KENNETH KIRSCHNER "FILAMENTS & VOIDS"
(12K1050)
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ADVERSE
EFFECT (BLOG)
I have to 'fess I've long loved the type of harmonic drone or
tonal music evident on this latest release by prolific New York
composer Kirschner. Throughout both these discs, fantastic and
lengthy shimmering sound-drifts sweep and gently roll into each
other, at once leaving room for each to breathe without losing
sight of a clear objective to colour space and silence with
a little meaning. All three pieces that make up the first disc
assume a melancholic position where loss and absence are rendered
positive via abstract forms, evoking a place where one can blissfully
and peacefully contemplate the subjective and objective completely
undisturbed, not unlike staring at a lake's ripples on a remote
planet. Kirschner's main instrument, the piano, provides a clearer
source for the fourth (and last) track, 'March 16 2006', but
all 72.37 minutes prove themselves an exercise in a bleakness
as healthy as one of Bela Tarr's lengthy camera shots. Grainy
and sparse piano chords rarely sound so downright absorbing
and, if anything, the feel of this piece compares with some
of William Basinski's work; in tone and texture if not the actual
execution. Over the years, Kirschner has released a number of
albums and collaborated with 12k's own Taylor Deupree. I urge
you to investigate. - Richard Johnson
AE
MAG (DE)
IEs gibt Tonträger, da kann man als Rezensient sich die
Finger blutig schreiben. Sicherlich ist das schmackhafte Beiwerk
dieser Doppel-CD der angenehm unverkopfte Beilagentext von Marc
Weidenbaum, doch was sich theoretisch so angenehm liest ist
in Wirklichkeit der Alptraum eines Kritikers.
Kirschner bereitet in »Filaments & Voids« die
Zettelkastenmentalität auf und man möge den ersten
Wortstamm »Fil-e« hier bitte sehr ernst nehmen,
denn die Stücke beschreiten eine Richtung die es fast unmöglich
macht, einen kritikalen roten Faden zu finden. Bereits das erste
Stück bietet über die Dauer einer knappen halben Stunde
tausende Drones, abgelegt in kaleidoskopischen Abwandlungen
ihrer selbst. Man hat das Gefühl als wolle Kirschner tilgen,
was sich noch vor wenigen Minuten im Gehörgang befand,
so subtil geht Kirschner zu Werke, blendet sanft Pausen zwischen
die oftmals nur Sekunden währenden Droneverwischungen und
bietet am Ende eine Sammlung chimärischer Musik.
Das letzte Stück auf der ersten CD hingegen bietet entgegen
des Randommodus der ersten beiden Werke einen sequenzierten
Orgeldrone, moduliert über die zeitliche Dauer von knapp
22 Minuten, mutiert zu einer frequenzreichen Fahrt durch silbrige
Schattenwälder und sepiafarbene Eindrücke unserer
Umwelt.
Die zweite CD ist hingegen ein Stück Pianomusik, ausgedehnt
auf die Dauer von knapp 75 Minuten und wirkt hier besonders
stilvoll, ähnlich einer Etude von Akira Rabelais, gehüllt
in Raus
BLOW
UP (IT)
Interessante e sostanzioso il fluviale doppio "Filaments
& Voids" del newyorkese Kenneth Kirschner, due ore
e un quarto occupate con i quasisilenzi di frequenze e fruscii
che vanno e vengono come maree notturne (il primo CD) e con
le rimembranze di pianoforte delicate e notturne, intensissime,
fantascmatiche, che emergono e scompaiono in un lentissimo battito
di ciglia (il secondo CD): siamo dalle parti del William Basinski
piu intenso e intimista, e se il primo CD non estalta piu di
tanto, il secondo, con i 72 minuti di March 16, 2006, strea
letteralmente.
ETHEREAL
(FR)
Après une incartade symbolisée par un album paru
l'an passé sur Sirr, et alors qu'il multiplie par ailleurs
les sorties mp3, retour sur 12k pour Kenneth Kirschner avec
un projet aussi ambitieux qu'exigeant : un double album avec
trois pistes d'une vingtaine de minutes pour le premier CD et
un morceau unique de soixante-douze minutes pour le second.
Autant dire qu'il faut prévoir un laps de temps certain
pour se plonger dans une écoute indiscontinue de ces
deux heures et demie d'ambient minimale.
En effet, sur le plan musical, l'États-unien choisit
de mettre en place des textures à peine perceptibles,
passant par de micro-oscillations, de tous petits souffles ou
de tintements quasi-inaudibles. Requérant ainsi l'attention
maximale de son auditoire, Kenneth Kirschner va au cours du
premier des deux disques assouplir un peu son niveau d'exigence
en montant le volume des éléments utilisés,
en rendant plus lumineuses les saillies sonores convoquées
et plus consistantes les nappes d'arrière-plan. Cependant,
plusieurs secondes continuent de s'écouler entre deux
percées musicales, forçant à maintenir
une écoute vigilante pour en percevoir la réelle
teneur. Ce n'est que dans le dernier des trois titres de ce
disque (June 10, 2008 ; comme précédemment, Kirschner
nomme ses pistes de la date à laquelle il a commencé
leur composition) que son propos prend une véritable
densité et qu'un continuum sonore se met en place. On
peut alors se délecter des superpositions pratiquées
ou de la clarté et du scintillement de ces strates.
