Phill Niblock is often called a minimalist composer, but his compositional approach is uniquely his own, layering long tones to create epic pieces that unfold slowly. ‘Minimalism to me is about stripping out things…to get rid of melody and rhythm and typical harmonic progressions…getting rid of all those things that happen over time,’ he said, in an interview with Geeta Sayal in 2016.
His signature sound is filled with microtones from layers of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. What normally you think of as musical development doesn’t happen, but listening to the resulting thick, loud, drone of music, you still get a sense of development, a change in mass and volume of the sound, and an arc from beginnning to end.
Born in 1933, he is still writing and touring in his 80s, and working as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent.
He has long been attracted to churches as performance spaces because of the unique resonances created by their bare walls and idiosyncratic architecture. It’s not surprising he has also written for the organ, and this year contemporary music festival Musica Festival Strasbourg commissioned a piece from Niblock for organist Hampus Lindwall.
Hampus Lindwall lives & works between Brussels & Paris. He was the last disciple of Rolande Falcinelli and is the Titular Organist in Saint-Esprit, Paris (the position occupied by Jeanne Demessieux between 1933 and 1962) and known as an organ performer of contemporary and 20th century music and also as a creative improviser & composer.
Niblock’s piece for Lindwall, Unmounted / Muted Noun, composed for organ and 4 -pre-recorded tracks, is released today as a world premiere recording on both limited edition vinyl and CD. The B side of the album is a piece for organ and tape by Niblock from 2007. Full details below.
More on Hampus Lindwall
More on Phill Niblock
More on Phill Niblock’s composing techniques and artistic practice:
Interview by Natasha Kurchanova in BOMB magazine
Interview by Geeta Sayal for FRIEZE magazine
MUSIC FOR ORGAN
PHILL NIBLOCK
HAMPUS LINDWALL, ORGAN
World Premiere recording
A SIDE
Unmounted / Muted Noun, 2019
for organ and 4 pre-recorded tracks, commissioned by Musica Festival Strasbourg for Hampus Lindwall
B SIDE
Nagro (aka – Organ), 2007 for organ and tape
Tape material was recorded May 1, 2007 at the Joseph Gatto Organ (1787) in Sankt Kirchberg am Wagram, Austria
Hampus Lindwall, organ, recorded in presence of the composer at the Manufacture d’orgues Thomas & Orgelbau Klais organ in the Collégiale Sainte-Waudru, Mons, Belgium.
Available on Limited Edition ultra clear vinyl, and also available on CD
BUY FROM: Matière Mémoire éditions
