Bleep

Touch present a timely reissue of Phil Niblock’s essential piece of work examining the drone as a form of hypnotising equilibrium. With ‘Touch Food’, the composer and producer crafts three compositions for a solo baritone sax (‘Sea Jelly Yellow’), a clarinet (‘Sweet Potato’) and an electric bass (Yam, almost May’), along with a 70 minute piece for a piano split-up across various parts. Each piece follows his trademark method of having instrumentalists play long, held, pure tones or – in the case of the piano piece – almost static movements which he layers track by track to create a long, slowly crawling tonal band that allows the frequencies to melt into one another to form a frozen momentum of eternal sound. Recommended.