Reed or Monroe Brothers, the album developed over four years with a cast of collaborators including Ralph Alessi, Earl Howard, Michael Moore, &c.
Oliveros, Pauline / Apartment House
Sound Pieces
(Another Timbre)
Six sound-oriented compositions for acoustic ensemble performed by the UK ensemble Apartment House, beautifully reflective and rich works, the first six pieces being text scores for open instrumentation, along with Peace/Tree, a seven movement work for violin, cello and piano that specifies pitches while leaving room for interpretation and improvisation.
Frith, Fred And Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles
Something About This Landscape For Ensemble
(Sub Rosa)
Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.
Fields, Scott Ensemble
Sand
(Relative Pitch)
Scott Field's 9-part Sands for 20 instrumentalists, three singers, and a conductor, in this case Fields himself, employs a modular performance system that integrates composition and improvisation, the conductor selecting modules from melodies, phasing patterns, long tones, improv elements, fragmented short stories, &c., spontaneously assigned live; a fascinating accomplishment.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC