New Music By Karlheinz Essl

Binaural production - listen with headphones to enjoy the 3D sound! Soundscape by Karlheinz Essl, poem by Erwin Uhrmann. A track from the audio book K.O.P.F. (Limbus 2021). https://essl.at/kopf/ Ein Portrait der Donau an ihrer Mündung, dem fantastischen Donaudelta in Rumänien. Mittels Kunstkopf-Stereophonie hat der Komponist Karlheinz Essl Soundscapes aufgenommen, die sich auf einen konkreten Ort oder eine besondere Situation beziehen. Erwin Uhrmann hat zu diesen Klangstücken lyrische Texte verfasst und selbst eingesprochen. Die Titel bezeichnen den Ort und sind gleichzeitig Akronyme, die die Fantasie des Zuhörers herausfordern. Durch den 3D-Sound werden sie unmittelbar erfahrbar.

Binaural production - listen with headphones to enjoy the 3D sound! Soundscape by Karlheinz Essl, poem by Erwin Uhrmann. A track from the audio book K.O.P.F. (Limbus 2021). https://essl.at/kopf/ Hommage à Anton Webern, aufgenommen in Mittersill, wo der Komponist 1945 von einem amerikanischen GI in vermeintlicher Notwehr erschossen wurde. Mittels Kunstkopf-Stereophonie hat der Komponist Karlheinz Essl Soundscapes aufgenommen, die sich auf einen konkreten Ort oder eine besondere Situation beziehen. Erwin Uhrmann hat zu diesen Klangstücken lyrische Texte verfasst und selbst eingesprochen. Die Titel bezeichnen den Ort und sind gleichzeitig Akronyme, die die Fantasie des Zuhörers herausfordern. Durch den 3D-Sound werden sie unmittelbar erfahrbar.

Binaural production - listen with headphones to enjoy the 3D sound! Soundscape by Karlheinz Essl, poem by Erwin Uhrmann. A track from the audio book K.O.P.F. (Limbus 2021). https://essl.at/kopf/ Ein Portrait des Flusses Thaya (tschechisch: Dyje), der die Grenze zwischen dem Waldviertel und Südmähren bildet. Mittels Kunstkopf-Stereophonie hat der Komponist Karlheinz Essl Soundscapes aufgenommen, die sich auf einen konkreten Ort oder eine besondere Situation beziehen. Erwin Uhrmann hat zu diesen Klangstücken lyrische Texte verfasst und selbst eingesprochen. Die Titel bezeichnen den Ort und sind gleichzeitig Akronyme, die die Fantasie des Zuhörers herausfordern. Durch den 3D-Sound werden sie unmittelbar erfahrbar.

Binaural production - listen with headphones to enjoy the 3D sound! Soundscape by Karlheinz Essl, poem by Erwin Uhrmann. A track from the audio book K.O.P.F. (Limbus 2021). https://essl.at/kopf/ Ein Portrait von Lunz und dem gleichnamigen See bei Gewitter. Mittels Kunstkopf-Stereophonie hat der Komponist Karlheinz Essl Soundscapes aufgenommen, die sich auf einen konkreten Ort oder eine besondere Situation beziehen. Erwin Uhrmann hat zu diesen Klangstücken lyrische Texte verfasst und selbst eingesprochen. Die Titel bezeichnen den Ort und sind gleichzeitig Akronyme, die die Fantasie des Zuhörers herausfordern. Durch den 3D-Sound werden sie unmittelbar erfahrbar.

TAU is a 14-part ensemble piece for flute, clarinet, french horn, accordion, violoncello and voice. It was developed collaboratively by the composers Karlheinz Essl, Tanja Elisa Glinsner, Jakob Gruchmann-Bernau and Till Alexander Körber during the COVID pandemic 2020/2021. TAU XII was written by Karlheinz Essl and had its premier on Sep 18th, 2021 at the seminar church of Tanzenberg/Plešivec (Carinthia), performed by Tanja Elisa Glinsner: mezzo soprano, Elisabeth Möst: flute, Andreas Schablas: clarinets, Daniel Loipold: french horn, Eva Maria Mitter: accordion, Barbara Körber: cello and conducted by Jakob Gruchmann-Bernau. https://www.essl.at/works/TAU.html The central point of departure is the 14-part picture cycle The Blue TAU of Hope (The Piran Way of the Cross) by the Slovenian-Carinthian painter Valentin Oman, born in 1935, which is currently on display in the parish church of Tanzenberg/Plešivec. The form of the cycle is intended to trace the shape of a cross, which also determines the instrumentatio

Interactive and immersive environment in 3D sound, to be listened with headphones! Commissioned by the festival Musikprotokoll (Graz 2021) for the project "tingles & clicks". Demo version (Teaser). https://www.essl.at/works/the-other-day.html This piece was written during the COVID_19 lockdown. Trapped in my house for weeks, I felt an urgent need to break out of my den and explore unknown areas of my immediate surroundings. Equipped with binaural microphones that can be plugged directly into the ears, I recorded the sounds of the environment. During these excursions, words spontaneously came to my mind which later I transformed into poems. They appear as mysterious whispering voices in different languages (German, English, French, Italian). Besides this, one will hear sounds that seem to emerge from a completely different - more transcendent - world: electronically transformed organ sounds and church bells. With headphones, this piece can be experienced as spatial audio in 3D sound.

