Kenneth Kirschner’s music combines the influence of the 20th century avant-garde (most importantly Morton Feldman) with the techniques and technologies of contemporary electronic music. His methods mix a systematic use of chance procedures with the sort of rigorous editing only possible in the digital environment. An advocate of the freedom of information, Kirschner makes his work freely available online, and releases material on CD under intellectual property licenses that encourage, rather than inhibit, the music’s free proliferation and appropriation.
12k is pleased to present September 19, 1998 et al., the first available CD collection of Kirschner’s highly varied output. The opening track, “September 19, 1998,” juxtaposes a spare, Cagean piano line with percussion sounds derived from found household objects, principally kitchenware. “September 27, 2002” is a dense, polyrhythmic study in the possibilities of software synthesizer sound design. The final piece, “February 8, 2003,” transforms tiny, unconsciously selected fragments of the composer’s mp3 collection into a flowing assemblage designed to evoke the late-period orchestral music of Feldman. (All of Kirschner’s pieces are titled for the date on which they were begun.)
Kenneth Kirschner was born in 1970 and lives in New York City. His music is available at www.kennethkirschner.com. post_piano, a collaboration with Taylor Deupree, was released by Sub Rosa in 2002.
