Phill Niblock
Encyclopedia
Phill Niblock is a composer
, filmmaker, videographer
, and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a parallel branch in Ghent
, Belgium.
, 1956) Niblock came to New York in 1958. Initially he worked as a photographer and filmmaker. Much of this activity centered around photographing and filming jazz musicians. Thereafter he made a number of films in a series titled The Movement of People Working. Filmed in primarily rural environments in many countries (China, Brazil, Portugal, Lesotho, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, the Arctic, Mexico, Hungary, the Adirondacks, Peru), the films look at everyday work, frequently agrarian or marine labor. These films are remarkable for their realistic quality and absence of artifice, their use of long takes in high resolution and their supposedly artless juxtaposition of compelling images in vivid colors. These scenes of the movement of human manual labor are treated abstractly without explicit anthropological or sociological meaning. As in the music, a surface slowness is countered by an active, varied texture of rhythm and form of body motion within the frame; this is what Niblock himself considers the ultimate subject matter of his films.
Niblock's first musical compositions date from 1968. Unusually, even among the avant-garde composers of his generation, he has no formal musical training. He cites the musical activities of New York in the 1960s as a stimulus (and occasional memorable performances, such as the premiere of Morton Feldman
's Durations pieces). All his compositions are worked out intuitively rather than systematically. His early works were all done with tape, overdubbing unprocessed recordings of precisely tuned long tones played on traditional instruments in four, eight, or sixteen tracks. Since the late 1990s his music has been created with computer technology, notably with Pro Tools
on a Macintosh
computer. His later works are correspondingly more dense in texture, sometimes involving as many as forty tracks.
Niblock's music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal
tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations. The layering of long tones only very slightly distinct in pitch creates a multitude of beats and generates complex overtone
patterns and other fascinating psychoacoustic effects. The combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original music that, while having things in common with early drone
-based Minimalism
, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock's work continues to influence a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres.
Niblock's compositional process often begins with recordings of single, absolute tones played by a specific musician with the breathing and attack and decay edited out. Such collaborations have been crucial to his composing life, and the range of musicians with whom he has worked include David Gibson, in the cello works of the 1970s); Petr Kotik
, Susan Stenger, and Eberhard Blum, on Four Full Flutes; Rafael Toral, David First
, Lee Ranaldo
, Thurston Moore
, Susan Stenger, and Robert Poss on Guitar Too, for Four (G2,44+1x2); Ulrich Krieger
, Carol Robinson, Kaspar T. Toeplitz, and Reinhold Friedl, on Touch Food; and many others. In the past decade he has produced several works for orchestra: Disseminate, Three Orchids (for three orchestras), Tow for Tom (for two orchestras), and 4 Chorch +1, the latter a commission for the Ostrava Music Days 2007 for chorus and orchestra with solo baritone (Thomas Buckner). The premieres of all these works have been conducted by Petr Kotik
.
In performance, live musicians may play, wandering through the audience changing the sound texture through reinforcement of or interference with the existing tunings. Simultaneously, Niblock generally accompanies performances by presenting his films and videos (often those from the Movement of People Working series, or computer-driven, black-and-white abstract images floating through time). These performances fall into two types: (1) an installation of several hours' duration, with the music pieces played consecutively, with a long loop of several hours of work before repetition, and with multiple images that are shown simultaneously; or (2) a performance, with several simultaneous works of music and film, usually lasting between one and three hours. In these performances Niblock generally projects three (or more) film images simultaneously, on large screens three to four meters wide. The films are 16mm and color. The music is produced from stereo or quad tapes, with four or more speakers in the corners of the space. His more recent video pieces are played individually or with several simultaneously, using large video monitors.
Since 1985, Niblock has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist-member since 1968. In 1994, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. He is the producer of music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1,000 performances) and the curator of EI's XI Records label. In 1993, he opened a house with window gallery at Sassekaai 45 in Ghent
, Belgium, and, in 1997, the coordinating committee—Phill Niblock, Maria Blondeel, Zjuul Devens, Lieve D'hondt, and Ludo Engels—founded a Belgian organization, the Experimental Intermedia v.z.w., Ghent. He taught at the College of Staten Island
, a CUNY school, from 1971 to 1998.
