New Music by Karlheinz Essl

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 vo...

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.htm...

Karlheinz Essl's first piece for toy piano, composed 2005 for Isabel Ettenauer, became a signature piece for this instrument. The primary aim of this piece is an attempt to break up the restricted sound world of the toy piano - not by superficial means of additional sound processing, but by the sound of the instrument itself. This is achieved by a sound file which is played back by a small loudspe...

Recorded by Isabel Ettenauer for the CD "whatever shall be - music for toy instruments and electronics" (edition eirelav, 2013) Having written several pieces for the toy piano before, I dedicated Sequitur V to this interesting instrument which — in fact — has not much in common with the piano as we know it. Its sound resembles chimes or maybe parts of a gamelan orchestra and therefore is not conne...

Sequitur XIV was written for the Hamburg-based pianist and performer Jennifer Hymer and sets the thumb piano in focus. This instrument, named ‘Mbira’ in Africa, was discovered in the middle of the 20th Century from the British ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey, who developed out of it a standardized western instrument named ‘kalimba’, and let it be produced industrially. In contrast to the African ori...

On September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was shot by an American occupation soldier in alleged self-defense in Mittersill, where he had taken refuge from the approaching Red Army. Thus ended the life of one of the most influential composers of the modern era in an inconceivable and tragic way. 60 years later - on September 15, 2005 - two commemorative events for Anton Webern will take place within the...

Concert version of Pandora’s Secret, a sound performance that Karlheinz wrote for Isabel Ettenauer's "Circus Lebasi", a music circus for the festival Linz09, when Linz was the European capital of culture. Scored for punch-tape-controlled music box and live electronics. https://www.essl.at/works/pandoras-secret.html

Palindromic-canonic variations of the most famous Christmas carol "Silent Night"; the score was punched into a tape that could be played in different directions on a mechanical musical clock. It has been adapted for toy piano and organ. It contains four parts, the titles of which are anagrams of the name "Silent Night": Tingle Hints - inversion Shingle Tint - retrograde Lent in Sight - inversion o...

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 rev...

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 orde...

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

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Piran (Slovenia) in 2021 and 2023: 1) stroll through the alleys of the old town 2) lively atmosphere of Piazza Tartini, where people meet in the afternoon 3) North coast with sea surf 4) beach scene with mother and child Part of the work-in-progre...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in libraries and bookstores in 2018 and 2023: 1) reading hall of the Austrian National Library in Vienna 2) a bookstore in Berlin, Moritzplatz 3) turning the pages of giant folios in the Klosterneuburg Abbey Library 4) setting up chairs for a reading...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different tram stations or tram rides in cities around the world: 1) riding a tram through Kyoto (Japan) 2) a tram stop at the main square in Linz (Austria) 3) a ride on tram 18 from Genève-Cornavin to CERN (Switzerland) 4) an intersection in Oslo...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different locations in Geneva between August 17 and 19, 2023: 1) pedestrian passage under the bridge where the lake becomes the Rhône river 2) Terrace in the historic center with a great view of the city 3) Breakfast in front of the Hôtel de la Ci...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different locations at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, between August 16 and 18, 2023.: 1) the CERN Control Centre (CCC), where all accelerators and detectors are monitored 2) visitors at the - now historic - SynchroCyclotron (SC)...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at different bathing places in Lower Austria and the Czech Republic between 2019 and 2023 during periods of great heat: 1) a nudist beach at the old Danube near Greifenstein 2) the beach of Gmünd, a former gravel pit 3) The lake of Suchdol nad Lužnic...

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded at my home near Vienna, Austria from 2018 to 2023: 1) cooking in the kitchen, 2) evening in the garden, 3) thunderstorm at night, 4) wind in the morning. 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 - just manual control in real time! A suite in three parts, performed live by Karlheinz Essl on July 29, 2023 at Studio kHz. Video: https://youtu.be/W0gAae4PuxI Info: https://www.essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Sounds flood through the room, drip from the ceiling and evaporate in an eternal cycle. On May 13, 2000, the Minoritenkirche in Krems was transformed into an acoustic water reservoir by a generative sound installation by Karlheinz Essl. The occasion was the last part of the project series "fLOW". Once again Karlheinz Essl invited top-class international instrumentalists, composers and sound artist...

Sounds flood through the room, drip from the ceiling and evaporate in an eternal cycle. On May 13, 2000, the Minoritenkirche in Krems was transformed into an acoustic water reservoir by a generative sound installation by Karlheinz Essl. The occasion was the last part of the project series "fLOW". Once again Karlheinz Essl invited top-class international instrumentalists, composers and sound artist...

Sounds flood through the room, drip from the ceiling and evaporate in an eternal cycle. On May 13, 2000, the Minoritenkirche in Krems was transformed into an acoustic water reservoir by a generative sound installation by Karlheinz Essl. The occasion was the last part of the project series "fLOW". Once again Karlheinz Essl invited top-class international instrumentalists, composers and sound artist...

Sounds flood through the room, drip from the ceiling and evaporate in an eternal cycle. On May 13, 2000, the Minoritenkirche in Krems was transformed into an acoustic water reservoir by a generative sound installation by Karlheinz Essl. The occasion was the last part of the project series "fLOW". Once again Karlheinz Essl invited top-class international instrumentalists, composers and sound artist...

Sounds flood through the room, drip from the ceiling and evaporate in an eternal cycle. On May 13, 2000, the Minoritenkirche in Krems was transformed into an acoustic water reservoir by a generative sound installation by Karlheinz Essl. The occasion was the last part of the project series "fLOW". Once again Karlheinz Essl invited top-class international instrumentalists, composers and sound artist...