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Niblock, Phill / Anna Clementi / Thomas Stern: Zound Delta 2 (KARLRECORDS)

A posthumous realization of Phill Niblock's 2022 composition, this dense, resonant work of drone and sonic intensity, written for Italian vocalist Anna Clementi and shaped and developed with guitarist and bassist Thomas Stern of Einstürzende Neubauten and Crime & the City Solution, is presented in two monumental, haunting longform versions.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Phill Niblock-composer

Anna Clementi-voice

Thomas Stern-slide guitar, bass, soundprocessing


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UPC: 5050580819849

Label: KARLRECORDS
Catalog ID: KR 115CD
Squidco Product Code: 34622

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: Germany
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Sternstaubstudio, in Berlin, Germany, by Thomas Stern.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"A new piece by minimalist/experimental composer Phill Niblock (1933 - 2024), co-composed and performed by Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds. In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, two proposals regarding Phill Niblock albums arrived at Karlrecords: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release, while the other email was from Anna Clementi saying she and Thomas Stern were working on new pieces that Phill Niblock has written for her. When Zound Delta 2 was complete, Phill sent photographs for the two artworks, and Karlrecords met with him twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly in January, 2024, so the album now is a posthumous release. An intense goodbye from one of 20th century's most iconic composers."-Karlrecords



"[...] While Niblock departure was sudden and unexpected, it's remarkable that not only had he enjoyed a career spanning five decades and ranging across minimalist and experimental music, film and photography, but that at the age of ninety, he remained prolific until his final days, as Looking for Daniel, released in February, and representing his final compositions, evidences.

Like Looking for Daniel, Zound Delta 2 contains two longform composition, and, again, it's a monumental drone-orientated work. 'Zound Delta 2' is eerie, other-worldly, haunting and atmospheric. Ethereal voices hum and moan, breathy wordless monastic incantations come together and emanate disembodied exhalations as if calling from the other side. No doubt the actual source sounds and the process was quite banal and workaday, but the effect... the effect sends shovers all over and goosebumps pickle in response to this chilling swell of sound. Beneath the moans and cries are slow-turning rumbles and delicate, wisp-like ambience. Everything sounds slowed down and stretched, sound suspended in time and space as they hang in the air. The layers wrap around one another, and while minimal in form, a density of atmosphere builds which makes it hard to catch your breath.

Sometimes, a dream can affect the shape and mood of the entire day which follows, and this has been one of those days for me. More often than not, it's simply a hangover of anxiety or a sense of doom which looms, but since my wife died early last year, I've dreamed of her only rarely, so when I do, the impact is great, and if feels as if she's speaking to me, even when there's no obvious message. Invariably, she's well again in my dreams, or at least looks healthy again, and sometimes, she imparts words or wisdom. But mostly, it feels a if her presenting in my dreams is a reminder, a kind of haunting. The reason I take this diversion isn't purely a matter of indulgence, but because it's relevant to the tone of 'Zound Delta 2', which creates the sensation of Niblock pre-empting his departure with a recording which sounds as if it's being projected from beyond. The abstract voices aren't tortured hellish howls, but the sound of purgatorial lostness, wandering in between worlds, wanting to communicate, to be heard, but without the capacity for articulation. [...]"-Christopher Nosnibor, Aural Aggravation


Get additional information at Aural Aggravation

Artist Biographies

"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. That's as maybe: no one ever said the history books were infallible anyway.

His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. He's even worked with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo on "Guitar two, for four" which is actually for five guitarists. This is Minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. 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. And this isn't choral work. "A Y U (as yet untitled)" is sampled from just one voice, the baritone Thomas Buckner. The results are pitch shifted and processed intense drones, one live and one studio edited. Unlike Ligeti, this isn't just for voice or hurdy gurdy. Like Stockhausen's electronic pieces, Musique Concrete, or even Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, the role of the producer/composer in "Hurdy Hurry" and "A Y U" is just as important as the role of the performer. 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." The stills in the booklet are from slides taken in China, while Niblock was making films which are painstaking studies of manual labour, giving a poetic dignity to sheer gruelling slog of fishermen at work, rice-planters, log-splitters, water-hole dredgers and other back-breaking toilers. Since 1968 Phill has also put on over 1000 concerts in his loft space, including Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski, Jim O'Rourke."

-Phill Niblock Website (http://phillniblock.com/2007/06/14/biography-photos/)
12/3/2024

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

"Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute. There she also completed acting training before moving to Berlin and meeting the composer Dieter Schnebel, with whom she studied experimental vocal music and experimental music theater at Hochschule der Künste (now UdK Berlin). This resulted in several years of collaboration; for example, Clementi participated for a long time in the group Die Maulwerker, founded by Schnebel. She received her first singing lessons in Rome with Michael Aspinall. In Berlin she studied belcanto with Mieko Kanesugi and jazz singing with Kara Johnstad. A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide.