Sur le second disque, le musicien retourne vers le néo-classique
qu'il avait pu pratiquer par le passé : piano solo, frémissements
en fond sonore, introspection un peu trop ostentatoire. Néanmoins,
force est de reconnaître que le duo piano-composantes
micro-électroniques fonctionne plutôt bien et que
Kirschner parvient sans difficulté à enchaîner
des petites bribes de morceau, de deux ou trois minutes chacune,
pour créer une sensation de continuité et de changement
au sein du titre unique présent sur ce CD. Alternant
également les passages avec piano et ceux dans lesquels
les seuls éléments synthétiques sont présent,
le New-Yorkais livre ce qui s'apparente à une retranscription
fidèle d'un de ses concerts. 5/8 - François Bousquet
GO
MAG (ES)
Piano prepardo. A Kenneth Kirschner le sucede que los disco
se le quedan pequeños. A él le haria falta un
formato con más capacidad, un formato donde cupieran
varias horas de musica, que le permitiera extender su discurso
much más allá de le que ahora puede. Hasta el
borde mismo de lo excesivo, justo cuando el tiempo parece detenerse.
Si no me creen, prueben a escuchar "Filaments & Voids",
su ultimo disco. Es un compacto doble, pero apenas contiene
cuatro piezas, y la sensacion que se tiene al escuchar esas
piezas es que se hacen cortas; podrian durar tres, cuatro veces
más y no pasaria nada. Y es que Kirschner tiene una extraña
habilidad para manejar los tiempos en suspension: en sus discos
se van alternado momentos refulgentes, superposiciones de drones
ya melodias que paracen flotar en el espacio, con silencios
grávados y penetrantes. Son esos los filamentos y vacio
a los que hace alusion el titulo del disco, las delicadas filigranas
maniupladas por ordenador, los acordes de plano que surgen de
la nada y se quedan ahi, apelando a una nostalgia indefinible,
colonizando un espacio en el que, por lo demas gobierna un silencio
limpio, cristalino, de una pureza cegadora. - Vidal Romero
GONZO
(BE)
Stilte speelt op deze dubbel-cd van Kenneth Kirschner een even
belangrijke rol als geluid. Korte drones zwellen aan en sterven
weg, afgwisseld met volkomen stiltes. Van tijd tot tijd verandert
de toonhoogte en de vibratie. Bij de volgende track horen we
wederom korte drones die aanzwellen en wegsterven en afwisselen
met stiltes, maar het geluid is hoger en instenser. De seconden
van stilte zin even betekenisvol als de momenten met geluid,
alsof de stiltes mede het geluid vormen en betekenis verlenen.
Zoals architectuur staat in een leegte, en het samenspel ruimte
vormgeeft. Ook op de tweede cd, geheel ingeruimd voor een enkel
stuk van zo'n zeventig minute, owrdt steeds de relatie tussen
geluid en stilte onderzocht. Bijvoorbeeld met een haast tastende
pianomelodie, afgewisseld door stiltes die aanvankelijk niet
volkomen zijn, maar gevuld met een ruis. Het is de feitelijke
"stilte" van ons dagelijks leven. Kirschner heeft
de ruis toegevoegd door eenvoudig de muziek, met de digitale
stiltes, opnieuw op te nemen via een goedkope microfoon. Op
een andere punt in het stuk wordt stilte aanwezig gemaakt door
bijvoorbeeld het wegsterven van de klanket of brute afbreking
van het ingetogen pianospel. Bijna twee-en-een-half uur "filamenten"
en "leegten" is een mooie en bijzondere toevoeging
aan het drones - en geluidslandschap.
LIABILITY
(FR)
La plupart du temps Kenneth Kirschner diffuse son |uvre sur
son propre site et ce de manière tout à fait libre.
Cependant cela ne l'empêche pas de sortir des disques
comme ce massif Filaments & Voids qui a été
publié sur le label de son camarade Taylor Deupree :
12k. Un double album qui, selon les dires de Kirschner lui-même,
a des racines cosmologiques. On le croit volontiers, surtout
quand on se met à écouter les premières
mesures de l'album. Sur chaque disque il y a pourtant une approche
différente de la chose. Le point commun réside
dans cette forme de minimalisme électronique et une expérimentation
introspective forte. Les trois morceaux qui composent le premier
disque sont purement électroniques. Leurs caractères
sobres, spatiaux et abstraits ne sont pas spécialement
une surprise quand on connait la globalité des compositions
de l'Américain. Enregistrés à des périodes
complètement différentes (chacune des pièces
de Kirschner ont comme nom la date de leur enregistrement) on
note cependant dans ces morceaux une unité et une certaine
constante. On y entend donc une musique minimaliste, flottante
et quasiment fantomatique. On se déplace dans un espace
froid, presque clinique et aseptisé. Il faut alors une
profonde concentration pour enclencher une alchimie totale avec
la musique de Kirschner. A vrai dire un disque comme Filaments
& Voids ne peut être apprécié que de
cette manière.
