New Music by Karlheinz Essl

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) on 24 May 2024 before and during a concert of Luigi Nono's last compositions: 1) setup in the library 2) sound check 3) excerpts from "Lontananza" for violin and tape feat. Youngseo Kim and Karlheinz Essl 4) excerpts from "Hay que caminar soñando" for two violins feat. Youngseo Kim and Reina Yoshioka

Free improvisation on a MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synthesizer controlled by a Doepfer A-174-4 joystick. Performed live at Studio kHz on May 9th, 2024. No edits, no overdubs, no MIDI, no sequencer, no arpeggiator - just manual control in real time! https://www.essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Dresden (Germany) in April 2024: 1) People inside the Frauenkirche 2) Café Algarotti of the famous Gemäldegalerie 3) The main station of Dresden 4) At the Albertinum art museum where refugees meet and kids play table tennis Released: April 24, 2024 Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

The Maelstrom is a gigantic vortex in the North Sea, described by Edgar Allan Poe in his short story "A Descent into the Maelstrom" (published in 1841). Its power is so great that it can suck in even large ships and crush them to pulp. For my piece, I constructed a kind of Maelstrom mechanism with Granular Synthesis, written in MaxMSP. It pulverizes sounds and recombines them into new sonic structures that can be controlled during a live performance. The underlying sound material comes from an improvisation on my MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synth, which is also used as a sound device in this piece. https://essl.at/works/maelstrom.html The premiere took place on March 22, 2024 during my portrait concert at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, performed by myself.

Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Monte (Madeira) on February 20th, 2024: 1) Kids playing Futebol 2) Monte Toboggan sleigh ride 3) Japanese pond in the Monte Palace Tropical Garden 4) Gardener at work in the park Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Free improvisation on a Make Noise 0-coast analog synth, patched as a generative non-linear system. No edits, no overdubs, no MIDI, no sequencer, no arpeggiator - only manual control in real time! Recorded live at Studio kHz on 7 Mar 2024 in preparation to my solo performance at Alte Schmiede the next day.

Free improvisation on a MakeNoise 0-COAST. Performed live at Studio kHz on Feb 27, 2024. No MIDI, no sequencer, no overdubs, no edits. Part of the work-in-progress "Coastlines" (2020 ff.): https://essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Im Gespräch mit der transArt Künstlerin Astrid Rieder - aufgenommen am 11.11.2023 im Kunstraum Ewigkeitsgasse in Wien - spreche ich über einige zentrale Themen in meinem künstlerischen Schaffen: • Wie mich die deutsche Krautrocktruppe CAN zu Karlheinz Stockhausen und zur elektronischen Musik geführt hat. • Über die Dialektik von Ordnung und Zufall. • Die Faszination chaotischer Systeme, die sich mit modularen Analogsynthesizern so herrlich modellieren lassen. • Warum Improvisation und Komposition zwei unterschiedliche Paar Schuhe sind. Transkript: https://essl.at/bibliogr/essl-rieder_2.html

A new addition to my no-input mixer project that I started in 2023. Performed live with a MACKIE 802 mixing desk on Feb 8th, 2024 at Studio kHz. No edits, no overdubs. https://www.essl.at/works/studies-NIM.html

Der Komponist Karlheinz Essl über seine Erfahrungen mit analogen Modularsynthesizern und No-Input-Mixern nach Jahrzehnten digitalen Musikmachens mit Computern und selbstgeschriebener Software. Veröffentlicht Januar 2024 auf der Plattform SoundingFuture. https://www.soundingfuture.com/de/artikel/von-digital-nach-analog

Composer Karlheinz Essl on his recent experiences and experiments with analog modular synthesizers and no-input mixer after decades of digital music making. Published in January 2024 on the platform Sounding Future. https://www.soundingfuture.com/en/article/digital-analog

Free improvisation on a MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synthesizer connected to a Doepfer ring modulator with two MATH function generators and a MakeNoise WobbleBug using frequency, amplitude and ring modulation. Performed live at Studio kHz on Jan 16, 2024.

