Phill Niblock / Anna Clementi / Thomas Stern Zound Delta 2

A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 - 2024), co-
composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing
layers of thick drones and alien sounds.
In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, 2 proposals regarding PHILL
NIBLOCK albums arrived: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release (more on that
when the time has come for it), the other email was from ANNA CLEMENTI saying she and
THOMAS STERN were working on new pieces that PHILL NIBLOCK has written for her ...
when „Zound Delta 2“ was complete, PHILL sent photographs for the two artworks,
we met twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly early january this year so
the album now is, sad as it is, a posthumous release ... an intense goodbye from one of 20
th
century most iconic composers.
Phill Niblock
Phill Niblock (1933-2024, USA) was an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and
experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental
Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and
curator of the foundation’s record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock’s
signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in
the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective
realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de
l’Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.
https://phillniblock.com/

Anna Clementi
Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute and
completed acting training before moving to Berlin and studying experimental vocal music and
experimental music theater with the composer Dieter Schnebel at Hochschule der Künste (now
UdK Berlin). Anna Clementi sees herself as an “actress of the voice” rather than exclusively as a
singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is
always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater.
During her decades spanning career, Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals,
has premiered numerous works, many of which have been composed especially for her, and
worked with Fast Forward, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski,
Olga Neuwirth, Josef Anton Riedl,
Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Elliott
Sharp, and many others.
A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide.
https://www.annaclementi.com/

Thomas Stern
Born in Bremen, Thomas Stern moved to Berlin in 1984 where he joined Mona Mur with Alex
Hacke and F. M. Einheit (both from Einstürzende Neubauten, with which Stern also worked as live
sound engineer for many years). Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of Crime And The
City Solution (Mick Harvey, Alex Hacke a.o.). Over the years, he has has collaborated with artists
like Ulrike Haage, Phew, Nick Cave, Ton Steine Scherben, Meret Becker, Nina Hagen, Jaki
Liebezeit, Ben Becker, N.U. Unruh, Gry, Iris ter Schiphorst, Automat, Swans, Hans Joacxhim Irmler
and many more, on the road or in his own Sternstaubstudio