TO:79 – Phill Niblock “Touch Strings”

Track listing:

CDOne – 59:03 (6 tracks)
1-6: Stosspeng (59 minutes)
Susan Stenger and Robert Poss, guitars and bass guitars

CDTwo – 69:28 (6 tracks)
1: Poure (23:30)
Arne Deforce, cello
2-6: One Large Rose (45:55 minutes)

The Nelly Boyd Ensemble, Hamburg – Robert Engelbrecht, cello;
Jan Feddersen, piano strummed with nylon strings; Peter Imig, violin; Jens Roehm, acoustic bass guitar strummed with nylon strings or e-bow

This is Phill Niblock’s 4th release on Touch, after Touch Works… [TO:49, 2000], Touch Food [TO:59, 2003] and Touch Three [TO:69, 2006].

“Stosspeng was completed in April 2007; Poure in September 2008 and One Large Rose in May 2008. The Stosspeng recording session to obtain the materials for the piece was on December 20 2006 at Robert Poss’s Trace Elements studio on E 4th Street and Ave A, in New York. Robert was the engineer. The piece was completed using Protools in April 2007, in Vienna, Austria. It was premiered at the Donau Festival in Krems Austria on April 30 2007.

The material for Poure was recorded in Johan Vandermaelen’s Amplus studio in Aaigem Belgium, with technical assistance by Guy De Bievre. Much of the construction of the piece, in Protools, was done in a residency at Atelier Azur in Hoenefoss, Norway at the Hval Station, in mid August 2008. It was finished in Ellen Fullman’s studio in Berkeley California on September 7. It was premiered at Kasteel Schuurlo, Sint-Maria-Aalter, Belgium on September 12 2008 and it was commissioned by the Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie, CRFMW, Liege, Belgium.

One Large Rose was made with the musicians playing from a score, and recorded acoustically and in real time. There are four recordings of 46 minutes each, superimposed. Recorded by Jens Roehm at Christianskirche, Hamburg, Germany, recording assistance by Julia Berg, on May 15 and 16 2008. Mixing was done by Jens Roehm and the ensemble in Hamburg, and the final mix was done in New York at Experimental Intermedia on October 13 2008.

The mastering for CD, of all pieces, was done by Tom Hamilton, in New York.”
Phill Niblock, August 2009