C.Hilton

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ABOUT :
Craig Hilton was born in New York and now resides in Raleigh, NC.His first experimentations in sound began as a teenager with a guitar and a 4 track tape recorder, unknowing of the catalogue of experimental music that came before him.
After intensive study of classical and flamenco guitar for years, he finally started to return to the idea of abstract sound designs and noise with an industrial project called Sixtus V, where he became obsessed with the idea of using electronic means (i.e. samplers, treated tape loops) to achieve sounds he was not able to create with guitar alone.
These experimentations led him down the path of more "stand-alone" pieces, utilizing clusters and creating large walls of sound completely in the electronic domain. As a result, there was a collaboration between his project at the time and the late MSBR.
Since 2001, Craig has been involved with many other projects. He toured Europe for the first time as guitarist/live electronics of the free improv. group The Feraliminal Lycanthropizers, playing in Sweden, Amsterdam, Berlin and in Hamburg as part of the Nozart Improvised Music Festival, sharing the stage with the likes of Franz Hautzinger, Tim Hodgkinson, Hans Koch and others.
Also at this time he was creator and sound designer for The Centre for Transgressive Behaviors, an experimental theatre group built around the ideals of the Theatre of the Absurd and the Happenings.
As a full time thought process, this particular group enabled Craig to really coordinate the interaction between concrete and composed sound with the live action of the performers. The group still has remnants in the US and Europe.
After a few years touring with a band back in the US, Craig once again gave full effort into his electroacoustic pieces.
Since early 2008, Craig has began performing live with his guzheng (Chinese zither). He felt the need to once again have the interaction between live acoustic and live electronics.
He has done two tours in Europe since late 2007, performing in Berlin with Derek Houlzer, Marcelo Aguirre and Penelope X, in Brussels with Yannick Franck and most recently in London playing guzheng alongside Steve Beresford.
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AMatra review in Vital Weekly :
C.HILTON/Y.FRANCK - A-MATRA (CDR by Young Girls Records)
There is always, almost on a daily basis, new names to be explored. For instance Craig Hilton and Yannick Franck. The first 'has been composing sound via electoacoustic transformation and live improvisation since 13 years' and the latter is 'a multidisciplinar artist from Belgium envolved in electro-acoustic composition/improvisation and visuals'. For their joint release 'A-matra' they didn't meet up. Franck sent his sound material to Hilton who in return processed the material. In Sanskrit 'a-martra' means 'of indefinite measure, undetermined' which may be an appropriate title for this release. Hilton re-creates the original (which we of course didn't hear) into quite massive blocks of sounds, working them out in a way in a bunch of loaded and dramatic compositions. I am not sure how it was recorded, but it seems in a sort of concert/live atmosphere, or perhaps he used some of similar plug in throughout all of these three long pieces. That is a pity since it makes them sound similar throughout the various parts of the pieces. That for me didn't work to well, but on the other hand a few of the pieces are quite good. Almost orchestral in approach, I was reminded of the Oblivion Ensemble for this combination of the orchestral, improvisation and sampling techniques. And that is not a bad comparison. (FdW)
Smoking Mirror and PU94 review in Vital Weekly :
C. HILTON - THE SMOKING MIRROR (CDR by Young Girls Records)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & C. HILTON - PU 94 (CDR by Simple Logic Records)
Its been more than a year since we reviewed Craig Hilton's work with Yannick Franck (see Vital Weekly 574), but here he returns with two releases, one solo and one in collaboration with music legend Maurizio Bianchi. Both releases indicate 2007 as the year of release, but both are in fact just released - why no error correction? From the ancient Aztec mythology comes the title: "Smoking Mirror" linked Tezcatlipoca to obsidian, a black, volcanic stone whose shiny surface could be used as a mirror." That is somehow reflected (pun intended) in the music, which is quite a dark mass of sound too. Hilton uses 'everything' he says here 'Electronic sound sources, microtonal acoustic instruments, treated acoustics, found sounds', and moulds it together into three pieces of highly dense music. Everything is layered and stacked together, whereas the original sounds blurr and obscure, but in make a beautiful dark ambient symphonia. Much like his previous release with Franck, Hilton (of whom I never heard any solo work), this is an orchestral piece of music. Strings sound out loud, rain drops become waterfalls, and electronics tie everything together. Silence is absent in the music of Hilton - there should always be something heard. This work I thought was better than the one with Franck, since Hilton uses a variety of sound sources and techniques to keep things interesting. Nicely controlled dark atmospheres.
