"These CDs include pieces made in two different ways. Traditionally (since 1968), I recorded tones played by an instrument (by an instrumentalist), arranging these single tones into mutli-layered settings, making thick textured drones, with many microtones. In the early days, I prescribed the microtones, tuning the instrumentalist, when I was using audio tape. Later, I used the software ProTools, and made the microtones as I made the pieces. FeedCorn Ear and A Cage of Stars were made this way. In 1998, Petr Kotik asked me to make a piece for orchestra, so, I began to make scores for the musicians to play from. The form of that piece, and the subsequent six scored works, were patterned after a piece in 1992-94, where the musicians were tuned by hearing tones played from a tape through headphones. These are the instructions for the scored piece on the second CD, Two Lips. The score was prepared by Bob Gilmore, from specific directions by me. TWO LIPS, aka Nameless, is conceived as two scores, A and B, to be played simultaneously, lasting 23 minutes. Each score consists of ten instrumental parts. The twenty separate parts should be distributed randomly amongst the musicians of the ensemble; the 'A group' and the 'B group' are not separated spatially."
Reviews:
VITAL (Netherlands):
This year Phill Niblock will be 80 or perhaps already is. That wasn't the reason that I recently played all of the CDs I have from him. I am simply playing all the CDs I have in general, to see what I would like to keep and what can go. I must have never looked properly at the covers as I never noticed the repeated instruction to play the music so loud that your neighbors two miles down the road can still hear it. It's not how I enjoy his music, but I decided all of his works were 'keepers'. Here we have a double CD, with two different kind of works. The two pieces on the first CD are 'traditional' Niblo....... more