Phill Niblock passes away at the age of 90
The American composer Phill Niblock, one of the essential figures of drone and minimal music, dies at the age of ninety. The American composer Phill Niblock, one of the great experimental composers of our time, died on Monday 8 January at the age of ninety, the non-profit cultural organisation Blank…
John White, a pioneer of British minimal music, dies
Composer John White, considered a pioneer of ambient and British minimal music, dies in London. British composer John White (Berlin, 5 April 1936 – London, 4 January 2004), sometimes referred to as “the invisible man of experimental British music”, died on Thursday in London. The son of an English father…
Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix passes away
Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix, a disciple of La Monte Young, passes away at her Istanbul home. Swedish composer and experimental artist Catherine Christer Hennix, known for her fusion of minimalist drones, mathematical logic and spiritual traditions in an approach she called “infinite composition”, died suddenly on Sunday 19 November…
25th anniversary of Gérard Grisey’s passing
Twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the French spectralist composer Gérard Grisey. This Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the death of the French composer Gérard Grisey (Belfort, 16 June 1946 – Paris, 11 November 1998), who died of a brain aneurysm. When his last work, Quatre Chants Pour Franchir…
Double bassist Robert Black dies of cancer
American double bassist Robert Black, founder and member of Bang on a Can-Allstars, has died of cancer. American double bassist Robert Black, a member of the Bang on a Can All-stars chamber ensemble, died yesterday, 22 June 2023, of colon cancer metastasizing to his brain, according to the British magazine…
Death of German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann
German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann dies. The recent death of the German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann (Remscheid, 6 March 1941-Wuppertal, 22 June 2023) has caused numerous international media outlets to echo the mournful event, and they all agree on a commonplace: Peter Brötzmann as “the father of German free jazz”……
George Winston passes away
Pianist and composer George Winston, one of the leading figures in New Age music, died on Sunday of cancer. The American pianist and composer George Winston (Hart, Michigan, 1949-Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2023) died last Sunday according to an announcement on his own website: “We are deeply saddened to share the news…
Kaija Saariaho is dead
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho dies in Paris of glioblastoma of the brain. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (Helsinki, 1952-Paris, 2023) died Friday morning at her home in Paris, her family said in a statement on Facebook. Saariaho was 70 years old at the time of her death. According to the family,…
American minimalist composer Scott Johnson dies
American composer and minimalist guitarist Scott Johnson, author of “John Somebody”, dies in New York. The American composer Scott Johnson (Madison, Wisconsin, 1952-New York, 2023), died last Friday, 24 March, due to complications derived from the lung cancer he had been diagnosed with two years earlier. He was somewhere between…
Russian composer Edward Artemyev passes away
Russian composer Edward Artemyev, author of soundtracks for some Tarkovsky’s films, dies. Today we have known of the death of the Russian composer Edward Nikolayevich Artemyev, who passed away on 29 December. Artemyev’s central work is film music, but for what films! Artemyev composed the music for some of the…
Ligeti’s centenary will be celebrated in 2023
2023: the year in which the centenary of the birth of Hungarian composer György Ligeti is celebrated. 28 May 2023 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of György Ligeti (Dicsőszentmárton, 1923-Vienna, 2006). After the year Xenakis in 2022, this year will pay tribute to the Hungarian composer, one…
Austrian composer Horst Ebenhöh passes away
The Austrian composer Horst Ebenhöh died on 26 December. The Viennese composer considered himself a “seeker of syntheses between old and new” and, true to this motto, wrote more than 300 works covering almost all genres: from vocal works to chamber music and sacred pieces to operas for large orchestra….