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

Whatever Shall Be

whatever shall be

Whatever Shall Be (2010) for toy piano and live-electronics

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

Coastlines

Coastline #59

Info

Coastline #59 (The Tempest) - modular synth performance

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.

Coastline #62

Coastline #62 (Desert Storm) - modular synth performance

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

H.E.A.D.

M.O.N.T. (Madeirans Obviously Need Thrills) - BINAURAL

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.

mælstrøm (2024) - sound performance for granular and modular synth

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

S.A.X.O.

S.A.X.O. (Silence Any Xenophobic Operation) - BINAURAL

i made a personal computer voice in macos sonoma.
to do this you have to repeat 150 sentences into the microphone. i only babbled into the microphone and did not really repeat the example sentences that the ai needs for training. that is the result. it sounds like speech but you can understand nothing at all.

babbel 1

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

Coastline 67a

Coastline #67a (Joystick Fun) - modular synth performance

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

N.O.N.O.

N.O.N.O. (Never Obstruct Nearby Obstacles) - BINAURAL

Binaural production - listen with headphones!
Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at the Volkskundemuseum Vienna (the former Schönborn Palace) on June 4, 2024 during the Vienna Festival project "Haus der Republik":
    1) in the garden
    2) Cider bar in the courtyard
    3) Walking through the exhibition
    4) People walking up the main staircase
 Released: June 5th, 2024
Info: https://essl.at/works/HEAD.html

F.E.S.T.

F.E.S.T. (Full Empty Space Theatre) - BINAURAL

Excerpt of a live performance on Wed 12 June 2024 at the Jesuit Church in Vienna during a rehearsal for the world première of "Verkündigung" on June 26th, 2024. Performed on an 0-COAST modular synth played through a BOSE L1 speaker.
https://essl.at/works/verkuendigung.html

Verkündigung

Verkündigung (excerpt) - live

Born 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna. Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own electronic instrument m@ze°2, develops software environments for computer-aided composition and creates generative sound and video environments. Since 2007 professor of composition for electro-acoustic and experimental music at the University of Music in Vienna.

Karlheinz Essl performs on a laptop computer that he has transformed into a live electronic musical instrument. The result is exciting and musical. You just won't hear these sounds anywhere else. He performs solo and in duets and trios, responding with sensitivity to fellow musicians, producing fascinating sound transformations, creating spontaneous surprises, and moving quickly from loops to cacophony to tiny clips of vocal sounds to all kinds of textures and ideas. He does all this with his m@ze°2(Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment) performance software. (Joel Chadabe, CDeMusic, Januar 2002)


Whatever Shall Be (2010) for toy piano and live-electronics

Karlheinz Essl

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