Jon English: Jon English will perform Electronbonics (1975, c. 20 mins) on trombone. This piece involves a slow unfolding of the range of trombone sounds, from breath to actual tone, achieved with the use of a tape-delay system. Jon English is a San Francisco-based composer who teaches at Sonoma State University and has taught at U.C. Santa Cruz. His record, “Triptych” with Candace Natvig, is on the 1750 Arch label.
Phill Niblock: Phill Niblock is a composer and filmmaker, living and working in New York, who has been presenting multimedia performances at museums in the U.S. and Europe since the mid-sixties (he previously visited PFA in March 1978). Niblock's records are “nothin' to look at, just a record,” with Jon English and James Fulkerson, and “Niblock for Celli, Celli Plays Niblock” with Joseph Celli. Both are on India Navigation Records.
In his music and films, Niblock searches for non-narrative images and sound patterns; the music and films are presented contiguously, yet there is no traditional relationship (i.e. of image and soundtrack) between them. In the music, Niblock explores what he calls “the surface texture of sound” using traditional instruments; tonight he will present taped pieces for flute, trombone, and other instruments. “Phill Niblock's music and films are concerned with detail and simplicity...dense, imposing sound mass... Sum and difference tones pile up until they sound like an orchestra of strings or an immense chorus of voices...one listens first to one level of detail, then to another, only gradually learning to hear everything at once.” (Robert Palmer, New York Times).
The films are presented in pairs: Brazil and Portugal, then Lesotho and Hong Kong. “The films are about movement, looking at the movement of people working. I film in non-urban environments, everyday work, frequently agrarian or marine labor, with simple and clear technique and rather long takes.... Rhythms and forms of body motion within the frame are the ultimate subject of these films.” (Phill Niblock).