Phill Niblock and Katherine Liberovskaya

July 13, 2016
dopocena
concerto familiare

Phill Niblock and Katherine Liberovskaya

Set one:
Live Video by Katherine Liberovskaya, with
Live mixing of audio pieces by Phill Niblock

In this live set Niblock mixes between audio pieces based on diverse field recordings which are very different from his music compositions.
Liberovskaya mixes video with Jitter/Max/MSP from a vast personal database of clips shot over the past fifteen years.

Set two:
Music and Images by Phill Niblock

Music by Phill Niblock
Vlada BC   (20:00, 2013) Elisabeth Smalt, viola d’amore, recorded samples
Ronet (2014, 21:08) Neil Leonard, tenor saxophone, recorded samples
Bag (21:00, 2014) David Watson, bagpipes, recorded samples
V&LSG (21:30, 2013) Lore Lixenberg, voice: Guy De Bievre, lap steel guitar: recorded samples

Video from the “Movement of People Working” series:
China 88, Japan 89, Brasil 84

Bios:
Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, slides, or computer driven black and white abstract images floating through time. He was born in Indiana in 1933. Since the mid-60’s he has been making music and intermedia performances which have been shown at numerous venues around the world. Since 1985, he has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist/member since 1968. He is the producer of Music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1000 performances) and the curator of EI’s XI Records label. In 1993 was formed an Experimental Intermedia organization in Gent, Belgium – EI v.z.w. Gent – to support the artist-in-residence house and installations there. Niblock has no formal musical training. His minimalistic drone approach to composition and music  was inspired by the musical and atistic activities of New York in the 1960s (from the art of Mark Rothko, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Robert Morris to the music of John Cage and Morton Feldman’s Durations pieces). Niblock’s music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations. The layering of long tones only very slightly distinct in pitch creates a multitude of beats and generates complex overtone patterns and other fascinating psychoacoustic effects. The combination of apparently static surface textures and extremely active harmonic movement generates a highly original music that, while having things in common with early drone-based Minimalism, is utterly distinct in sound and technique. Niblock’s work continues to influence a generation of musicians, especially younger players from a variety of musical genres. Much of his pieces are based on collaborations with specific musicians. Over the years he has thus worked with a large number of the most diverse players including: Susan Stenger, Robert Poss, Jim O’Rourke, Ulrich Krieger, Seth Josel, Tom Buckner, David Watson, David First, String Noise (Pauline Kim Harris and Conrad Harris), and many many others. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage award. His music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode Records, and Touch labels. DVDs of films and music are available on the Extreme, Mode, Die Schachtel and VonArchives labels.
www.phillniblock.com
www.experimentalintermedia.org

Katherine Liberovskaya is an intermedia artist based in New York City and Montreal, Canada. Involved in experimental video since the 80s, she has produced many single-channel videos, video installation works and video and music performances which have been presented at a wide variety of events and venues around the world. Among these: MOMA PS1 PrintShop NYC; The Duolun Museum and The Aurora Museum, Shanghai, China; The Museum of Arts and Design, NYC; The Bitola Museum, Macedonia (FYROM); The Tito Museum, Belgrade, Serbia; The Kyoto University Museum, Japan; The Serralves Contemporary Art Museum, Porto, Portugal; The Roskilde Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark; The National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia; The Beirut Art Center, Lebanon; The Contemporary Art Center Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland… Since 2001 her work predominantly focuses on collaborations with composers and sound artists. Frequent collaborators include Phill Niblock, Al Margolis/If,Bwana, Guy de Bievre, Zanana, Kristin Norderval, Hitoshi Kojo, David Watson, David First and o.blaat (Keiko Uenishi). Since 2003 she has been exploring improvised video in live video+sound performance situations where her live visuals seek to create improvisatory “music” for the eyes. Over the years she has performed in concert with numerous artists including: Monique Buzzarte, Anne Wellmer, Tom Hamilton, Margarida Garcia, Manuel Mota, Anthony Coleman, Barry Weisblat, Mazen Kerbaj, Andre Gonçalves, Giuseppe Ielasi, Alessandro Bossetti, Andre Eric Letourneau, Jason Khan, David Grollman, Doug Van Nort, among many others. Recent projects have involved: Anna Homler, Leslie Ross, Shelley Hirsch, Chantal Dumas, Richard Garet, Mia Zabelka, Dorit Chrysler, Emilie Mouchous, Erin Sexton, Corinne Rene and Philippe Lauzier, Magali Babin. Recent solo projects include: the intermedia installation “Muidebrugge Wave (Matisse/Haacke Blues)” (2015), and audiovisual installations “sonimaginations tissulaires” (2014), “NoizeBreeze” (2014), “Air-Play” (2013), “Amplifontana” (2012) and “Shines” (2008-09). Since the late 1980s she has received over 30 grants and arts awards in Canada, U.S.A. and France. Concurrently she curates and organizes the Screen Compositions evenings at Experimental Intermedia, NYC, since 2005 and, since 2006, the OptoSonic Tea salons with Ursula Scherrer at Diapason, NYC, and in various nomadic locations, in New York, North America and Europe, with OptoSonic Tea On the Road. In 2014 she completed a PhD in art practice entitled “Improvisatory Live Visuals: Playing Images Like a Musical Instrument” at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).