NIBLOCK, PHILL - Touch Five

"This is the fifth album on Touch from New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, Phill Niblock. "These CDs have pieces made in two different ways. Traditionally (since 1968), I recorded tones played by an instrument (by an instrumentalist), arranging these single tones into multi-layered settings, making thick, textured drones, with many microtones. In the early days, I prescribed the microtones, tuning the instrumentalist, when I was using audio tape. Later, I used the software ProTools, and made the microtones as I made the pieces. 'FeedCorn Ear' and 'A Cage of Stars' were made this way. In 1998, Petr Kotik asked me to make a piece for orchestra, so, I began to make scores for the musicians to play from. The form of that piece, and the subsequent six scored works, were patterned after a piece in 1992-1994, where the musicians were tuned by hearing tones played from a tape through headphones. These are the instructions for the