【FROM BOOMKAT.COM】Back in stock! This really is a treat – a brand new re-mastered edition of one of the most elusive, sought-after compilations of all time. I know I have a habit of banging on about how rubbish compilations are (and for the most part, they really are) but occasionally there are one or two which really catch my ear. This isn’t one of those occasional compilations either, this particular one is a ‘once in a lifetime’ affair, the sort of compilation which absolutely never comes to life anymore – it has everything you could possibly ask for. Firstly, every track is a winner… yep no matter what sort of music you’re interested in, you have no grounds for criticising one moment on this record, secondly it’s all exclusive material. For some reason, the label managed to secure not only a gang of interested (and interesting) artists but managed to procure great material out of them, great exclusive material – something almost unheard of. Thirdly, and one might say most importantly, this is supremely varied with tracks ranging from modern classical to new wave with room in the middle for a couple of ‘ambient’ interviews. Rarely (especially in 1980 when the comp was originally released on limited edition cassette) do collections of work come this varied and work so perfectly – in fact this sounds like the sort of cd a rabid muso friend might make for you after hours of long, hard thought. The sort of cd you’d listen to and think ‘wow this is musical perfection but it would never be released, it’s way too risky’. It took Belgian label ‘Les Disques du Crepuscule’ to actually muster up the courage to put something like this together, and with connections to Manchester’s Factory label and also to influential composer Wim Mertens they managed to reign in an unusually large and bizarre sphere of influence. Where else would you be able to hear Gavin Bryars, Harold Budd and Michael Nyman next to Durutti Column, New Order (appearing here with a totally exclusive track, which has never appeared on other collections), Bill Nelson, Belgian no-wavers The Names and Joy Division super-producer Martin Hannett? ‘From Brussels with Love’ is the most wonderful of things, a disc packed with ideas so fresh and so groundbreaking that they still sound life-changing even today – and without a doubt is the perfect introduction to a label which would influence so many of today’s classic independents. To put it simply, this is a music collector's wet dream and one of the most seminal, inspired compilations of all time.
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In these times, in the world of music and elsewhere, there's money in this minimalism thing. Which is nice for a fellow like Phill Niblock, a man who's been sunning himself in the fields of minimalism for over thirty years now. While some may be happy to dabble in approximate music, or that only hinted at in whispered tones by those who still subscribe to the idea of the "tonal auteur," Phill Niblock makes the very stuff around which this particular world of music revolves.

You see, Phill Niblock is a musician whose music involves many microtones that move very, very slowly. Doesn't matter what instrument he composes on - the slow organic grinding that always comes forth is a natural drone that unifies all sounds and silences. Rather than attempt an ear-busting noise, Phill has his many unisons working in the name of something more elegant.

For G2/44+x2 (say that three times fast), Phill Niblock assembled a lot of guitar players. The original recordings were made by Phill and Robert Poss. These were then made into a "version" (like a dub record - dig the crossover appeal!) by Portuguese man about town Rafael Toral. A new "street-level" version was made in New York, with more chaos provided by Alan Licht, Kevin Drumm, Lee Renaldo, and Thurston Moore. The finished CD takes the top off the room, expanding space, filling with light.

G2/44+x2 - "guitar two, for four, plus..." A simple description of the deceptively complex minimalism within. There's rare air there. Add it to the handful of other Phill Niblock releases on your shelf today.

Lawrence English on Phill Niblock’s Ghosts And Others...
Ghosts And Others is a singular work in the Phill Niblock canon. It’s singular not just in its material content, but also in its methodology and approach. It represents a highly focused exercise in editing, location recording and acoustic observation.
In many ways, this work reflects a kind of acoustic mirroring of his practices as a film maker. It makes itself available to the world and in doing so reveals a particular perspective that says as much about its creator as it does about its subjects.
Like all of Niblock’s works this is a piece of patience. It is a work that dwells in the places it finds itself in, allowing certain moments to dominate in some sections, and seemingly vanish away in others. It suggests a movement within boundaries, in that it bounces from one locale to another counterpointing their gradual evolutions across time.
There’s a sense of collision throughout Ghost And Others. Explosions of Chinese percussion punctuate the piece, dynamic strikes to ward off ghosts during a funeral procession in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. They clang between bursts of car horn, the bellows of cows from collective Soviet-era farm in Hungary and various other sonic ephemera. Elsewhere a reeded instrument tries to carve a space for itself, but the world does not allow it to hold. It is a work that celebrates proximity as much as an aural vista.
Transit is also a theme here. What is a fascinating about Ghost And Others is the sense of movement in the work. Trains divide up this piece, marking points of transition, of distraction and of discovery. They act as gate-keepers almost, allowing us through into new spaces and suggesting new relations between the sounds as they combine or detach.
As a work of field recording, Ghosts And Others is generous, invitational and most of all effortlessly deep. It is resonate sensing of place, people and things.

Liner Notes From Bill Meyer
In 2001, Phill Niblock wrote, "You should play the music very loud. If the neighbors don't complain, it's probably not loud enough."
In 2019, Niblock can no longer host his annual 6 hour-long solstice concert at the Experimental lntermedia loft; not only did the neighbors complain, the landlord sued. But the validity of his prescription is undiminished, for it takes sonic volume and spatial confinement to unlock his music's true nature. Give the sound waves a boost and something hard to smack against, and they begin to shiver and multiply so that tones transform tones and every turn of the head
(or every new room) yields a new listening experience. But Guitar too, for four is notable in Niblock's oeuvre for its independence from loudness. While it sounds great turned up, the additive process that yielded the CD's two versions has resulted in music that changes most rewardingly, even when heard at modest volume.
Victor Frankl opined that in the hierarchy of essential human motivations, meaning eclipses pleasure. In some ways, this music hews closer to the pleasure principle. Once you let go of the yearning for tunes and grooves, it's a sensuous delight to dunk yourself in the warm sound-bath of his music. And Niblock would be the first person to scotch any efforts to assign the sort of cosmic significance fhaf certain other drone-oriented minimalists did to their art. But consider this notion; Niblock's music is fundamentally social. It only truly happens in spaces where people gather.
While he does much of the composing and assembling of this music alone, Niblock didn't treat Guitar too, for four as finished until he got some more people in on the act. He asked Rafael ToraI and Jim O'Rourke to contribute to a CD edition. And when O'Rourke declined to play on his own production, but instead invited Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, Thurston Moore, and Lee Renaldo to do the honors, Niblock's reaction was the more, the merrier.
To the extent that connecting people is an essentially meaningful activity, this music is the connective tissue of meaning.

Commissioned By – Rebecca Shatwell
Design – JWozencroft
Photography By – Phill Niblock
Feedcorn Ear: The material Phill Niblock used to construct the piece (in a multitrack, computer environment) was recorded in the studios of Marcus Schmickler (Piethopraxis) in Cologne. Niblock then began constructing the piece in his studio in New York (Experimental Intermedia), and finished it in an apartment in East London.
A Cage Of Stars was commissioned by Rebecca Shatwell and the AV Festival 12, International Festival of Art, Technology, Music and Film and was premiered on the 3rd of March 2012 at the Sage, Gateshead. Prior to the concert, the electric harp was recorded at Culture Lab, Newcastle.
Zwerm, Guitar Quartet recorded at Amplus, Aighem, Belgium.
Dither Guitar Quartet and the Coh Da Quartet were made at the Trace Elements Records studios in New York.
℗ & © 2013 Touch
Made in the EU.