Phill Niblock - Four Full Flutes (2023) [Hi-Res]

“Four Full Flutes” comprises four works - “P K”, “S L S”, “P K & S L S”, and “Winterbloom Too” - roughly 20 minutes each, composed for flute by Niblock toward the end of the '70s and early '80s. Each deploys the compositional system within which he has worked for the better part of his career; combining sustained tones of specific durations, rigorously produced at microtonal intervals by the respective musicians - Petr Kotik for “P K”, Susan Stenger for “S L S”, Petr Kotik and Susan Stenger for “P K & S L S”, and Eberhard Blum for “Winterbloom Too” - before arriving at their final form through meticulous work with magnetic tape on the part of the composer.
While easily overlooked in the face of their remarkable harmonic qualities and singularity within the field of experimental music, each of “Four Full Flutes”’ compositions carries a profound sense of creative radicalism. They are musique concrète conceived for acoustic instrumentation, something that had never been done on these terms prior to Niblock’s musical endeavors. Like other notable members of his generation - Éliane Radigue, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, etc. - and far more than most others, Niblock’s practice is intrinsically bound to the 20th Century, harnessing technological development to push the very definitions and possibilities of music, while retaining the remarkable sense of humanity delivered by each instrumentalist.
Among the most beautiful and listenable of Niblock’s works from his early period, the shimmering harmonics of “P K”, “S L S”, “P K & S L S”, and “Winterbloom Too”, listened to at heightened volumes, are laden with the potential for rich acoustic and psychoacoustic phenomena - otoacoustic emission, combination tones, interference patterns, etc - but upon their release on CD in 1990, an important element of “Four Full Flutes” remained out of reach. The album had been conceived as a double LP by Niblock, rooted in the fact that “P K” and “S L S” were composed as a pair, to be heard autonomously or in combination on two turntables. “P K & S L S” - constructed by Niblock from the pair - is but one example of numerous possible outcomes.