Which perhaps can also be said of the work conducted by Hilton and Bianchi. The process was like this: Hilton provided the basic material in the form of nine or ten sounds, which were reworked by Bianchi 'into an organic perpetuum mobile' and then the final mix was created by Hilton. Two long pieces at work here, a bit more monolithic than the 'The Smoking Mirror' and also a bit more electronic, with a lesser emphasis on field recordings and acoustic instruments - unless of course they have ultimately disappeared in the electronic processes that were used in this music. Big amorph masses of sounds, an ocean of cascading sounds, with many shades of grey collapse, collide together. Until a real collision takes place and things suddenly change shape, color, depth, speed or intensity. This is likewise a great release, perhaps not entirely suitable to be played right after eachother, but music to be played in the dark for sure (or to be avoided in the dark if that scares you too much - such can be the effects of these). (FdW)
http://young-girls-records.blogspot.com
http://vivo.pl/simlog
Vital Weekly Review 668 of " I Will Be the Light " :
UR & CRAIG HILTON - I WILL BE THE LIGHT (CDR by Afe Records) A joint fascination for the work of Maurizio Bianchi brought them in contact with Craig Hilton, who did a collaboration with Bianchi (see Vital Weekly 644). Ur send Hilton four different takes of music and asked him to work freely with that. The title comes from Timothy Leary, about his ashes sent into space. Again, the whole Bianchi link is not very difficult to hear in the three pieces. Unlike Ur on their own, which have a more gritty, lo-fi electronic sound, this is more of a digital processing kind. The metallic sounds are filtered and re-processed into a new world of its own. Floating like rusty space ships - to stay on the thematic approach of the title, moving and humming. A bit like Organum's early works, but then covered with electrically charged dust. A very fine work too, more refined that the previous Ur release, and the industrial music of the 21st century. Chilling. (FdW)
http://www.aferecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ursociety
Kulturterrorismus review of : " I Will Be the Light "
(text is in German only )
Eine rauschende Hommage für Timothy Leary!VÖ: 2008 Label: Afe RecordsGenre: Industrial, Noise, (Dark) Ambient, Drone, RitualDiese Publikation “I will be the light” im CD-R Format in einer Auflage von 100 Exemplaren auf Afe Records fördert eine spannende Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem italienischen Projekt Ur (Federico Esposito (Heartside, Den LXV) & Mauro Sciaccaluga (Never Was, Downright, Kafka, Den LXV)) & dem amerikanischen Soloartisten Craig Hilton zutage, welche ausschließlich via Web entstand und ohne persönlichen Kontakt auskam.
Inhaltlich basiert das Oeuvre “I will be the light” auf dem Satz: “Light is the language of the sun and the stars where we will meet again.“, den Timothy Leary (1920 – 1996) kurz vor seinem Tode aussprach. Der amerikanische Psychologe & Autor Timothy Leary erlangte durch seine Forderungen, bewusstseinserweiternde Drogen wie Meskalin, Psilocybin und LSD frei zugänglich zu machen, einen weltweiten Bekanntheitsstatus. Nach Timothy Learys Ansichten sollten psychedelische Drogen als maßvolles Mittel zur Neu-Programmierung des Gehirns und zur Öffnung der menschlichen Prägung eingesetzt werden, aber ausschließlich in überwachten Räumlichkeiten, um den Wirkungsverlauf zu kontrollieren. Damalige wie heutige Psychonauten (Konsumenten von psychedelischen Drogen) kennen im Besonderen folgenden Ausspruch des Amerikaners: “Acid is not for every brain - only the healthy, happy, wholesome, handsome, hopeful, humorous, high-velocity should seek these experiences. This elitism is totally self-determined. Unless you are self-confident, self-directed, self-selected, please abstain.“, wodurch ihr Handeln zum Elitismus aufsteigt. Diese Hommage von Ur + Craig Hilton an Tiomothy Leary dürfte jeglichen Drogenbeauftragten nicht zusagen btw. gefallen, aber hingegen echte Untergrundfetischisten ansprechen, die szenetypische Thematiken schätzen!
Musikalisch erwartet den geneigten Hörerkreis auf diesem Opus eine psychedelische bzw. rauschende Symbiose aus den Stilen Industrial, Noise, (Dark) Ambient und Drone, welche durch rituelle bzw. okkulte Momente “Spickung” bzw. Akzentuierung findet. Vornehmlich “werkelten” die Erschaffer mit stringent fließenden Strukturen, wodurch die drei überlangen Tondokumente (Minimum knapp 17 Minuten) auf “I will be the light” einen hohen berauschenden Charakter aufweisen, der zwischen rollender Bedrohlichkeit & hypnotischer Schönheit schwingt. Zur Auflockerung der Klangwelten fügten die Protagonisten Ton- wie Sprachsamples ein, die diese CD-R sehr organisch klingen lassen. Wer extrem abwechslungsreiche Releases in den vorher aufgezählten Genres schätzt, sollte diese zu vernehmende feine Melange des Trios aus Italien & Amerika unbedingt antesten.
