Phill Niblock - Looking for Daniel '2024

Tracks list

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

BILIANA
Biliana Voutchkova - violin and voice
Recorded at Akademie der Kunste in Berlin by Rabih Beain.
Mixed by Phill Niblock with the assistance of Davide Capobianco in Experimenta
Intermedia, New York.

EXPLORATORY, RHINE VERSION, LOOKING FOR DANIEL
Ensemble Modelo62
Gemma Tripiana Muñoz - flute
Enric Sans Morera - bass clarinet
Justin Christensen and Chloë Abott - trumpets
Vasilis Stefanopoulos - double bass
Ezequiel Menalled - conductor and electric guitar

Ensemble Scordatura
Elisabeth Smalt - viola
Alfrun Schmid - voice
Reinier van Houdt - keyboards
Claudio F. Baroni - guest organ

Tracklist:
1.01 - Phill Niblock, Biliana Voutchkova & Ensemble Modelo62 - Biliana (21:37) 
1.02 - Phill Niblock, Biliana Voutchkova & Ensemble Modelo62 - Exploratory,
Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel (23:17)

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