Free improvised live performance on a MakeNoise 0-COAST modular synth, two function generators (MATH) and a ring modulator (Doepfer A114). Recorded at Studio kHz on 4 January, 2024. No MIDI, no sequencer, no overdubs, no edits. Part of the work-in-progress "Coastlines" (2020 ff.): https://essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Generative sound environment based on the paradigm of biorhythm: three independent temporal processes in the ratio of 23 : 28 : 33 change the level of three sound files with a recording of the famous Christmas carol "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht), which are time-stretched according to the same proportions. https://essl.at/works/nachtstille.html Written in Max with Karlheinz Essl's "Realtime Composition Library".

Radiofeature von Jörg Duit über das Improvisationsduo OUT OF THE BLUE mit Agnes Heginger (Stimme) und Karlheinz Essl (Live-Elektronik). Erstsendung am 20.3.2018 im Zeit-Ton auf Ö1. https://www.essl.at/bibliogr/duit-sommerwellen.html Die charismatische Sängerin Agnes Heginger und der kongeniale Komponist und Elektroniker Karlheinz Essl nehmen Gedichte als Ausgangspunkt für ihre Performances, die von beiden aus dem Moment heraus vertont werden. Das Offene und Unerwartete steht im Zentrum dieses Prozesses. Dabei reagieren sie auf den entstehenden Raum/Klang, die Zuhörerschaft, die gesprochenen und gesungenen Worte, die Soundscapes und Geräusche, die hörbaren oder nur gedachten Gedanken. Hinter diesem sich fortwährend transformierenden Gespinnst wird etwas Neues sichtbar. Erleben Sie ein fesselndes Experiment, in dem liebevoll ausgewählte Text- und Klangfragmente zu Spielbällen werden, mit denen Agnes Heginger und Karlheinz Essl virtuos jonglieren.

A granular de/reconstruction of two late madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613), who murdered his wife and her lover "in flagranti". Soundtrack for a live performance with the actor Markus Hering, premiered at the Basilika Sonntagberg on October 28, 2023. Commissioned by the festival Klangraum Waidhofen. https://essl.at/works/gesualdo-fragmente.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Graz, Austria on October 7, 2023 during the Steirischer Herbst festival: 1) Carillon of the Glockenspielplatz 2) Visitors of the Landhaus 3) Main square in the evening with many trams 4) A tram ride with Line 6 Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

This composition is a transformation of the original piano piece "Trois Cent Notes", in which the resonances of the sympathetic strings of the grand piano are simulated by electronic means. The toy piano becomes a new instrument with an artificial sustain pedal. https://www.essl.at/works/TCD.html

Since 2005 I have written a number of solo compositions for the toy piano, some of them together with (live) electronics. In my piece "under wood" I am confronting the toy piano with conventional instruments for the first time. It is used as an exceptional solo instrument but also as some sort of exotic percussion. For this purpose I deconstructed one of the two instruments and prepared it in order to produce a variety of interesting percussive sounds. Finally, both instruments are amplified - not only to make them louder, but also to enable the player for creating delicate noises inside the instrument. The title "under wood" refers to a mechanical typewriter of the same name with its characteristic hammering sound. Besides, it can also be interpreted as the attempt to look behind the surfaces and to investigate the fascinating complexity that one discovers in the woods by changing the viewing perspective from the trees down to the earth: an almost impenetrable cosmos of independent, yet secretly connected gestures and movements of little creatures which one cannot see but only hear. https://www.essl.at/works/underwood.html

In this piece, Essl uses the inside of the toy piano for the first time. A contact microphone is attached to the instrument and connected to a custom-made computer program which acts as a kind of sonic ‘particle accelerator’. During their voyage through the piece, the performer not only scratches and knocks on the sound board, but also has to stamp their feet (the source of the rhythm is later revealed) and make use of some special gadgets. A spinning top is played on the soundboard, and a thimble produces beautiful glissandos on the metal rods of the toy piano. At certain moments notes are also played on the keys in a conventional manner, but even these sounds burst into explosive glissandos. At the very end, a small music box enters the scene. Mounted on the soundboard, this little instrument plays the melody of the well known song, ‘Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will be, Will be)’, from the Hitchcock movie "The Man Who Knew Too Much". The magic of this piece probably also has to do with the fact that everything that is heard before the entry of this beautiful melody – all rhythmic cells, melodic motives, even the harmonic structures – are in fact derived from this very melody. https://essl.at/works/whatever.html