Paiva River Songs is a remarkable studio collaboration between Phill Niblock, William Hooker, Dave Soldier, and David First. Soldier was the initiator who first presented the idea of the four artists working on a project together early on in the Covid pandemic. All were immediately intrigued, and after much discussion about how to proceed, Niblock decided his contribution would be field recordings he had made of the Paiva River in Portugal in 2010.

Going into the studio in November 2025, Soldier, First, and Hooker resolved, in the documentary spirit of Niblock’s audio, to keep things straightforward and acoustic, as if they were actually playing by a river in a manner that might be called “Free-Improv Americana”. They described the recording process as “one take without any interruption and no overdubs” adding: “There are mysteries surrounding this project, including what exactly is going on in the river track. Some of it sounds incredibly electronic in nature, and as much as Phill’s aesthetic was to generally let things be themselves, as in his films of people working…well, there’re some pretty inexplicable things that occur—disembodied voices, string basses, bells, etc. We guess they’re not actually there, but they’re not not there either. All we do know for sure is he used a hydrophone and a contact microphone fixed to a metal plate, both submerged in the rapidly flowing water to capture the river’s internal rhythms”.

These four varied and accomplished artists have much shared history in sub-formations, but as a quartet, Niblock was the central hub. Individually, both First and Soldier have performed Niblock’s works on numerous occasions and had pieces composed by Niblock specifically for them. This project and recording, however, marks the first time Soldier and First worked together artistically after over 40 years of friendship. Separately, Soldier and First have each performed and recorded for decades with Hooker. In what may be considered the true genesis of this recording, Niblock made a film of Hooker playing drums in 2021. Two more Niblock films featuring Soldier and First were to follow, but the continuing pandemic and then Niblock’s failing health intervened. After Niblock’s passing in 2024, First, Soldier, and Hooker performed a medley of traditional 19th century African-American spirituals together at a memorial for him with Niblock’s river sounds as a sonic bed. From there, with a renewed sense of mission, they pledged to finally finish a recorded version of their collaboration.

The result of all this is a unique entry in the deep catalogs of all four artists – none of them have ever created anything quite like it. The three surviving members of the quartet all felt passionately that they wanted to honor Phill Niblock’s incredible life and artistic vision, and are, in turn, honored that he entrusted them with his work, and the opportunity to carry out this project. 

Dave Soldier—violin, banjo
David First—guitar, harmonica, slide whistle, jews harp, voice
William Hooker—drums
Phill Niblock—river

All music recorded at Cowboy Technical Studios November 7th, 2025
Recorded and Mixed by Mario Viele
Mastered by Gene Paul

Special thanks to Katherine Liberovskaya and Jasper Niblock

Bios

Composer Dave Soldier‘s projects include the Thai Elephant Orchestra consisting of 14 elephants in northern Thailand, the cult Delta punk band the Kropotkins, The People’s Choice (The World’s Most Unwanted Music), the Soldier String Quartet, the Brainwave Music Project, and coaching children to compose their own music in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Guatemala. He has performed as violinist, guitarist, and composer/ arranger with Bo Diddley, John Cale, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others, appearing on over 100 CDs, including nearly 20 featuring his compositions for classical and jazz musicians. In addition, Dave played Phill Niblock’s music many times in performance, and collaborated on Niblock recordings Five More String Quartets and Early Winter.

Phill Niblock (1933-2024) was an artist whose fifty-year career spanned minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation’s record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock’s signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realized in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l’Elysée. The following year Niblock was honored with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.

Composer/performer David First has had music released on Important Records, Dais, Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace, Phill Niblock’s XI, Mode, and numerous others. He is perhaps best known for his longstanding “Dave’s Waves Sonic Restaurant” audio/video installation which has been presented in Berlin, Belgium, Moscow, The Netherlands, and since 2018 has been open to the public over a dozen times at the Sunview Luncheonette (Greenpoint). First was recently named a New Music USA Creator Fund Awardee for 2025. He has also been the recipient of the Herb Alpert/Ragdale Award for Music Composition for 2019 and a 2019 NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship. Other awards include a Grant to Artists from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, as well as grants and commissions from the NEA, the Copeland Foundation (in 2010 & 2024), the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Meet the Composer Commissioning USA program. He performed Phill Niblock’s music on numerous occasions, including at the Tate Modern (London) in 2017 where he played First Out, a solo piece composed by Niblock specifically for him. He also played guitar on two Niblock Recordings: G2/44×2 and Two Lips.

William Hooker moved to New York City in the mid-1970s and was part of the loft jazz scene, playing with musicians such as saxophonists David Murray and David S. Ware. His first recording as a leader was in 1976. His music was too radical to be commercially successful, and Hooker took other jobs to earn a living. This changed after he received praise for a 1988 recording, and he made frequent appearances at the Knitting Factory from early the following decade. Hooker was a founding member of the Text of Light, a musician’s collective that released seven albums between 2004 and 2010. The DownBeat reviewer of Hooker’s Symphonie Of Flowers album wrote “Hooker uses history to enliven a suite of music that bounds through sub-genres and percussive ideas. He is an elemental drummer of considerable force, equally at home in free-form jazz and avant-garde rock circles; he also experiments with electronics and turntables”. He was also the visual subject/performer in Hooker-Niblock, a collaboration with filmmaker Phill Niblock.