Phill Niblock, Biliana Voutchkova & Ensemble Modelo62 - Looking for Daniel (2024)

We commemorate the late Phill Niblock with this release made in close collaboration with the composer just before his passing in January 2024. His life and work have had a profound influence on many contemporary composers, performers and artists, so it is a great honour to be able to present here, together with Echonance Festival, recordings of some of his very last compositions.

The two works on this album, “Biliana” (2023) and “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” (2019) represent the hallmarks of his unique approach to composition where multiple, closely-tuned instruments and voices are used to create rich and complex sonic tapestries.

In “Biliana”, written for performer Biliana Voutchkova, her violin phrases and vocalisations carve out a deep sonorous space full of fluctuating overtones. By emphasizing the physicality and materiality of her sound, the piece gives us the sensation of stepping back to reveal a singular portrait of the musician.

The second work on the CD, “Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel” was recorded by two Netherlands based ensembles, Modelo62 and Scordatura Ensemble from a live recording made at the Orgelpark, Amsterdam during the Echonance Festival in February 2023. It is a complex work comprising of 20 parts, where lines seem to emerge and disappear out of a landscape of harmonies and sonic spectra. There is also a voice hidden in this mass of instruments, just like in “Biliana”, giving both works an added human element – something that always emerges out of Phill Niblock’s seemingly dense musical constructions.

The Human Geologies of Phill Niblock’s Music
By Samuel Vriezen

BILIANA
Biliana Voutchkova - violin and voice
Recorded at Akademie der Kunste in Berlin by Rabih Beain.
Mixed by Phill Niblock with the assistance of Davide Capobianco in Experimenta Intermedia, New York.

EXPLORATORY, RHINE VERSION, LOOKING FOR DANIEL
Ensemble Modelo62
Gemma Tripiana Muñoz - flute
Enric Sans Morera - bass clarinet
Justin Christensen and Chloë Abott - trumpets
Vasilis Stefanopoulos - double bass
Ezequiel Menalled - conductor and electric guitar

Ensemble Scordatura
Elisabeth Smalt - viola
Alfrun Schmid - voice
Reinier van Houdt - keyboards
Claudio F. Baroni - guest organ

Tracklist:
1.01 - Phill Niblock, Biliana Voutchkova & Ensemble Modelo62 - Biliana (21:37)
1.02 - Phill Niblock, Biliana Voutchkova & Ensemble Modelo62 - Exploratory, Rhine Version, Looking for Daniel (23:17)