Dispatch: Phill Niblock

Release Date: Monday, December 21, 2020


On the 10th anniversary of Phill Niblock‘s Winter Solstice Concert at Roulette, Roulette co-founders Jim Staley and David Weinstein chat with Niblock about the concert’s history and its enduring life at the organization.

Phill Niblock Resources:

2000 Roulette TV Episode


Niblock’s minimalistic drone approach to composition and music was inspired by the musical and artistic activities of New York in the 1960s, from the art of Mark Rothko, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, and Robert Morris to the music of John Cage and Morton Feldman. Niblock’s music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations.

6 Hours of Music and Film will be presented virtually on December 21st, 2020 and available for free on a variety of streaming platforms. Roulette’s theater is currently closed for public performances as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the safety measures that Roulette has put in place to keep staff, artists, and the public safe.


As part of our Roulette at Home digital initiative, Dispatches is a set of brief communications or small collections of new work from artists, sent directly to our community—a way to remain connected and engaged in a time marked by distance, isolation, upheaval, and change.