Archive.org // May 29, 2004
I heard about Kenneth Kirschner because of reading some good reviews about his earlier works.
So when I read that Conv offers some pieces by this artist I thought that I should give this a listen.
It was my first release of Conv to listen to, and I must admit, I haven't been amazed like that
before for checking out a realtively new netlabel. Kenneth Kirschner works with minimal piano
figures that change subtely within a precise clean static sound environment. The production
is very good so as the overall sound. The listener is thrilled throughout the whole EP for when
he liked the Alva Noto/Ryuchi Sakamoto release "Vrioon" on Raster Noton. Almost cineastic music for
very calm times to clean your mind. Or to summarize it with one word: perfect - simple as that!
[ Sebastian Redenz ]
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Vital Weekly 426
KENNETH KIRSCHNER - JANUARY 2, 1999, ET AL.
The title of this MP3 by Kenneth Kirschner may remind you of his album on 12K with a similar title
(see Vital Weekly 371), but this is something else. Kirschner's main instrument is the piano and in
that sense he is influenced by Morton Feldman. But I am not sure if Kirschner plays his works all
the way through, or if he manipulates them in his computer. In 'November 11, 2003' it seems to me
that he plays the piece from beginning to end without the interference of computertreatments.
In the opening piece 'January 2, 1999' this seems to be case, but the treatments are on a very
superficial level. The track in between those is definetely a computer processed track with time
stretched tones and notes, which seems an odd ball amidst those two lenghty piano pieces,
but it does make sense. Kirschner plays in all three pieces around with the notion of
ambient music. In the middle piece of course in the most traditional, electronic way,
but also in his piano pieces he comes very clos e to someone like Harold Budd, rather
than Morty. Pastoral notes, sparsely distributed over time, diffused into space.
And also with a mild tendency to the new agey aspects of music, at least in the two piano pieces.
[ Frans de Waard ]
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