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 Landschaft am ehem. Eisernen Vorhang in der Gegend von Retz, einem hübschen Städtchen im Weinviertel.

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 der Stadt Graz mit dem Jakominiplatz, dem Stadtpark, einem Bauernmarkt und der Kunstuniversität.

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 instrumentation of the individual stations. Each of the composers has individually composed three of these stations; the first and last were worked out together. By way, different individual styles come together, which, however, come to unity in the overall work. This finds its climax in two jointly composed movements where the divergent individual styles are fused together by a common harmonic conception. Thus, TAU can also be seen as a symbol of the integration of diversity and different identities.

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 reduced to the "poor" sound world of a toy piano, whose sound produced by struck metal rods resembles that of a bell - but is much more restrained and intimate.

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