Sur le deuxième disque Kenneth Kirschner revient à
son instrument de prédilection : le piano. En effet,
ce n'est pas la première fois qu'il aborde cet instrument.
Avec Taylor Deupree il a déjà sorti trois albums
autour du piano. Ici, avec March 16, 2006, longue pièce
de plus d'une heure dix et qui est dédicacée au
neuroscientifique Jimmy Schwartz, Kenneth Kirschner pousse l'expérimentation
vers des territoires plus sombres, plus brumeux et aux contours
plus flous. Basée sur la lenteur et confronté
à des séquences de silence, cette longue pérégrination
vers l'obscur se divise en deux parties. Pendant plus de quarante
minutes c'est les épanchements électro-pianistiques
de Kirschner qui l'emportent. Au-delà ce sont des nappes
électroniques minimales qui prennent le dessus. Une pièce
sonore que l'on pourrait qualifier de néo-contemporaine
ou néo-concrète mais, dans l'un ou l'autre cas,
on ressort fasciné et complètement vidé
par autant d'intensité et de profondeur. Filaments &
Voids n'est sans doute pas une |uvre révolutionnaire,
au niveau de la forme, mais il montre que le label 12k est au
niveau des plus grandes structures diffusant de la musique électronique
expérimentale et minimale tel Touch et Raster Noton.
- par Fabien
MUSIQUE
MACHINE (.COM)
Filaments & Voids is a wonderfully haunting &
beautiful double disk collection of lengthy works by New York
based Kenneth Kirschner- with the tracks falling somewhere between
ambience, slowed/ electronica and modern minimalistic classical
piano music.
Kirschner work is often very slow moving, or spaced-out and
users silence as a compositional element often; this is music
that you have to slow yourself down to it’s pace and let
it slowly wash over you and sink deep into your psyche to let
it weave it’s often sombre, but beautiful magic. The first
disk features 3 tracks that fall between 17 minutes and near
on 30 minutes each named after the date they where recorded.
First up we have October 19, 2006; which features heavily spaced-out
harmonic yet eerier synth drones, electro ambient textures and
dwells; the clever thing is one almost makes their own composition
each time it’s played as the gaps with in the sound are
filled with your own environment sounds- that enhances the original
piece but also makes your hear the world around you in a very
different way. Next is September 11, 1996 which is built around
rather chilling harmonic yet haunting slowed synth note tolls;
with Kirschner letting the synth notes slowly die out before
hitting the next one- it feels like wondering through a people-less
city in the early hours of the mourning feeling both treated
yet strangely curious too. Lastly on disk one we have June 10,
2008- which simmers into sonic being with sustained synth and
string hover sounding like slowed early Tangerine Dream dwell.
The track seems to vibrate straight through you with it’s
sombre wonder, as the track progresses Kirschner add’s
in more harmonic and emotional facets into the sound- really
very mesmerizing ,melancholy and beautiful stuff.
Disk two is taken up completely by the 70 plus minute track
March 16, 2006; which at first finds Kirschner digital editing
Morton Feldman like lonesome paino unfolds in quite a jarring
yet compelling manner. Then later he blurs the piano tone into
a wonderful haunting and emotional slowed & ghostly sonic
fog that is often cut by silences. The track really gives one
emotional the impression of walking through a city just after
the bomb has dropped and the white light has cleared; with the
world seemingly out of focused, pained yet strangle beautiful
and peacefully- really it almost swallows you up with it’s
hazy grim dwell and almost brings tears to ones eyes in places
as Kirschner really seems to tap into your psyche at such an
primal emotional level.
I’ll have to admit much of what I’ve heard in the
ambient genre of late has rather underwhelmed me and seems to
have been following the same tired sonic path and clichés
of the genre; but Kirschner work is really something very special
that’s distinctive, emotional and deeply compelling. Special
mention must be given to the double digt-pak package be with
the rather wonderful yet bleak photo of empty room by 12k label
owner Taylor Deupree that fits Kirschner work perfectly and
a rather interesting write-up about the albums pieces and Kirschner
work by Marc Weidenbaum.
MUSICAREACTION
(FR)
Silence et vide. Particules de son arrivant par vagues. Grésillements.
Nappes soudainement lumineuses, puis à nouveau, le vide.
