Label: Unsounds

他界する直前に制作していた貴重音源、素晴らしい内容です!!フィルムメーカー、写真家として10年間活動した後、60年代後半よりロングフォームのアコースティック・ドローンの作曲を開始、2024年1月に惜しくも他界したNYアヴァン界の大家Phill Niblock。亡くなる直前に残していたという、楽器と声の為の2つの楽曲を纏めた[Looking For Daniel]がオランダUnsoundsより音盤化。ブルガリアのベテラン女性ヴァイオリニストBiliana Voutchkovaの為に書いた変動する倍音に満ちた深淵持続音"Biliana"、全20パートの2つのアンサンブルによるハーモニーと音のスペクトルのサウンドスケープ的表題曲、どちらも高密度でありながら声が幽玄な要素として機能しています。





We commemorate the late Phill Niblock with this release made in close collaboration with the composer just before his passing in January 2024. His life and work have had a profound influence on many contemporary composers, performers and artists, so it is a great honour to be able to present here, together with Echonance Festival, recordings of some of his very last compositions.

The two works on this album, “Biliana” (2023) and “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” (2019) represent the hallmarks of his unique approach to composition where multiple, closely-tuned instruments and voices are used to create rich and complex sonic tapestries.

In “Biliana”, written for performer Biliana Voutchkova, her violin phrases and vocalisations carve out a deep sonorous space full of fluctuating overtones. By emphasizing the physicality and materiality of her sound, the piece gives us the sensation of stepping back to reveal a singular portrait of the musician.

The second work on the CD, “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” was recorded by two Netherlands based ensembles, Modelo62 and Scordatura Ensemble from a live recording made at the Orgelpark, Amsterdam during the Echonance Festival in February 2023. It is a complex work comprising of 20 parts, where lines seem to emerge and disappear out of a landscape of harmonies and sonic spectra. There is also a voice hidden in this mass of instruments, just like in “Biliana”, giving both works an added human element – something that always emerges out of Phill Niblock’s seemingly dense musical constructions.

The Human Geologies of Phill Niblock’s Music
By Samuel Vriezen