Jon Gibson (b.1940) is an American minimalist composer and musician based in New York City. As a founding member, Gibson has been performing in the Philip Glass Ensemble for the past 45 years. Along with his work with Glass, Gibson has performed on many of the early Arthur Russell records, the premier of In C by Terry Riley, Drumming by Steve Reich, as well as Reich’s 1967 composition Reed Phase, which Reich wrote especially for him. Other collaborators include Lucinda Childs, Ravi Shankar, Harold Budd, La Monte Young, and Walter de Maria. Originally recorded for Philip Glass’s private press label Chatham Square and tracked after hours at John Lennon’s home studio, Visitations is a minimalist masterpiece. Gibson’s first release under his own name, Visitations is a departure from the structured repetition of his minimalist peers which takes the listener on an aural journey – spanning organic field recordings, flutes, percussion, synthesizers, and free-flowing textures.
With his new ensemble, Gibson re-imagines the piece with modular synthesizers and a digital projection of 16 mm film entitled “One Way” depicting the California desert. In the film, which Gibson shot in the early 1970’s, the seemingly never ending desert landscape of America cascades across the screen, perfectly reflects the expanse of Visitations and takes the audience inside a ritualistic road trip unlike any other.
The Jon Gibson Group is: Jon Gibson, Jeremy Gibson, John Also Bennett, George Bennett, and Britton Powell
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