Phill Niblock's music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode Records
, and Touch Music
labels. A double-sided DVD of films and music, lasting nearly four hours, is available on the Extreme label.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, filmmaker, videographer
Videographer
Strictly speaking, a videographer is a person who works in the field of videography, video production — recording moving images and sound on video tape, disk, other electro-mechanical device. News broadcasting relies heavily on live television where videographers engage in electronic news...
, and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a parallel branch in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
, Belgium.
Biography
After an early period studying economics (BA, Indiana UniversityIndiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, 1956) Niblock came to New York in 1958. Initially he worked as a photographer and filmmaker. Much of this activity centered around photographing and filming jazz musicians. Thereafter he made a number of films in a series titled The Movement of People Working. Filmed in primarily rural environments in many countries (China, Brazil, Portugal, Lesotho, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, the Arctic, Mexico, Hungary, the Adirondacks, Peru), the films look at everyday work, frequently agrarian or marine labor. These films are remarkable for their realistic quality and absence of artifice, their use of long takes in high resolution and their supposedly artless juxtaposition of compelling images in vivid colors. These scenes of the movement of human manual labor are treated abstractly without explicit anthropological or sociological meaning. As in the music, a surface slowness is countered by an active, varied texture of rhythm and form of body motion within the frame; this is what Niblock himself considers the ultimate subject matter of his films.
Niblock's first musical compositions date from 1968. Unusually, even among the avant-garde composers of his generation, he has no formal musical training. He cites the musical activities of New York in the 1960s as a stimulus (and occasional memorable performances, such as the premiere of Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
's Durations pieces). All his compositions are worked out intuitively rather than systematically. His early works were all done with tape, overdubbing unprocessed recordings of precisely tuned long tones played on traditional instruments in four, eight, or sixteen tracks. Since the late 1990s his music has been created with computer technology, notably with Pro Tools
Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation platform for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, developed and manufactured by Avid Technology. It is widely used by professionals throughout the audio industries for recording and editing in music production, film scoring, film, and television...
on a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
computer. His later works are correspondingly more dense in texture, sometimes involving as many as forty tracks.
Niblock's music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal
Atonality
Atonality in its broadest sense describes music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality in this sense usually describes compositions written from about 1908 to the present day where a hierarchy of pitches focusing on a single, central tone is not used, and the notes of the chromatic scale...
tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations. The layering of long tones only very slightly distinct in pitch creates a multitude of beats and generates complex overtone
Overtone
An overtone is any frequency higher than the fundamental frequency of a sound. The fundamental and the overtones together are called partials. Harmonics are partials whose frequencies are whole number multiples of the fundamental These overlapping terms are variously used when discussing the...
patterns and other fascinating psychoacoustic effects. The combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original music that, while having things in common with early drone
Drone (music)
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...
-based Minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock's work continues to influence a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres.
Niblock's compositional process often begins with recordings of single, absolute tones played by a specific musician with the breathing and attack and decay edited out. Such collaborations have been crucial to his composing life, and the range of musicians with whom he has worked include David Gibson, in the cello works of the 1970s); Petr Kotik
Petr Kotik
Petr Kotik is a composer, conductor and flutist living in New York City. He was educated in Europe...
, Susan Stenger, and Eberhard Blum, on Four Full Flutes; Rafael Toral, David First
David First
David First is an American composer. His music most often deals with drones and interference beats, the latter aligning his music with that of Alvin Lucier...
, Lee Ranaldo
Lee Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
, Thurston Moore
Thurston Moore
Thurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
, Susan Stenger, and Robert Poss on Guitar Too, for Four (G2,44+1x2); Ulrich Krieger
Ulrich Krieger
Ulrich Krieger is a German contemporary composer, performer, improviser and experimental rock musician based in Los Angeles....
, Carol Robinson, Kaspar T. Toeplitz, and Reinhold Friedl, on Touch Food; and many others. In the past decade he has produced several works for orchestra: Disseminate, Three Orchids (for three orchestras), Tow for Tom (for two orchestras), and 4 Chorch +1, the latter a commission for the Ostrava Music Days 2007 for chorus and orchestra with solo baritone (Thomas Buckner). The premieres of all these works have been conducted by Petr Kotik
Petr Kotik
Petr Kotik is a composer, conductor and flutist living in New York City. He was educated in Europe...
.