In memory of 9/11 which happened exactly 20 years ago. Binaural production - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded on Sep 11th, 2021 in Salzburg, Austria: 1) the arrival hall of the railway station Salzburg 2) a rehearsal of a mass at the Cathedrale of Salzburg 3) on the stairs between the cathedrale and the fortress 4) pedestrians in the famous Getreidegasse in Salzburg Released: 11 Sep 2021

Performed by Isabel Ettenauer on a Michelsonne toy piano on July 24th, 2021 at Kulturbrücke Fratres. Score and more: https://www.essl.at/works/webernspielwerk.html 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 framework of the 10th Composers' Forum Mittersill: for an event in public space, Karlheinz Essl has created the algorithmic sound installation WebernUhrWerk for computer-controlled Carillon. For the subsequent commemorative concert in St. Anna's Church, he wrote WebernSpielWerk for Toy Piano, which is a kind of projection of the Carillon music onto a toy piano. The pervasive character of the carillon, which filled the whole place in the afternoon, is re

F.R.E.I. (Freedom Requires Enormous Intellect) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl

Performed and recorded on 10 Mar 2019 by Karlheinz Essl at Studio kHz using a virtual Steinway D grand piano and a Max patch.

Karlheinz Essl's latest composition for toy piano performed by Isabel Ettenauer (Michelsonne toy piano) and Karlheinz Essl (live-electronics)on July 24th, 2021 at the festival Kulturbrücke Fratres. This composition is an transformation of the original piano piece Trois cent notes where the resonances of the sympathetic strings of the grand piano are simulated by electronic means. By this, the toy piano becomes a new instrument with an artificial sustain pedal. More information and score download at: https://www.essl.at

Binaural recording - listen with headphones! Part of the work-in-progress H.E.A.D. Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded in spring 2021 at various creeks in Lower Austria and processed with MaxMSP: 1) Krumpenwasser ("Gießgang") inside the Stockerauer Au 2) an artificial creek ("Fischwanderhilfe") at the Danube power plant Greifenstein 3) the river Schwechat which flows through Helenental close to the monastery of Heiligenkreuz 4) the Mauerbach near the Carthusian monastery of the same name

Deploração was written in autumn 2020 for the concert project "Lamenti" by the newly founded guitar duo santorsa~pereyra. It was premiered on Mar 26th, 2021 at "Schwere Reiter" in Munich. The piece is not a duo in the conventional sense. The instruments neither engage in a musical dialogue nor accompany each other. Instead, the two guitars together form a meta-instrument. On it, two musicians play a solo piece together as a collective mourning work. One guitarist performs only bottleneck glissandi with the right hand (the left is used solely for muting). The other plucks only the low E string in a wide variety of sound colors and articulations. The idea of lament is transformed into musical gestures. "Always rolling the same stone up the same mountain" (Heiner Müller) - a truly Sisyphean task! The continual ascent and descent take place with relentless rigor. As if the screw of pain and sorrow is being turned tighter and tighter - until the lament and its sound finally die away. More info and score for do

Binaural recording - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes with animals, recorded between 2019-2021 at various locations in Austria: 1) pigsty in Carinthia 2) pasture with Angus cattle near Raabs/Thaya 3) pond with bathing dogs at the Prater, Vienna 4) a toddler feeding sheep, goats, and a goose in an animal enclosure near Greifenstein Info: https://www.essl.at/works/HEAD.html

SATOR is an interactive live-electronic extension of my organ piece "tenet opera rotas", based on a computer program written in MaxMSP. It was composed right after the studio recording of the former piece at the request of Pier Damiano Peretti. By using real-time sound processing on the spectral domain, the acoustic organ is transformed into an electroacoustic hyper-instrument which expands itself, opening virtual spaces into the unknown. Info: https://www.essl.at/works/sator.html

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Live-electronic sound performance based on a computer program written in MaxMSP. Recorded live at Studio kHz on 22 Feb 2021. No edits, no overdubs. Info: https://www.essl.at/works/apres-lavant.html

A palindromic organ piece by Karlheinz Essl in memory of Anton Webern and the 75th anniversary of his tragic death on September 15th, 1945. Recorded with Pier Damiano Peretti at Heillersaal of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna on 17 Feb 2021. Edited and mastered by Karlheinz Essl. https://www.essl.at/works/tenet-opera-rotas.html

300 notes in 4 minutes, the most recent toy piano composition by Karlheinz Essl. Score available for free: www.essl.at Although notated solely in quavers, the tempo encompasses a wide range from very slow to extremely fast. Starting with a speed of MM = 50, it gradually accelerates to MM = 400 which equals three “time octaves”, speaking with Karlheinz Stockhausen (cf. his famous article ...how time passes... from 1957). A similar transition also happens in the harmonic domain where the range of three octaves (from F to f”) finally collapses into a single pitch (f'): And also in the dynamics, a permanent process of crescendo and diminuendo takes place. Needless to mention, all these processes happen simultaneously at the same time. Despite its strict structure, the piece should be played in a fluent rubato attitude with lots of espressivo. Produced by Karlheinz Essl on April 12th, 2020 at Studio Ölberg.

Binaural recording - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded between 2018-2020 in different forest in Europe, Africa, and Asia: 1) bamboo grove at Mt. Inari near Kyoto, Japan with Swiss hikers passing by 2) stereophonic water lapping at Levada do Carniçal, Madeira 3) within a dried up corn field near Lake Wörth in Carinthia, Austria 4) a meadow with crickets inside the alluvial forest of the Danube near Stockerau, Austria Part of the work-in-progress H.E.A.D. http://www.essl.at/works/HEAD.html

Binaural recording - listen with headphones! Generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded on May 1st, 2019 in Cluj, Romania: 1) inside Biserica Franciscană, a catholic church at the historical center 2) inside Catedrala Mitropolitană, an orthodox temple 3) next to the old city wall 4) families with kids at Parcul Central Simion Bărnutju