Touch Three by Phill Niblock

Track listing:

CDOne
1. Harm
2. Sethwork
3. Lucid Sea

CDTwo
1. Parker’s Altered Mood, AKA, Owed To Bird
2. Zrost
3. Not Yet Titled

CDThree
1. Valence
2. Alto Tune
3. Sax Mix

"These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using my Powerbook G4, Protools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Protools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space (Deutschland Radio, Cologne). The recordings were generally done quite closely miked.

One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones. The microtones are doing the work."

Tones for "Harm" (March 18, 2003) recorded in the Orpheus Institute in Gent, Belgium, direct to hard drive; piece finished in Berlin and premiered at Maerz Musik Festival; commissioned by Maerz Musik.
"Sethwork" and "Lucid Sea" commissioned by Deutschland Radio in Cologne, Germany; the recording of the samples was done at Deutschlandradio Studios in Cologne.
"Sethwork" (2003) constructed in the Experimental Intermedia Studios in New York.
"Lucid Sea" (August 8, 2003) constructed in Gent.
Tones for "Parker's Altered Mood, aka, Owed to Bird" (2004) and "Alto Tune" (2004) recorded in Berlin in Ulrich Kreiger's apartment.
Tones for "Zrost" (2004) recorded in Martin Zrost's work room.
Tones for "Not Yet Titled" (2003) recorded in Volker Straebel's apartment in Steglitz, Berlin; the piece was commissioned by and premiered in a Musikprotokoll concert in the Steirischen Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria.
"Valence" (2005) was commissioned by the Q O2 Ensemble, Brussels, and the tones were recorded in Johan Vandermaelen's studio in the Belgian countryside.

Phill Niblock (1933-2024 in Anderson, Indiana) was an American 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.

phillniblock.com