In performance, live musicians may play, wandering through the audience changing the sound texture through reinforcement of or interference with the existing tunings. Simultaneously, Niblock generally accompanies performances by presenting his films and videos (often those from the Movement of People Working series, or computer-driven, black-and-white abstract images floating through time). These performances fall into two types: (1) an installation of several hours' duration, with the music pieces played consecutively, with a long loop of several hours of work before repetition, and with multiple images that are shown simultaneously; or (2) a performance, with several simultaneous works of music and film, usually lasting between one and three hours. In these performances Niblock generally projects three (or more) film images simultaneously, on large screens three to four meters wide. The films are 16mm and color. The music is produced from stereo or quad tapes, with four or more speakers in the corners of the space. His more recent video pieces are played individually or with several simultaneously, using large video monitors.
Since 1985, Niblock has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist-member since 1968. In 1994, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. He is the producer of music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1,000 performances) and the curator of EI's XI Records label. In 1993, he opened a house with window gallery at Sassekaai 45 in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
, Belgium, and, in 1997, the coordinating committee—Phill Niblock, Maria Blondeel, Zjuul Devens, Lieve D'hondt, and Ludo Engels—founded a Belgian organization, the Experimental Intermedia v.z.w., Ghent. He taught at the College of Staten Island
College of Staten Island
The College of Staten Island is a four-year, senior college of and is one of the 11 senior colleges in the City University of New York. Programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional studies lead to bachelor's and associate's degrees. The master's degree is awarded in 13 professional...
, a CUNY school, from 1971 to 1998.
Phill Niblock's music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode Records
Mode Records
Mode Records is an AmericaContemporary classical music|n record label based in New York City, New York, whose primary focus is modern classical, avant-garde, and new music. Composers featured include John Cage, Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis, and Harry Partch. Performers include Aki Takahashi,...
, and Touch Music
Touch Music
Touch is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. It is the main arm of the London-based multimedia publishing company Touch, established in 1982...
labels. A double-sided DVD of films and music, lasting nearly four hours, is available on the Extreme label.
Discography
- Touch Strings (contains Stosspeng; Poure; One Large Rose). Touch, 2009.
- G2 44 +/X 2 (contains Guitar Too, for Four—Toral Version; Guitar too, for Four—the Massed Version). Moikai, 2006.
- Touch Three (contains Harm; Sethwork; Lucid Sea; Parker’s Altered Mood, aka Owed to Bird; Zrost; Not yet titled; Valence; Alto tune; Sax Mix). Touch, 2006.
- Disseminate (contains Disseminate Ostrava; Kontradictionaries; Disseminate Q-O2). Mode Records, 2004.
- The Movement of People Working, DVD, Extreme RecordsExtreme RecordsExtreme Records is an Australian based record label.The label was founded by Ulex Xane, and initially specialised in underground experimental and industrial cassettes...
, 2003 (soundtrack contains Every Tune; Summing III; Four Arthurs; E for Gibson; Cello & Bassoon; A Mix of Cello & Bassoon and Contrabassoon & Contrabass; A Third Trombone; According to Guy, version III; and Not Untitled, Knot Untied – Old) - Touch Food (contains Sea Jelly Yellow; Sweet Potato; Yam Almost May; Pan-Fried 70). Touch, 2003.
- Touch Works, for Hurdy Gurdy and Voice (contains Hurdy Hurry; A Y U (aka As Yet Untitled); A Y U, Live). Touch, 2000.
- YPGPN (contains Held Tones; Didjeridoos and Don’ts; Ten Auras; Ten Auras Live; A Trombone Piece; A Third Trombone; Unmentionable Piece for Trombone and Sousaphone). XI Records, 2002 (originally released 1994 on Blast First/Mute RecordsMute RecordsMute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...
). - Music by Phill Niblock (contains Five More String Quartets; Early Winter). XI Records, 1993
- Four Full Flutes (contains P K; S L S; P K & S L S; Winterbloom Too). XI Records, 1990.
External links
- Phill Niblock.com—Official Web site
- Other official Web site
- Article at HyperReal
- Interview with Phil Niblock (2006) in FO A RM Magazine, Issue 4
- Interview with Phill Niblock by Bob Gilmore (2007) in Paris Transatlantic Magazine
- Sample MP3
- - Live at DISK/CTM04 in Berlin
- Phill Niblock interview from American Mavericks site
- Sample from The Movement of People Working (QuickTime file, 11.3 MB)
- "Ghosts and Others," a rare phonographic collage by Niblock (CD supplement, FO A RM Magazine, Issue #4, 2006)
- Phill Niblock at Arcane Candy