phillip golub
loop 7
catalog 009
release 7 february 2025
duration 28:20
formats digital
edition ∞
phillip golub MIDI-controlled disklavier pianos
aaron edgcomb vibraphone
ty citerman electric guitar
joseph branciforte live electronic processing
Pianist and composer Phillip Golub continues his acoustic loops project with Loop 7, dramatically expanding the project’s scope harmonically, technologically, and orchestrationally, while maintaining the emphasis on microscopic variation within tightly controlled repetition begun on his solo debut Filters.
Composed using a 22-note per octave tuning system, the studio recording of Loop 7 employs two microtonally-tuned Yahama Disklavier pianos controlled via keyboard controller. Golub is joined by a small ensemble—consisting of scordatura electric guitar, microtonal vibraphone, and live electronics—to create an absorbing realization of the piece, uncannily situated between chamber performance and imaginary studio creation.
A 28-minute standalone composition for microtonal acoustic piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, and live electronics, Loop 7 continues the trajectory set forth on Golub’s solo debut Filters (2022)—a set of numbered “loops” designed for live performance—while dramatically expanding the project’s scope harmonically, orchestrationally, and technologically.
Like the four pieces on Filters, Loop 7 is characterized by an economical approach to composition—short, enigmatic forms repeated and subtly varied over time through variations in phrasing, dynamics, and tone color. But whereas Filters was realized in an austere solo piano setting, Loop 7 enlarges the sonic canvas with additional acoustic and electronic orchestration and an integrated “studio-as-instrument” production approach.
Perhaps more radically, Golub has jettisoned the chromatic language of his earlier loops, venturing into an exotic 22-tone equal divisions of the octave (22 EDO) tuning system. Working with these smaller intervals allowed Golub an expansion of his formal approach: short phrases are repeated at descending pitch levels, falling a mere 1/22th of an octave (~54 cents) on each repetition. Eventually, lower notes disappear and reappear as upper voices, giving the music an Escher-esque feeling of a never-ending descent. Rich resonances and striking dissonances abound in a field of shimmering microtonal harmonies.
To achieve such novel tunings on an acoustic piano, a feat of engineering from Greyfade founder Joseph Branciforte and the piano technicians at Yamaha Artist Services in Manhattan was required. Golub prepared a performance of the piece on a MIDI keyboard, capturing his unique approach to phrasing and dynamics. That performance was then played back through a Disklavier—Yamaha’s proprietary system for mechanical player piano-style playback—onto a microtonally-tuned acoustic piano in two separate layers. Each recording layer captured 11 of the 22 pitch classes, allowing the piano to be carefully retuned between passes, a solution devised to avoid excessive strain on the instrument. When combined, the two layers created a seamless acoustic representation of Golub’s performance on a Yamaha CFX concert grand piano—albeit one with 22 notes per octave.
Golub and Branciforte then worked together at Branciforte's studio to record the remainder of the ensemble: Ty Citerman on scordatura electric guitar, Aaron Edgcomb on microtonal vibraphone, and Branciforte on live electronics and synthesizer. Each player was given creative latitude to weave through Golub’s score, highlighting or sustaining pitches, finding hidden contrapuntal lines, and extending the piano’s registration.
Their contributions infuse Golub’s work with a quiet sense of narrative. Where the acoustic piano performances on Filters felt like a snapshot of a never-ending loop, here an undeniable sonic progression takes place. Microtonal vibraphone and guitar swells enter the fray, splintering into multiple layers of themselves. Live electronics emerge subliminally, grafting themselves onto existing sounds, before taking on a more active role.
Branciforte’s pristine recording and carefully balanced mix allowed him and Golub to achieve a production style that hovers between the natural and the synthetic—capturing the intuition of a human performer’s touch and phrasing, while giving the feeling of an immaculately perfected object. The result is a recording uncannily situated between the worlds of chamber performance and imaginary studio creation, marking an evolution not only in Golub’s musical language but that of the Greyfade label as a whole.