Le son comme un éclat de lumière lointain aperçu
dans une nuit noire. La musique du pianiste Kenneth Kirschner
sur Filaments & Void, est à l'image de la photo qui
orne la jaquette de ce magnifique digipack (une photo du loft
dans lequel devait vivre le compositeur quelques mois plus tard)
: abandonnée, désolée, fantomatique. Et
belle, aussi, même si le qualificatif semble trop facile
ici. Profondément apaisante en tout cas. Avec ce double
CD signé sur le label d'avant-garde new-yorkais 12K,
Kirschner explore le monde du silence, ou plutôt les effets
de l'alternance, son + silence. Filaments & Void propose
quatre pièces contemplatives, enregistrés en septembre
1996 et Juin 2008, pour une durée de presque deux heures
et demi.
Du minimalisme, du vrai, loin de ceux qui se réclame
de cette école aujourd'hui, pourtant animé d'une
véritable flamme, d'une résonance intime qui touche
l'âme et d'une profondeur infinie. Avec Filaments &
Void, qui fait suite au sublime Post Piano, Kirschner s'affirme
une fois encore comme un grand monsieur de la musique contemporaine
moderne. Taylor Deupree, co-fondateur du label américain,
ne s'y est pas trompé, lui qui navigue depuis bientôt
12 ans, au sein de la vaste sphère contemporaine. - Maxence
Grugier
NEURAL
(IT)
Delicate sequences, rarefied samples followed by silence, active
suspensions and short drones, reminiscent of Cage's main intuition:
that sounds include a certain absence. The opposite is also
true, and here silence is sprinkled by barely perceptible frequencies
and vibrations. This condition of lack becomes a supporting
force, enacted, in 'Filaments & Voids', in a very mechanical
way by alternating the different listening conditions, but still
effective in defining the borders of a renounced or of a minimal,
audible and conformed musical expression. Kenneth Kirschner
finely calibrates these 'quietist' yet 'stressed', 'stretched'
and 'interrupted' passages, sound portions that live in music
to realize the void that separates them, with few melodic hints
pointing to a whole contained in the parts - an expression of
a multi-purpose and precise nature which is both a glorification
of the indistinct and a very fine exercise of poetry. - Aurelio
Cianciotta
OCTOPUS
(FR)
Un nouveau florilège de pièces composées
par Kenneth Kirschner parait chez 12k, le label de Taylor Deupree
qui confirme son appréciation pour le travail atmosphérique
du minimaliste américain. Sur ce double album, Kirschner
réunit des |uvres créées entre 1996 et
2008, dont les titres indiquent les dates précises de
conception - une habitude chez lui et un choix de distanciation
vis-à-vis de toute lecture interprétative de son
art. Pourtant un intitulé est ici donné à
l'ensemble : Filaments & Voids, qui, selon son auteur, fait
référence à des structures d'ordre cosmique,
néant traversé par des corps célestes et
ondes évanescentes dont l'écho se propage lentement
jusqu'à nous. Musicalement, ces imperceptibles mouvements
de l'univers se traduisent par de délicates nappes électroniques,
touches sonores abstraites et enveloppantes qui, à intervalles
irréguliers, se fondent dans une quiétude absolue
sur les trois premiers titres. La quatrième et dernière
composition ("March 16, 2006") reprend ce principe
d'alternance mais utilise comme source sonore quelques accords
égrenés par un piano, instrument dont Kirschner
fit l'apprentissage dès son plus jeune âge. Un
fragment mélodique dépouillé dont le timbre
a été volontairement altéré à
travers des enregistrements successifs et dont le souffle grenu
contraste avec le tranchant des incises silencieuses. La mécanique
est enclenchée pendant 42 minutes après quoi la
pièce s'étend pendant une demi-heure de plus en
une douce dérive vers des nuées ambient numériques.
Si vous redoutez l'ennui ou craignez des vertus trop sédatives
(une préoccupation légitime), faîtes-vous
votre propre idée sur le site de Kirschner qui propose
de télécharger plusieurs dizaines de ses |uvres.
Ce fervent partisan de la diffusion libre ne met cependant pas
à disposition les pièces contenues dans ce disque.
- Jean-Claude Gevrey
RECORD
COLLECTOR (UK)
A study in sound an silence.
Marc Weidenbaum's sleevenotes capture the essence of this fine
collection of compositions by New York sound sculptor Kenneth
Kirschner:
"The music heard on this album is, light the night sky,
a broad and dark space inhabited by dispersed and luminous materials.
And, as in the night sky, there are patterns."
Kirschner is predomiantly interested in the way sound surfaces
from silence, encouraging listeners to engage with tonal qualities
and textures as notes materilise from, and plunge back into,
absence. So, October 19, 2006 and September 11, 1996 take sequences
of synthesized waves, shimmering like Tibetan bowls, and bury
them under veiled vaccums of nothingness, while March 16, 2006
is a monumental Feldman-esque exercise in piano and pause display.