Anna Clementi sees herself as an "actress of the voice" rather than exclusively as a singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater. In Berlin, for example, she performed in the group Theater Ikaro and attended various dance schools, where she dedicated herself to contemporary dance and contact improvisation. Clementi loves the combination of play, lightness and irony and is constantly looking for new ways of expression, which she can unfold with her versatile voice.

Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals and has premiered numerous works. Many world premieres have been composed especially for her and some of them have been developed together with her. She has worked with composers such as Laura Bianchini, Emanuele Casale, Martin Daske, Fast Forward, Jürgen Grözinger, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski, Olga Neuwirth, Phill Niblock, Daniel Ott, Josef Anton Riedl, Rainer Rubbert, Nicola Sani, Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Stepha Schweiger, Charlotte Seither, Elliott Sharp, Roberta Vacca and many others.

In Bochum and Düsseldorf she performed a staged version of Arnold Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, directed by Urs Troller. At the Theater Bielefeld she participated in Eurydike by Iris ter Schiphorst and in Ojota IV by Daniel Ott. She has also premiered Anna's Wake by Iris ter Schiphorst in Berlin, Silence moves in Berlin and Dresden and Aung in Malmö and Copenhagen. With Die Maulwerker she staged Glossolalie 2000 by Dieter Schnebel in the millennium year 2000. Besides this and more, Clementi has performed and supervised many different versions of John Cage's Song Books, as well as staged his Variations and Theatre Piece.

Anna Clementi

With Steffen Schleiermacher, Clementi has released the CD John Cage: Voice and Piano. Her other releases include Suzuki, Dehli 9 and Osam with Tosca and tre with The Dining Rooms. In 2005, she released her first solo recording, Love is a Reason. This was followed in 2011 by the album Fräulein Annie. 2023 saw the release of the album Fluxus & NeoFluxus/Stolen Symphony No.1, with Anna Clementi and other performers.

Together with Laurie Schwartz, Anna Clementi forms the duo Divas Desviantes, which performs regularly with different programs in Salvador (Brazil), New York City and in Berlin. She is also a member of the vocal group Voxnova Italia and the ensemble European Music Project (EMP). She regularly collaborates with the pianist and composer Rupert Huber and with the percussionist and composer Jürgen Grözinger and with Thomas Stern.

Other productions since 2018 (selection):

In 2018, Anna Clementi performed in the musical theater piece Back into Nothingness by Nuria Gimenes-Comas and Laure Gauthier in Lyon and Geneva. Stepha Schweiger dedicated the opera The Mark on the Wall to her, which was performed in London, Berlin and Ulm in 2017/18. In the fall of 2018, she staged John Cage's Variations 2, 3, and 4 at Acker Stadt Palast Berlin. In December 2019, she took on the role of the narrator in the opera Orlando by Olga Neuwirth. The world premiere took place at the Vienna State Opera. In October 2020, she staged Theatre Piece by John Cage at Acker Stadt Palast Berlin. In August 2022, she narrated in Alexander Moosbrugger's opera Wind, premiering at the Bregenz Festival. In September 2022, she took on the role of Bartleby in Olga Neuwirth's musical theater production The Outcast at the Philharmonie in Paris. In December 2022 she sang Die blassen Herren mit den Mokkatassen with texts by Herta Müller and music by Berthold Tuercke at the UdK Berlin. In March 2023 she took on the role of Cassandra in the play Birds by Abigail Akavia and Hilà Lahav at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig. In June 2023 she participated in the project Rathaus-Spiele Oderberg by Limited Blindness."

-Anna Clementi Website (https://www.annaclementi.com/)
12/3/2024

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

"Thomas Stern was created in Bremen, Germany. After running a P A Company and a sound studio distillery he defected to Berlin in the famous 1984.

In 1986 he joined the band MONA MUR with Alex Hacke and F. M. Einheit from EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN,composing music and playing bass. His debut recordings were performed for their album HALBER MENSCH. Their collaboration continues to this decade touring with them as live sound engineer.

Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of CRIME AND THE CITY SOLUTION, (Simon Bonney, Bronwyn Adams, Mick Harvey, Chrislo Haas, Alex Hacke) composing music and playing bass. CRIME toured Europe & the USA several times, releasing four albums with MUTE records. In 1992 they wrote and performed the song THE ADVERSARY for the Wim Wenders Film UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD. Further film soundtracks followed - THE SUN BEFORE DARKNESS appeared in the film GAS, FOOD, LODGING. FILMARBEITEN with Alex Hacke, a collection of sequinned soundtracks from starring films. Rel:RoughTrade / Zomba. [...]"

-Thomas Stern Website (http://www.thomasstern.de/SECOND.html)
12/3/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Zound Delta 2 21:59

2. Zound Delta 2 (Version) 18:55

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