Member Since: 28/12/2007
Band Website: www.essl.at
Band Members:
Influences: Perotin, Guillaume de Machaut, Johannes Ockeghem, Anton Webern, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti, CAN
Margarete Jungen and Karlheinz Essl performing Sequitur IX for voice and live-electronics
20 Oct 2009 (Vienna, University of Music and Performing Arts)
Algorithmically generated visuals based on video footage of
Karlheinz Essl's sound performance SOUND MARKS
Soundtrack: PENDENTE (2002) by Karlheinz Essl
13 Jun 2009 (Berlin, 401contemporary Art Gallery)
Karlheinz Essl performing Sequitur VIII for electric guitar and live-electronics
13 Jun 2009 (Berlin, 401contemporary Art Gallery)
Karlheinz Essl improvising with his realtime composition environment m@ze°2
13 Jun 2009 (Berlin, 401contemporary Art Gallery)
Karlheinz Essl performing Lexikon-Sonate
on a Bösendorfer CEUS computer piano
12 Dec 2008 (Vienna, Bösendorfer-Saal)
Recording session of the CD Gold.Berg.Werk
Preiser Records 2008
ESSL.BURGER: Karlheinz Essl (electronics) and Klaus Burger (tuba)
Essl Museum Klosterneuburg/Vienna (3 Jun 2007)
Sounds Like:Improvisation should be something that is taken for granted - and yet in the course of music's history it has been marginalized. If jazz had not put such heavy emphasis on spontaneity, improvised music might have disappeared entirely. Initially Karlheinz Essl also learned the craft of composition under Friedrich Cerha. It was first through electronics that he rediscovered the talent for improvisation honed in experimental jazz formations as a trained contrabassist. Interactive live electronics have opened up unsuspected possibilities for Essl's exploration of new improvisational terrain.m@ze°2, derived from the acronym for "Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment," is the name of his new (keyboard) instrument, an individually developed meta-instrument running on an Apple PowerBook and using his own software library written in MAX/MSP. It allows Essl to react spontaneously to fellow musicians or unfold a pyrotechnic spectrum of new sounds in solo performance.All of the cuts on ©RUDE were produced live, either in solo performances or together with selected musical collaborators like Bertl Mütter, who on VOICE TRACKING contributes not only a sliding trombone but also a howling voice; or Martin Siewert, whose corrosive guitar sounds are heard on AT THE EDGE; or Boris Hauf, who plays short plopping saxophone tones in the aforementioned piece and also proves himself to be a congenial PowerBook partner in UNCHAINED. Quite often these duets and trios, with Essl's contribution of a rich palette of sound structures, get caught up in movements that take on a spiraling form.In and of themselves, such cyclically appearing rhythms are nothing new. They are also one of the jazz improviser's most important tools. What makes interactive electronic music so exciting is its indispensable element of surprise. The way in which the seemingly harmless loop in the trio AT THE EDGE develops into a dense cacophony that makes even the wildest free jazz improvisation sound like a children's song is hardly imaginable without electronics. Essl's solos are also full of surprising turns: Listen to REplay PLAYer, recorded at the Electroacoustic Music Festival in Florida, a track that tears through deep rhythmic whirlpools and suddenly mixes word particles - mostly unintelligible - into the relentless sound loops. No doubt: With interactive live electronics, not only are previously unheard new sounds making their way into music, spontaneity is also experiencing a triumphant comeback. (Reinhard Kager, 2001)
Six years after his last CD ©RUDE, Karlheinz Essl has released a new album with electronic music, entitled SNDT®X. As the name already suggests, the music on this release is related to other arts, serving as a comment or a sonic subtext to paintings, movies and performances of artists from other fields. Furthermore, several pieces are dealing with music of from various origins, namely psychedelic rock music (a tribute to CAN), advanced classical music (remixing Mozart's Dissonanzenquartett), chants from various religious contexts, or the ringing of a church bell.Besides exploring the possibilities of free improvisation in his live performances, Karlheinz Essl uses his idiosyncratic electronic instrument m@ze°2 for his compositional work as well. All tracks on this release have been modeled with his algorithmic sound environment and were performed by himself at various occasions through the last years.SNDT®X is comprised of 11 tracks with a total length of 137:37 min and was re-released on 2 Feb 2008 on the net label tlhotra. You can listen to the album or download it for free.
All of Karlheinz Essl's CD releases...
Record Label: KHE
Type of Label: Indie