Auf die Nennung eines konkreten Anspieltipps verzichtet meine Person, da alle Tracks auf “I will be the light” nur in einem Komplettdurchlauf einen tieferen Sinn bzw. ein Hörerlebnis ergeben.
http://kulturterrorismus.de/
Review from Massimo Ricci May 2009 :
CRAIG HILTON – The Smoking Mirror
Young Girls Records
A typical example of unexpected “wow” after slicing open an innocuous packet of CDRs. Three tracks from a composer who was totally and shamefully unknown to me before today, working in the frightening fringes of electroacoustic authenticity. The 35-minute “He Who Walks Among Us” is a puzzlingly haunting amassment of ringing shades - from string-like to metallic, a sort of “Glenn Branca meets Mirror at David Jackman’s house” - and organic percussiveness following Martian harmonic laws, moving in succession along paths leading to an undesired wisdom permeated of unworldly non-comprehension, overawing gloom and disheartening remorselessness, highlighted by droning undulations that literally grip the stomach pit during selected – and magnificent - sections of the piece. “Possessor Of The Earth And Sky” introduces further explorations in the macrocosm of unforgiving scouring, echoing squeals and clashing upper partials intersected in archaic blessedness, roaring inscrutabilities determining the abatement of the lucidity rate until a chaotic underworld full of chipmunk-voiced fiends and giant buzzing flies annihilates our defences. “Is An Enemy Of Both Sides” seals and stamps the program with a subterranean chorale of out-of-tune corpses trying to understand the right direction to end, at the very least, in a purgatory where grimacing faces of drunk necromancers testify to the impossibility of arriving at the required levels of psychological balance. Should you feel gone astray in these opulently gothic soundscapes, no worry: the worst is yet to come. Don’t try this at home if you’re depressed, it is pretty heavy – and, to a degree, absolutely brilliant.
http://temporaryfault.blogspot.com/2009/05/forget-me-not-bet ter-late-than-never.html
http://touchingextremes.blogspot.com/
Touching Extremes Review :
CRAIG HILTON – Craig Hilton
Self-release
As it happens, discretion does not pay in terms of artistic recognition until the decision is taken to let someone know that you exist and do something positive, possibly not implying the standard level of overconfident egotism hiding a desperate superficiality. Craig Hilton, a composer who shows an undeniable ability but is probably too humble for his own good, is a man whose art I felt respect for since the first instants. He sent me a few of his releases a considerable while ago, as usual approached with culpable delay on my behalf, and one struggles to determine which is the best. This unassumingly packaged CDR – an entirely white sleeve, except for the titles - contains three splendidly diverse samples of this artist’s talents, each generating that sort of inner fluctuation and existential uncertainty that will never be experienced by listening to Mozart, and that is the fundamental spur to keep living selflessly.The magnificent opening track - “Guzheng Improvisation 4” - bestirs the previously sheltered idealization of a stable mesmerism through a congruous exploration of the natural reverberation of a room; the instrument gets outrageously animated, ominously dissonant resonances alternated with turbulent contemplations of unreachable galaxies, echoes of a past reality ricocheting all around the place in an unprejudiced exhibition of open-minded creative acumen bathing in orchestral instantaneousness in one of the most absorbing music pieces heard in a long time. “Untitled Collaboration” also features Ur and, although decisively altering the scene’s characteristics, once again denotes an originality that’s there to admire. The palette in this case excludes sources of blissful entertainment almost completely, as the artists privilege vocal maledictions underscored by wavering drones and electronic morphing à la Roland Kayn, a palpable tension emerging to transform the soundscape in a paralysing demonstration of inadaptability, any sense of redemption cancelled by the awareness of a toxic incontrovertibility. “Untitled Piece For Strings” is a worthy conclusion, a wrapping layering of semi-static chords that, more than strings, seem to be born from a huge harmonium. The processing work is subtle yet effective, its foremost quality an intrinsic slow oscillation that sounds like a slight detuning, the very reason of further moments of cruel emotion.
http://touchingextremes.blogspot.com/2009/05/craig-hilton-cr aig-hilton.html
Review Of " I Will Be the Light "
Blow Up Magazine ( Italy )
january 2009
...la sigla genovese trama invece con Craig Hilton nel CD-R "I Will Be The Light". Tre brani di durata prossima ai venti minuti che convincono soprattutto nello sviluppo piacevolmente mutevole che alterna pathos scoperto, inquiete esplosioni, torbidi crepitii e taglienti scudisciate in "The Path Beneath", con "Essential Salt" che predilige una meno frastagliata attitudine ambient e "I Wll Be the Light" che procede in lenta ascesa seraficamente lustmordiana.
