Karlheinz Essl

Born 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna. Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own electronic instrument m@ze°2, develops software environments for computer-aided composition and creates generative sound and video environments. Since 2007 professor of composition for electro-acoustic and experimental music at the University of Music in Vienna.

Karlheinz Essl performs on a laptop computer that he has transformed into a live electronic musical instrument. The result is exciting and musical. You just won't hear these sounds anywhere else. He performs solo and in duets and trios, responding with sensitivity to fellow musicians, producing fascinating sound transformations, creating spontaneous surprises, and moving quickly from loops to cacophony to tiny clips of vocal sounds to all kinds of textures and ideas. He does all this with his m@ze°2(Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment) performance software. (Joel Chadabe, CDeMusic, Januar 2002)

Karlheinz Essl’s tracks

• B.I.R.D. (Before I Recognised Diversity) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl
• erat Verbum (2020-2022) - multilingual electronic composition by Karlheinz Essl
• H.O.R.N. (Home of Revolutionary Numbers) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl
• T.U.B.E. (Treasures Under Bespoke Excavations) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl
• G.O.L.D. (Geography Of Lucid Dreams) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl
• Puzzle of Purcell (2017) for mezzo soprano and electric guitar by Karlheinz Essl
• F.O.R.M. (Fragile Organisms, Recovered Molecules) - BINAURAL by Karlheinz Essl