Like William Baskski's Disintegration Loops series, this music
is as much about the power of repetition and duration as it
is about the force of silence.
Only on the more recent June 10, 2008 does Kirschner break from
this mod; a glistening organ based über-drone whose transcendental
properties place it alongside the works of such notables as
Pauline Oliveros, Phill Niblock and Eliane Radigue. - Spencer
Grady
RIF
RAF (FR)
Complexes et mystériseux,
les rapports qui soustendent la musique et le silence qui lui
succede peuvent donner lieu a de multiples interpretations.
Dans quelle mesure l'absence de musique marque-t-elle la fin
d'une oeuvre musicale? Le silence est-il un mysticisme ou un
neant? David Tudor, interprete magistral de John Cage, l'avait
bien compris, le silence en musique ne 'lest jamais totalement.
Quand il (non-)jouait la célebre "4'33'", les
instants séparant l'ouverture et la fermeture du couvercle
de son piano lui faisait entendre les bruits du public, tout
comme Cage lui-meme prétendait que le silence absolut
n'existait pas. Pour son retour sur le label 12k, le compositeur
électro-acoustique Kenneth Kirschner inscrit son oeuvre
quelque part entre une electronica ambient d'une magnifique
pureté post-Ligeti (les Filaments) et un continuumm cagien
(les Voids). Entre composition moderne et drones numérisés,
chaque mini-séquence est suivie d'un silence de quelques
secondes, le procédé étant répété
a de multiples reprises a l'intérieur meme de chaque
plage (quatre au total sur ce double disque compact). Absolument
remarquables de synthese métaphysique, elle va bien au-dela
de l'apparente froideur intellectuelle du projet, les quatre
oeuvres du musician de Brooklyn d'inscrivent completement dans
la logique cosmique d'un Murcof (ou d'un Stanley Kubrick en
mode "2001, Odyssee de l'Espace) les spectaculaires effets
planants en moins, les insondables mysteres interplanetaires
en plus. Ce silence de l'infini, toujours lui.
ROCKERILLA
(IT)
Secondo la teoria della gravità quantistica a loop, lo
spazio-tempo fotografato nel momento del Big Bang andrebbe ridescritto
utilizzando una scala piccolissima, infinitamente piu piccola
di quello degli atomi o delle particelle elementari. A questo
livello, lo spazio non sarebbe piu un continuo, ma piuttosto un'entita
dotata di una struttura granulare, come formata da singoli atomi,
o quanti di spazio, un tessuto formato da anelli, o loop. Cosi
nello musica del sound artist statunitense Kenneth Kirschner:
in "Filaments & Voids", doppio cd che raccoglie
quattoro lunghi brani composti tra il 1996 ed il 2008, il tempo
del drone è un tempo frammentato, a loop, piuttosto che
il tempo di un continuum ininterrotto. E' il silenzio ad interrompere
periodicamente quel continuum. Nella musica di Kirschner c'è
molto silenzio. C'è soprattutto silenzio. C'è silenzio
prima di tutto, e deve prendere posto. Il silenzio è la
sua voce, la sua ombra, la sua chiave. Si estende, si espande,
la beve, la consuma. E anche quando pare di ascoltare un piano,
come acade in "March 16, 2006", che occupa per intero
il secondo disco, l'impressione è che davvero questi suoni
siano stati concepiti nell'indistinto di un'era ante-biologica.
Tutti i brani di Kirschner sono disponibili sul suo sito web:
www.kennethkirschner.com
SILENT BALLET (.COM)
Longstanding pianist of the 12k family Kenneth Kirschner isn't
massively interested in the proficiency of his instrument of choice;
rather, he focuses his priorities on the subtleties and versatility
of sonic texture, much like a good majority of his contemporary
avant-garde labelmates. From the packaging that depicts a pale,
derelict room (an uncredited photographic artwork by 12k seniority,
Taylor Deupree) to the ambiguous state of its classification,
Filaments & Voids epitomises the fading line that separates
sound art and music. While we can say that music falls within
the umbrella term of art, the use of sound here is far more akin
to what would hang in an exhibition space rather than be shelved
in a record store.
The first disc offers a dark and predominantly experimental collection
of pieces, twiddling with noises and squeals in a manner consistent
to its 12k home. The opening track, “October 19, 2006”,
is a series of spells of soft, eerie feedback with an enormous
reliance on intermittent breaks of silence. The second track,
“June 10, 1996” (which would make it about 12 years
in the making, since Kirschner names his tracks after the date
they were begun) notches up the dynamics to allow the bursts of
tonal drama to linger, filling the void left by the silence from
the previous track and forming a continuous fluctuation of eerie
synthesis suitable for the score of any psychological horror picture.
The third (and most recently composed) track, “June 10,
2008”, turns the pitch dial up several more notches and
extends once again the eerie foundation established by the preceding
forty-odd minutes for another twenty-plus minutes of tension.