[Paolo Bertoni]
PREVIOUS PROJECTS :
Collaboration as member of Sixtus V with MSBR
Solipsism 1998 ?
As member of the improv group the Feraliminal Lycanthropizers USA European Tour 2001
" Eve , the Mother of Abel Turned Into a Bird "
based on the writings of poet Luis Gongora
self release 2002
CURRENT RELEASES :
" A~Matra "
C.Hilton / Yannick Franck
YoungGirlsRecords March 2007
Cover Photo : Yannick Franck
http://young-girls-records.blogspot.com/
"PU 94 "
Maurizio Bianchi / C Hilton
Simple Logic 2007
Cover Painting : C. Hilton
" The Smoking Mirror "
Young Girls Records 2008
..
C. Hilton / UR
" I Will Be the Light "
AFE Records Dec. 2008
http://www.aferecords.com/releases/afe114lcd.htm
..
PREVIOUS PERFORMANCES
03 16 2001 Nozart Festival für Improvsierte Muziken
w/ Kollegu Pischu ( Wanne ) , Harald Sack Ziegler ( Köln ) , Thomas Borgmann Trio ( Berlin ) , Franz Hautzinger ( Wien )
KOLN GERMANY
03 25 2001 Smålands Nation
LUND SWEDEN
03 27 2001 Panora
MALMO SWEDEN
09 Dec 2006, - With Caustic Castle and Chefkirk Kirk Adams Gallery 107 W. Hargett St. ( inside Father & Son Antiques building ) Raleigh, North Carolina
04 Jul 2007, Nightlight Chapel Hill, North Carolina Craig Hilton & Crowmeat Bob w/In the Year of the Pig, Inspector 22 and the Bramble Ramblers, Yellow Crystal Star, and Black History Moth.
28 Sep 2007, - Recess @ Nightlight Chapel Hill, North Carolina Another Company-style thing where we mix & match folks in improvised settings. Performing will be Chris Eubank ..o, David Morris on tuba, Christopher Thurston on double bass, Shannon Morrow and Jenks Miller on drums, Craig Hilton on laptop and/or guitar, Steve Burnett on electronics, myself on reeds/guitar and possibly others.
25 Oct 2007,- @KITA
C.Hilton , Derek Houlzer , Les Coulees Succulents" ///D.OpP + PenelopeX/// , Audiovisual System Feedback,
BERLIN
26 Oct 2007, 08:00 PM - @Lichtblick Kino
w/ Marcelo Aguirre , Penelope X , Lars Feistkorn
BERLIN
02 Nov 2007, 08:00 PM - @ La Filature
C. Hilton + Yannick Franck
BRUXELLES
01 Dec 2007, Electronica Viva @ Ringside Durham, North Carolina
13 Mar 2008 - w/ Phon and Pulsoptional @ Local 506
15 Mar 2008 - Bynum General Store Bynum, North Carolina
12 Apr 2008, - Signalfest @ Nightlight
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
25 Apr 2008 @ Total Artspace
with Promute , Penelope X
BERLIN
26 Apr 2008 @ La Compilotheque
with Promute (US) and Patrick Thinsy ( BE )
BRUXELLES BE
28 Apr 2008 @ George Tavern
with Promute , Cementimental
LONDON
29 Apr 2008 @ Maggies Klinker Event
with Promute
LONDON
30 Apr 2008 @ The Loft
with Promute , Steve Beresford
LONDON
2 May 2008 Salon Bruit / Kastanienallee 77
with Promute ( US ) and Penelope X
BERLIN
9 May 2008 Artscenter
With Tomas Phillips , Promute
Carrboro NC
13 July 2008 Murphey School
Raleigh NC
7 March 2009 Bain Waterworks Fundraiser
With : Subscape Annex , Tomas Phillips , Benito Crawford,
Razorwire Safety Net
Raleigh NC
18 April 2009
Signalfest
With : Boyzone , Andrew Weathers and Andrew Marino ,
C. Hilton and Tomas Phillips , Jessica Rylan , Olivia Block
Bicameral Mind
Nightlight , Chapel Hill NC