Klangforum Wien, Johannes Kalitzke
Wien Modern 2020
Commissioned by Warsaw Autumn Festival and Wien Modern
live recording Warsaw Philharmonics 25.9.2021
Natural auditory environments involve many different concurrent sounds. They all sum together to one mixed signal that enters the ear. How does a human brain extract information from this permanent overwhelming chaos of surrounding sound waves? This problem is commonly known as The Cocktail Party Phenomenon.
polychotic listening tasks
Commissioned by Ensemble Tzara, Zurich
live recording Ensemble Tzara, Ackermannshof, Basel
Dichotic Listening is a psychological test commonly used to investigate selective attention within the auditory system. During a standard dichotic listening test, a participant is presented with two different auditory stimuli simultaneously, directed into different ears over headphones.
Polychotic Listening is an extension of the dichotic listening, assuming that the participant has more than two ears.
The Complete Unfiguranted Egalitarian Aural Realism Pt.1.2
Video: Black Page Orchestra @ NUMU Aktionshalle Stanzerei Baden (CH)
Alessandro Baticci, flute
Sophie Thorsbro Dan, violin
“Which was why, the wraith is continuing, the complete unfiguranted egalitarian aural realism was why party-line entertainment critics always complained that the wraith’s entertainments’ public-area scenes were always incredible dull and self-conscious and irritating, that they could never hear the real meaningful central narrative conversations for all the unfiltered babble of the peripheral crowd, which they assumed the babble was some self-conscious viewer-hostile heavy-art directoral pose, instead of radical realism.” (from David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest)
Nihilistic Study no.7 – For ensemble, electronic and virtual narrator
Commissioned by Moving Sounds Festival / ACF New York / Ensemble Mise-En
Video: Black Page Orchestra @ Artspace Oben
Unsafe+Sounds Festival Vienna 2014
A list of musical events inpired by the french painter Jean Dubuffet and his idea of an Art Brut. „Only nihilism is constructive.”(Jean Dubuffet, Asphyxiating Culture)
stack overflow: exploiting 24 preludes
Commissioned by DECODER ENSEMBLE HAMBURG
Video: Decoder Ensemble @ Resonanzraum Hamburg
Big Data Weekend, 1.9.2017
Der Stack overflow (Stapelüberlauf) ist ein Fehler in einem Computer-programm – es werden zu große Datenmengen in einen dafür zu kleinen reservierten Speicherbereich geschrieben, was zum Absturz der Software führt.
pitch study no.1 / contra violin – for violin and playback
Commissioned by Erik Carlson
Video: Eriika Maalismaa, violin (Tristero Piano Trio Helsinki)
Exploring the 4 strings of the violin in a humorous competition between the instrument and a heterogeneous sound mass of pitch sorted samples
Dead Girl (Requiem E) – for flute, e-guitar and electronics
Commissioned by Wien Modern / Black Page Orchestra
Video: Black Page Orchestra (Alessandro Baticci,Peter Mayer), Porgy&Bess Vienna
Deformed and deconstructed music of the past as a metaphor of a dark future? the fragmentation of an anthem, composed in july 2015
Konzert für die unsichtbare Hand (nach Adam Smith)
Commissioned by PHACE / Wiener Konzerthaus
Video: Ensemble Phace (Lars Mlekusch, Saxophone, Yaron Deutsch, E-Guitar, Mathilde Hoursiangou, Piano), Wiener Konzerthaus
The Concerto For The Invisible Hand (Adam Smith) is the sacred music of late capitalism, worshipping the last remaining god – the invisible hand of free market, which transforms the egoism of the individual into the benefit and wealth of the community.
Video: Black Page Orchestra (conducted by Leonhard Garms), Unsafe+Sounds Festival 2016 Arena Wien
overcrowding this strange and unusual piece of baroque music from 1746 with dense clouds of musical events and occurances, renewing baroquian energies and wildness
nihilistic studies 4 – 6 (piano as neurosis)
Commissioned by Seda Röder for her CD Black and White Statements
Video: Ostap Manulyak, Ukrainian Biennale for New Music, Kiev 2013
3 pieces for piano on a music industry’s favourite theme:
1. bored roughneck
2. hysterical neurotic
3. dilettante egomaniac
TOP 10 (Form as Neurosis)
Commissioned by Nadar Ensemble / ACF Brussels
Video: Nadar Ensemble @ Ultima Festival Oslo 2013
Benjamin Glorieux, Violoncello, Elisa Medinilla, Keyboard
Just as in late capitalism, in which the narration of the world has been reduced on lists and rankings to satisfy the narcissistic feelings and the competition-fetish in the society (or of those who intend to lead it), is musical form here thought as a listing of competitive occurrences. The Top 10 try to surpass each other in tempo and acceleration, density, hysteria and idiocy. The musical spots of the competitive battle in its uselessly gaudy and flashy colouring are jumbled on top of each other and against each other.
The composition uses texts taken from the French revolutionary Louis Antoine de Saint-Jus (1767 – 1794) and the Dept sustainability Analysis on Greece from October 21st 2011 of the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
multicompact-superspeed-diffusion-squeezer
Commissioned by Studio Dan
live recording Studio Dan @ musikprotokoll Graz 2019
As series of pieces with electronics based entirely on the standardized 128 General Midi Sounds. The compositions are dealing with issues such as democratisation of musical material, a profanation resp. demystification of music in general with the inclusion of everyday life sounds, as well as pointing out social circumstances of short-term mass production, and the relation between human and machine, the machine as extension of human’s capability, eventually becoming his competitor.
1. Concerto for saxophone and midi orchestra in d major – for saxophone and playback
Video: Gordan Tudor, saxophone, Dani Nove Glazbe Split 2009
2. Concerto for harpsichord and ensemble in e flat major – for loud-speaker-sculpture,television and video-projection, ensemble and electronics
Video: Black Page Orchestra (Cond. Vasilis Tsiatsianis), Unsafe+Sounds Festival 2015 WUK Wien
3. 2nd string quartet – for viola and 3 seated loudspeakers
Video: Jelena Poprzan, viola, Echoraum Wien
In the last piece, the 2nd string quartet, the outsourcing of humans by the system, in order to increase the shareholder value and optimize competitiveness, becomes obvious in the completely similar compositional treatment of man and machine.