John Tilbury
John Tilbury (born 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM. During the 1960s, Tilbury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded and a member of the Scratch Orchestra.
John Tilbury (born 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM. During the 1960s, Tilbury was closely associated with the composer Cornelius Cardew, whose music he has interpreted and recorded and a member of the Scratch Orchestra.
Member of: AMM
Phlegm
A late and welcome arrival from the Matchless vaults. Phlegm captures AMM in their classic trio configuration, Eddie Prévost on percussion, Keith Rowe on tabletop electronics, John Tilbury on piano, recorded live at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, November 2015. One continuous hour-long piece, a setting closely aligned with the group's longstanding commitment to electroacoustic improvisation and one of the final documented performances of the trio.
By this stage AMM's language had …
Palais de Mari
*300 copies limited edition* "Feldman used to say that music is not so much an ‘art-form’ as a ‘memory-form’. Scientific research informs us that personal memories are not stored in one stable unchanging state, but that each time we retrieve a memory, it is slightly modified. We hear the opening four-note gesture of this work, it soon passes, but the resulting resonance from the sustaining pedal remains a little longer, and then only a delicate memory trace is left. This opening gesture is heard…
For Bunita Marcus
*300 copies limited edition* "Technique and art both take time, so nothing durable happens by accident. But, is durability enough once appearance and disappearance become important? Can ebb and flow be set in stone? Or cut to vinyl? Or digitised? Perhaps we have only become habituated to the possibility. A pianist depresses a key, strings are hammered. At what point does the sound begin? It is not quite right to say that, in this moment, there was no sound but that now, in this moment, there is.…
Flicker, Scratch & Ivory
*2026 stock. 350 copies limited edition*
John Tilbury - Piano
Keith Rowe - Guitar, Electronics
Kjell Bjørgeengen - Video, Electronics
Recorded by Shaun CrookCafe Oto, London, UK26 March 2018
Mixed & Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Artwork by Kjell Bjørgeengen and Salvatore Panatteri
PST (Live in Rome)
2012 release ** Recorded in Rome in 2005 for the Controindicazioni Festival, the album offers a testament to the magical inventiveness and instrumental mastery of these undisputed protagonists of contemporary music.
It Had Been An Ordinary Enough Day In Pueblo, Colorado (LP)
Fantastic 1979 recording by the duo of Eddie Prevost and Keith Rowe under the AMM III moniker. Original 1979 edition on Japo.
Newfoundland (CD)
One of the best ever recordings by the mighty AMM, here composed of Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe and John Tilbury. Original 1992 CD on Matchless Recordings.
Laminal (3CD)
Superb 1996 triple-CD set on Matchless Recordings presenting 3 exceptional full live recordings spanning 25 years (1969-1994). AMM: Cornelius Cardew, Christopher Hobbs, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury in different combinations.
Testing
AMM collaborates with Sachiko M on Testing (Matchless Recordings), documenting sessions between the British collective and the Japanese sound artist. The work explores intersections of improvised acoustic techniques and sine wave electronics, presenting careful negotiations between established experimental practices and minimalist electronic intervention.
An Afflicted Man's Musica Box
Cassette edition of the 1982 LP compilation on UD, featuring Jacques Berrocal, Anima, Foetus, AMM, Nurse With Wound and Operating Theatre, manufactured and marketed by RRRecords in 1987 on behalf of United Dairies.
Aura
Aura captures the unmatched synergy between two of AMM's core figures, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, who also explores the harpsichord in this release. Recorded in the acoustically rich setting of The Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, this album offers a meditative, deeply intimate experience through extended improvisations that emphasize AMM's ethos of creating expansive, ambient soundscapes. With Prévost's textural percussive approach and Tilbury's subtle, evolving cho…
A Field Perpetually At The Edge Of Disorder
*2024 stock*I n his review of Exta, the critic Brian Olewnick commented that “there's a tendency on the part of [John Tilbury's] younger companions to defer a bit to him”, adding that, in his view, this was not “necessarily a bad strategy”. In this encounter, their first as a trio, John Edwards and Mark Sanders do not defer to Tilbury at all, and it proves to be perhaps the best strategy of all. This is a vigorous music of equals, the democratic clamour of three distinct personalities committed …
Lights
Tip! Recorded at the concert marking the release of their previous album (Exta, Fataka 7, 2013), Lights is the second meeting of the trio of John Butcher, Thomas Lehn and John Tilbury. Carefully edited (nothing drastic, just some judicious trimming the way a photographer might crop an image, reframing it to make it more concentrated), Lights turns the two set continuum of the concert into four distinct pieces.
Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981) - A Life Unfinished
Softcover ediion, 1070 pages (!) Cornelius Cardew was a musician of genius for whom Life and Art were as one. He was a radical, both artistically and politically, becoming a tireless activist and uncompromising Marxist-Leninist. Passion and imagination governed all he did: his boldness and humanity continue to intrigue and inspire.
John Tilbury, whose close friendship with Cardew dates from their first concert together, in January 1960, has worked for many years on this biography, and brings his…
Last Calls
'Making a journey to a Bright Nowhere' series - marking Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday.
Volume 4 - Cafe OTO 30th July 2022
AMMMusic
The first recording by these pioneers of electro-acoustic improvisation, AMMMusic stands the test of time both as a remarkably prescient session and as an utterly powerful and deep piece of 20th century music
Until The Next Time
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* More than half a century has elapsed since the founding of the legendary British free improvisation group AMM. We could say there would be no free improvisation as we know it today without AMM’s Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury and Keith Rowe. The mystery surrounding AMM has not faded; to the contrary, even nowadays it carries a particular appeal due to its engaged, intelligible and nonetheless radical message. AMM Until The Next Time Next Festival LP 2019 In 196…
John Tilbury plays Terry Riley
Keyboard Studies presents pivotal works by Terry Riley as interpreted by John Tilbury. The performances offer a rare depth of touch and imagination, embracing the cyclical, improvisatory frameworks that define Riley’s minimalism and bringing to the fore Tilbury’s keen sensibility for architectural listening, color, and meticulous pacing.
Contre-Courbes
John Tilbury's latest duo piano and saxophone improvisations
Indústria
The title Indústria was chosen by Eddie Prevost in tribute to the history behind the Museu Industrial de Bala do Tejo, in Portugal where this concert took place by the legendary free improvisation band AMM, represented here as the duo of percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, performing as part of the 2015 Out.Fest - Festival Internacional de Musica Exploratoria do Barreiro.