Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte are a couple of composers who have partnered up to create modern classical/minimalist music that’s got a special, cutting edge twist. Together, they produced a set of music made possible by cutting edge technology, but not in the sense that you are probably thinking of.
The combination of “technology” and “music” usually means playing music with the help of instruments like synthesizers, MIDI-aided keyboards, sampling, looping, rhythm programming and the like. In this case, the techie stuff occurs at the front end of the process, before the performance part. You see, Kirschner and Branciforte uses software-based technology to feed human musical ideas into computer algorithms using an elaborate set of rules and a dash of randomness to generate fully notated compositions.
From the Machine: Volume 1 is their first of several planned collaborations of music created in this vein. The mission, as described by Branciforte, is to explore “the application of software-based compositional techniques — including algorithmic processes, generative systems, and indeterminacy — to the creation of new music for acoustic instruments.”
“April 20, 2105” is performed by a piano (Jade Conlee) and a couple of cellos (Mariel Roberts, Meaghan Burke), and can be considered subdivided into distinct movements. The second movement, starting at about the three minute mark, is a variation of the first. Another section commences more than five minutes later, again showing a connection to ideas previously introduced but cast in a somewhat different pattern. The next movement takes on a decidedly darker hue, and so on. The piece evolves, mutants and reforms in an organic manner, and it does indeed seem to be held together by a seed, an idea, from which all the detail sprouts and takes shape.
“0123” is rendered by a string quartet, composed of a violin (Tom Chiu), a viola (Wendy Richman), cello (Christopher Gross) and double bass (Greg Chudzik). As opposed to the fragmented nature of “April 20, 2105,” the instruments on “0123” play all the chords together, imparting a collective, drawn-out resonance akin to a pump organ and a varying modulation of taking long “breaths” in between short ones, culminating to its loudest point at the end.
Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte’s From the Machine: Volume 1 will be available on May 28, 2021 and can be pre-ordered in digital or vinyl form on Bandcamp.
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