The second disc comprises a single track no less than 72 minutes
in length. While “March 16, 2006” doesn’t relinquish
any of the uneasy seesawing pitch, evolving synth effects and
pervasive ambient noise, it does succumb on occasion to the audible
contributions of Kirschner’s piano; the calm, lethargic
taps of the ivories providing an extra passage to the haunting
epic narrative. These vague signs of structure, however, never
fully free the record from the howls of its continually thickening
atmosphere.
With the release of Kirschner’s densely layered, improvised
collaboration with Deupree, May, for Room40, Filaments & Voids
is an interesting filter that separates not only Kirschner’s
individual contribution but also removes it from any semblance
of melodious purpose. The technical ambiguity and aesthetic subjectivity
of this fascinating record make it just that extra difficult to
shoulder the already daunting task of grasping the intentions
of the artist, and given my own natural inclination to view Filaments
& Voids more fit as an object in an exhibition, it forces
an odd sensitivity onto any criticism. Without discounting any
unknown specific intention that he may have had, Kirschner’s
minimalist approach to forming these evocative streams of subconscious
resonance carry a lasting effect for those who patiently experience
it. The satisfaction drawn from the experience may not outweigh
its aesthetic merits, but an acknowledgement of the ambivalence
in Kirschner's endeavour can serve as solace. -Mac Nguyen
SKUG
(DE)
Die letzte musikalische Versuchung
FIlaments & Voids eine Doppel-CD-Collection von Kenneth
Kirschner, stellt ein scheinbar unergründbares Simulakrum
dar. Niemand geringerer als Label-Owner Taylor Deupree sorgt für
die bildliche Ummantelung in Form einer kontemplativen s/w Aufnahme
eines leeren, verfallenen Innenraumes. Mystisch-dunkle, ephemere
Klangflächen tauchen auf und wie ab, ein Kommen und Gehen
von akustischen Opazitäten aus der Leere eines dispersen
Erkenntniszwischenraumes.
SQUID'S EAR (.COM)
Absence is decisive in Filaments & Voids, just as in certain
trains of thought it is the immaterial world that supports the
material world. Piano chords, processed in various ways, already
absent from their own manifestations, appear out of nothing, and
form an array of patterns. The piano outlines distant harmonic
patterns without ever fully going there, and then breaks off into
increasingly evasive particles. A certain stability forms out
of these recurring motifs, in the various ways in which they reconstruct
essentially the same situation, and the ways in which they splinter
the space into ever escalating degrees of subtlety. But they also
exude traces of instability, and its this ambiguity or mutual
co-penetration of these two realms that ensnares one's attention
time and again without fail.
This ambiguity may also be seen in the pace of the pieces: one
could very well refer to them as still or calm and, in a sense,
they are, but they also brim with movement. It's simply movement
of a markedly abstract and ratiocinative sort, with each work
eventually being steered back to its own minutely altered premises
near the end. There's thus no fixed reference point in the works,
but they are simultaneously characterized by qualities of immediacy
and a certain commitment to the present tense.
An inversion of this process, "June 10, 2008" doesn't
issue from silence but from its definitive absence. The piece
is devoid of gaps or fissures, with string instruments sprung
from a software program reverberating endlessly. In its linear
clarity, the lustrous sound builds a full, phosphorent space that
comes across as strangely illusory for want of any symmetrical
eruption of alternated moments of sound and silence. As with the
album artwork, though the pieces are indeed tranquil, they are
all also restless with disappearances whose traces are never entirely
gone but experienced here, there, and everywhere. - Max Schaefer
SONOMU
(.NET)
A bulked-up project with a meek approach. Some one hundred and
fifty minutes stretched over two discs, where Kenneth Kirschner
examines the properties of vibrating air.
Aside from the variety of solo work available by this self-professed
composer of "indeterminate" music, he also collaborated
on one of the four full-length CDs which comprised Vidna Obmana´s
farewell to ambient music, "An Opera for Four Fusion Works"
(Hypnos).
Filaments & Voids would show how the macrocosmos is mirrored
in the microcosmos; the filaments of light in the night sky are
equivalent to the chords he strikes on his piano, the silences
the darkness in between them. Sounds are made and then left to
fade away and bleed into the silence. This monomaniacal pattern
draws attention to the unique characteristics of both sound and
silence - no two silences are alike.
All four tracks are named after specific calander dates, though
given their disparity in time I wonder if they really are the
days they were actually recorded or if they have some other, more
personal meaning for Kirschner.
"October 19, 2006" exhales sounds from somewhere into
the vast everywhereness of emptiness. Sometimes deep and throaty,
sometimes thin and trebly, these multiform plumes flare up and
then dissipate, followed by long, patient silences. "September
11, 1996" emits more frequently, almost like stabs at a horror
movie matinee´s schlocky organ. The comparatively cacophonous
"June 10, 2008" is the most anodyne and least successful,
though meticulously built up and then taken apart again. It seems
out of place because its overlapping synths and strings leave
no place for silence.