composed by phillip golub
produced by joseph branciforte
piano recorded at yamaha artist services, new york
vibraphone, guitar, and electronics recorded at greyfade studio
piano technician: shane hoshino
piano consultant: daniel levitan
production coordination: bonnie barrett & aaron ross
engineered, mixed, & mastered by joseph branciforte at greyfade studio
press:
THE WIRE (UK): A Satie-esque melody is warped by the unusual tonality, further enhanced by the spare deployment of scordatura electric guitar, microtonal vibraphone, and live electronics. The nuanced variation, with Golub dropping 1/22 of an [octave] with each cycle, makes it so mesmerizing I only hear new sonic portals opening up. (read more)
POPMATTERS (US): Loop 7 is yet another in a series of ambitious experimental projects from Phillip Golub and another stunning home run for Joseph Branciforte’s Greyfade label. Both artists – as well as the musicians who join them here — are devoted to creating music that is complex, engaging, and unique. As is expected, the sound quality is impeccable and meticulous, demanding the listener’s attention while creating an oddly peaceful atmosphere. (read more)
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD (US): One of Golub and Greyfade's finest releases. Two pianos in microtonal layers augmented by an absolutely astonishing take on ensemble interaction. Subtlety doesn't even begin to describe the layered piano's melding of harmony and melody as it traverses what might best be called asymmetric repetitions. (read more)
IGLOO (US): A hypnotic and immersive soundscape that advances Golub’s compositional language and cements Greyfade’s reputation for cutting-edge releases. This is a standout release for both Golub and Greyfade. (read more)
FUTURISM RESTATED (SP): An eerily beautiful piece of music, restful but also unsettling, with the suggestion of something familiar—a memory, a name—shimmering just beyond your grasp. Feels like falling very, very slowly, like sediment, or decaying matter, to the depths of the ocean floor (read more)
TOUCHING EXTREMES (IT): Another classic Greyfade release, which could undoubtedly appeal to fans of William Basinski’s piano-based output, but also of the more experimental side of Ryuichi Sakamoto and – apropos of crepuscular refractions – of early Gavin Bryars. (read more)
FREQ (UK): More magic from the increasingly-necessary Greyfade label. A careful and thoughtful production that leans into what the sounds need, rather than letting the concept carry the piece. Desperately spare and distant additional instruments (vibes, electronics, guitar)… a kind of haunting effect on the resonances of the repeating-not-repeating chords. (read more)
UTILITY FOG (AU): The music works because Golub’s sense of how to harmonise in this tuning scheme is so sensitive, and the additional instruments add an almost imperceptible timbral tingle to the sound. It’s a real trip. (read more)
CULTURAL ATTACHÉ (US): Golub explores acoustic loops and employs a 22-note per octave tuning system. Those aren’t concepts that usually interest me. Then I played the album. And I played the album. And I played the album. I almost became the loops I was listening to. Because the more time I spent in Golub’s world, the more seduced and excited I became. (read more)
PANM360 (CA): Astonishing. A deeply original approach which, despite its experimental nature, remains seductive and attractive. (read more)
A CLOSER LISTEN (US): Dissonance, hum and microtonal repetitions populate Philip Golub‘s Loop 7, the latest release from the Greyfade label. Part of an ongoing project, this latest installment makes use of a 22-note per octave tuning system. (read more)
THE NEW NOISE (IT): Central to Golub's research remains the investigation of the performative act and the definition of the nature of musical interpretation. Loop 7 continues and expands the discourse: if the composition remains anchored to the austere minimalism of Filters, in Loop 7 Golub builds a small and eccentric ensemble and composes using a bizarre alternative version of the tonal system. (read more)
BLOG DELLA MUSICA (IT): If we accustom our ears to these chords, we can appreciate the sonic equivalent of new colors. The loop allows us to focus on these… harmonies? Disharmonies? Microharmonies? I don't have the right terms to define these new combinations yet! (read more)
THE LETTER (UK): With lots of studio trickery involved, technically, it's an extraordinary piece of work. The result is, at once, sombre in its beauty and detached in its sparse narrative. (read more)
LOOP (CL): In this unique minimalist piece, which incorporates subtle layers of acoustic instruments, Golub creates through repetition, different tones and intensities in the sound of the piano, achieving in the listener a state of trance. (read more)
DATA.WAVE (US): The repetitive structure, supported by live instruments and electronics, creates a hypnotic and meditative atmosphere, but it’s not music for relaxation. It’s better to describe Loop 7 as music for concentration. The mix itself is very delicate and carefully produced, characteristic of all the high-quality releases on Greyfade.
phillip golub
Phillip Golub (b. 1993), "a musician in fast ascent" (Wall Street Journal) with "seemingly boundless creativity" (Downbeat), is a pianist, improviser, and composer based in Brooklyn, NY.
Originally from Los Angeles, he creates highly original and expressive music, grounded in but not constrained by his engaged practice in jazz, creative music, and new music. Technically audacious, Golub sublates sound worlds as distant as Thelonious Monk and Alexander Scriabin, the ars subtilior and Cecil Taylor, negating conventions, yet building on traditions.
