Phillip Golub - Loop 8/9 (2026) [Hi-Res]

Pianist and composer Phillip Golub presents Loop 8/9, the third installment in his ongoing cycle of loops following his solo debut Filters (2022) on Greyfade and the studio-constructed breakthrough Loop 7 (2025). For Golub, a loop is a compositional form rather than a studio device: a recurring harmonic cycle in which two fixed outer pitches—one high and one low—are continually recontextualized by shifting inner voices moving through microtonal space. Recorded live by a quartet featuring Golub on retuned acoustic grand piano alongside Joseph Branciforte, Aaron Edgcomb, and Ty Citerman on vibraphone, electric guitar, and electronics, the release marks the ensemble's transition from studio assembly to real-time performance.

Each piece departs from a custom tuning system approached intuitively rather than purely theoretically: Loop 8 employs an uneven fourteen-note quarter-tone pattern repeating at the major ninth, while Loop 9 repurposes a twelve-note just-intonation framework. Realizing both works live required physical and technological adaptation across the quartet—retuning the acoustic piano before every take, applying putty to the vibraphone bars, using scordatura on the electric guitar, and deploying a custom performance system built by producer Joseph Branciforte that dynamically constrains a Moog bass, Prophet-10, and sine-wave voice to the active chord. Bridging modern classical, avant-garde jazz, and electroacoustic improvisation, Loop 8/9 returns the series to live collective music-making.

Tracklist:
1-1 Phillip Golub - Loop 8 [21:16]
1-2 Phillip Golub - Loop 9 [20:53]