"March 16, 2006" takes up the full length of the second
disc and is a memorial to Kirschner´s former employer, a
neuroscientist and classical music lover. The piece recalls an
older style, perhaps a late-eighteenth century composer thinking
out his composition alone in an empty room. However, in this instance,
the unusual resonances discerned after each of these chords is
caused by Kirschner re-recording the material using an iPod as
a microphone. Note how very different these silences are from
the "analogue" ones on the first disc, almost like a
different species of acoustics.
However experimentally thought-provoking, in the final analysis
what is most memorable is the fact that this piece is so achingly
beautiful.
- Stephen Fruitman
SUBSIDIO (BLOG)
Although he's since recorded for other great labels like Sirr
and Room40, 12k was the imprint that first established Kenneth
Kirschner as an electroacoustic composer, collecting a trio of
works under the title September 19,1998 et al. on a 2003 release.
The album showcased three markedly different approaches to composition,
taking in microsonic texture, deep digital drones, and most distinctively,
a rethink on the established idiom of the prepared piano. Kirschner's
handling of solo piano recordings has proven to be the most enduring
facet of his work, something which has been the starting point
for the post_piano albums he's concocted in collusion with 12k
boss Taylor Deupree. On Filaments & Voids - an immensely subtle
and involving collection of pieces - Kirschner's musical starting
point is difficult to pin down. While electronically treated piano
phrases are at the foundations of 'March 16, 2006' (a seventy-two
minute composition spanning the entire second disc) the first
three works here are far more elusive. As suggested by the title,
considerable passages of this music seem to alternate between
huge swells of incandescent tonality and ostensible absences:
'October 19, 2006' condenses this binary behaviour very neatly,
perhaps sounding like a morse code machine slowed down to a thousandth
of its normal performance. Sonically, the piece is rich and loaded
with beautiful timbres - a few finely crafted tones momentarily
penetrating the silence. 'September 11th, 1996' requires less
of your patience, although it does seem to follow a similar structure,
moving in the same fade in/out fashion. By the time 'June 10th,
2008' is arrived at, the passages of "void" have been
eradicated and we're left with string-like drone tones, taking
up a sound approximating a digital orchestra - much in the same
vein as the material on Stephan Mathieu's superb Radioland album.
Over to the single-track second disc and Kirschner's talent really
begins to shine through. He has a unique way of recording the
piano that transforms its sonorities into something very alien,
at once ancient soundign and oddly futuristic. The only reference
points that even remotely compare to Kirschner's strange and eroded
tones would be William Basinski's Melancholia or Variations: A
Movement In Chrome Primitive. This music is rather more hi-fi
and vibrant however, locking decrepit old instruments into the
moment via spectral filtering and transformative sound processing
- the production is as exquisitely warm as it is abstracted and
strangulated. A tremendous collection of detailed, microsonic
compositions.
TEMPORARY
FAULT (BLOG)
Perhaps the lot’s finest is Filaments & Voids by Kenneth
Kirschner, a 2-CD set that explores the alternance of sound and
stillness quite thoroughly, placing several important inputs in
the fundamental nature of the conscious listener. Kirschner, an
artist living in New York, seized these glimpses of infinity between
1996 and 2008, all but one characterized by the “appearances”
of silent segments linking disparate kinds of secretion. Despite
the consistency of the basic notion all the way through, the discs
are different in terms of sonority. The first contains three pieces,
the character of two of them nearer to ambient/space territories
– admittedly with a higher degree of intensity - with a
particular mention for the unforgettable “October 19, 2006”,
a succession of intangible coronas of indistinct harmonics whose
impact on our sense of perception is immediate and truly awe-inspiring,
especially if listened in utter peace at 5:30 AM as per my customary
approach with this kind of material. “June 10, 2008”
is the only selection where the resonance is continuous, recalling
string-based aural sculptures – picture a bionic replica
of Ellen Fullman – yet entirely generated by a computer’s
virtual timbres. The second disc comprises a single 72-minute
contemplation: “March 16, 2006”, also intriguingly
beautiful, derives from re-recorded piano phrases - halfway through
transcendence and homesickness - on an iPod with a cheap microphone,
occasionally garnished with muted echoes of urban traffic and
various types of hoarse murmur and grainy noise. The result is
an odd combination of Eno, Basinski and Asher, eliciting memories
of pale yellow lights at night in a thick fog, insubstantial misconceptions
of melody gradually turning into a disheartening chronic condition
of vulnerability.
TIME OFF (AU)
The piano is an endless source of creative inspiration. It's as
though there are generation after generation of musicians, taught
as children over countless summer holidays and after school sessions,
rejecting the instrument in their teens and then returning some
point later only to conceive the full possibility of the array
of hammers and strings.
