Phill Niblock
An overview of Phill Niblock's work since the 60's, through about twenty essays and interviews by musicologists, art critics and historians, various documents, scores, and more than 8 hours of videos on 2 double layer DVDs.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, Phill Niblock has not only proven himself as one of the most preeminent composers of the American musical avantgarde, but also an accomplished filmmaker and performer. He is also revered as an events producer through his Experimental Intermedia Foundation, providing a venue and a label that has been of great assistance to numerous other artists and musicians in helping to make their work known.
This bilingual book (French / English) provides an in-depth look at all these activities, through various essays and interviews, either newly written, previously unpublished, or that have never been available in French before. These were written by very different people—from musicians who have played Niblock's music, to fellow composers, from long-time friends to specialized musicologists and art historians. They discuss such various matters as musical and cinematographic aesthetics, psychoacoustic processes, historical background, philosophical insights and technical advice for playing the music, or just give their personal recollections of time spent together with Niblock.
The book is accompanied by 2 double-sided DVDs of atypical videos: Remo Osaka, a continuation of The Movement of People Working series, with a quite peculiar soundtrack; two separate DVDs of the Anecdotes from Childhood, best viewed together as an installation; and Katherine Liberovskaya's 70 for 70 (+1), Seventy (one) Sides of Phill Niblock, realized in 2003/2004 on the occasion of his 70th birthday, which portrays the composer through memories recounted by friends and relatives.
With writings by Phill Niblock, Rich Housh, Erika King, Guy de Bièvre, Volker Straebel, Richard Glover, Alan Licht, Seth Nehil, Rob Forman, Johannes Knesl, Arthur Stidfole, Juan Carlos Kase, Raphael Smarzoch, Jens Brand, Bob Gilmore, Ulrich Krieger, Richard Lainhart, Bernard Gendron, Susan Stenger, Mathieu Copeland, and liner notes from the first two LPs.