Interestingly the 'possibility' of the piano - beyond its percussive
and melodic potentials (arguably the most common uses of the instrument)
are less documented than perhaps they should be in this day and
age. One artists who tests for the very edge of the piano's musical
capability is American artist Kenneth Kirschner. Over the past
decade, Kirschner has been one of American's most interesting
extended piano players - seeking out ways of transforming the
instrument into something more than a melody machine.
On Filaments and Voids this is most certainly achieved.
The opening work on this double CD set 'October 19, 2006"
is a lilting open ended performance of the emergence of piano
tones from within a great silence. Indeed much of this disc is
about the ideas of absence and presence - how it is that the piano
is brought into and out of 'hearing'. As a contrast to this though
are pieces like 'June 10 2008' - a washing microtonal exploration
where the piano is transformed into something of a pulsing electronic
harmonium or crystalline organ.
Fittingly, the artwork's image shot by 12K label boss Taylor Deupree
speaks to this same idea of silence, space and detail. The image
is a large open room, partly in disarray - its duotone surfaces
creating a sense of delicate interplay between presence and absence
- something that resonates strongly with Kirschner's compositions.
- HHH1/2 (Lawrence English)
TOUCHING
EXTREMES (IT)
Perhaps the lot’s finest is Filaments & Voids by Kenneth
Kirschner, a 2-CD set that explores the alternance of sound and
stillness quite thoroughly, placing several important inputs in
the fundamental nature of the conscious listener. Kirschner, an
artist living in New York, seized these glimpses of infinity between
1996 and 2008, all but one characterized by the “appearances”
of silent segments linking disparate kinds of secretion. Despite
the consistency of the basic notion all the way through, the discs
are different in terms of sonority. The first contains three pieces,
the character of two of them nearer to ambient/space territories
– admittedly with a higher degree of intensity - with a
particular mention for the unforgettable “October 19, 2006”,
a succession of intangible coronas of indistinct harmonics whose
impact on our sense of perception is immediate and truly awe-inspiring,
especially if listened in utter peace at 5:30 AM as per my customary
approach with this kind of material. “June 10, 2008”
is the only selection where the resonance is continuous, recalling
string-based aural sculptures – picture a bionic replica
of Ellen Fullman – yet entirely generated by a computer’s
virtual timbres. The second disc comprises a single 72-minute
contemplation: “March 16, 2006”, also intriguingly
beautiful, derives from re-recorded piano phrases - halfway through
transcendence and homesickness - on an iPod with a cheap microphone,
occasionally garnished with muted echoes of urban traffic and
various types of hoarse murmur and grainy noise. The result is
an odd combination of Eno, Basinski and Asher, eliciting memories
of pale yellow lights at night in a thick fog, insubstantial misconceptions
of melody gradually turning into a disheartening chronic condition
of vulnerability.
VITAL WEEKLY (NL)
Music by Kenneth Kirschner has
been reviewed before, and is usually distributed on CD or MP3.
His recent MP3 release on Mikroton (see Vital Weekly 646) was
a great one, since it showed an expansion of his soundworld. In
that respect 'Filaments & Voids' may be regarded as a set-back,
perhaps. No real major surprises here, but rather a deepening
of his own sound. Disc one has three pieces, and disc two just
one piece, and each of the four pieces deal with the idea of silence
versus sound - although that may imply a 'struggle', which it
isn't. Today its snowing over here, so best is to stay inside
and listen to quiet music - music that is almost like snowflakes
falling. Slow passages of 'sound' (piano? field recordings? software
synthesis?) are mingled with slow passages of 'silence'. It takes
a while before the sound dies out and rise again, and in between
there is silence, but perhaps its just the transition from one
sound to another? Music like this needs a longitude to develop,
sothe choice of two lengthy CDs is a normal one. Do nothing, and
just listen, and watch the snow falling. Kirschner is the master
of snow music, the Rotkho of sound.
WESTZEIT
(DE)
Bei Kirschners Musik habe ich mir (z.B nach "Post_Piano mit
Taylor Deupree) oft gewünscht, der Mann möge sich doch
einmal wirklich Zeit nehmen und verschwenderische sparsam mit
seinen hingetupften Klängen die Stunden füllen (ja,
mein Feldman-Fable schlägt durch!). Diese, in ein wunderschönes
digipack verpackte und von Marc Weidenbaum sensibel kommentierte
Doppel-CD erfüllt diesen Wunsch vollständig: insgesamt
fast 2, 5 Studen lang verzaubern digitale Romantik-verfremdungen.
Die besonders schönen 72:37 Min. von "March 16, 2006"
generierte Kirschner aus iPod-Dateien seines eigenen, mit eine
billigen Mikro aufgenommen Klavierspiels. Rauschende Stille und
Klangunsauberheiten werden hier ein weisters Mal zu wirkungsvollen
Stilmitteln. - Karsten Zimalla |
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