Karlheinz Essl & Otto Wanke
free improvisation on modular electronics
Karlheinz Essl and Otto Wanke started their musical collaboration as performers only recently at a concert in Brno (CZ), although they have known each other for many years - Otto was a student of Karlheinz at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) and graduated there in 2018. Each of them plays his own self-configured electronic instrument based on various non-standard analog synthesizer modules. Using non-linear analog feedback loops, they create ever-changing and modulating sounds that constantly shift into new, often unpredictable musical contexts.
Their improvisational musical interaction involves spontaneous communication between themselves and their electronic devices. They see their music as an ever-changing process that constantly creates new situations. Essl and Wanke embrace the surprising possibilities that arise when noise, sound spectra and chaotic systems merge into immersive soundscapes. These are sometimes projected through a multi-channel loudspeaker system, giving their musical dialogue a distinct spatial dimension and immersing the audience in a vivid world of sound.
The entropy of sound: the performance of Los Modulinos in BMCA storage in Vienna
Text: Elisa di Piero / Photo: Georg Herder
On Feb. 11, 2025, the storage of BMCA (Blue Mountain Contemporary Art),
a Vienna-based collection and in-progress platform of Chinese and European contemporary art, hosted a live performance by Los Modulinos, a musical duo born out of the recent collaboration between Karlheinz Essl (*1960) and Otto Wanke (*1989), both Austrian composers of electroacoustic music. The live performance is part of the #occupyBMCA series, a new format of interventions in the collection's storage organized by curator Alexandra Grimmer and initiated in the summer of 2024 by cooperation with painter Bianca Regl. The collection already boasts collaborations in the field of musical experimentation, especially with Karlheinz Essl, already a guest in the BMCA storage at electronic music events such as M!ndf*ck and One on One.
Los Modulinos' musical event held on Feb. 11 told a story of randomness and creativity. Although the two composers' collaboration is quite recent, Essl and Wanke have been able to find a perfect understanding by establishing an ongoing musical dialogue.
The performance, divided into two sets punctuated by a short interval, captured the audience's attention throughout the evening, offering spectators a unique experience of fascinating sound experiments given by the manipulation of sound in real time. Indeed, the free improvisation of the two musicians, based on interconnection and their personal sensibility, gave birth to a symphony of ghostly sounds, chaos and noise, capable of leading the audience through unfamiliar soundscapes and offering an experience born during the performance itself.
Behind them, 黄敏 Huang Min's (*1975) large painting, Untitled, helped to enhance the suggestions of multiplicity and heterogeneity suggested by the vortex of sounds.
The entropy of the initial tones gradually took on the appearance of electronic melodies with grotesque, futuristic and almost alien accents, just like echoes of a language and dimension no longer human. In the second part, however, a beginning of grave, interrupted and fragmented sounds was followed by a crescendo of high notes, then softly faded, to create a balanced harmony between sounds and silences.
Los Modulinos' live performance, in conclusion, weaved sound sequences capable of narrating a dimension where chaos is the origin of creation and creativity. The musical plots generated by the two composers involved the audience, which was called to receive new stimuli, continuous and different emotions: a process capable of opening new subjective sound horizons in everyone, a creative performance capable of generating creativity in the audience members.
L’entropia del suono: la performance dei Los Modulinos nello storage BMCA a Vienna
Text: Elisa di Piero (original version) / Photo: Georg Herder
L’11 Febbraio 2025, lo storage di BMCA (Blue Mountain Contemporary Art), collezione e piattaforma in itinere di arte contemporanea cinese ed europea con sede a Vienna, ha ospitato la live performance dei Los Modulinos, un duo musicale nato dalla recente collaborazione tra Karlheinz Essl (*1960) e Otto Wanke (*1989), entrambi compositori austriaci di musica elettroacustica. La live performance è parte della serie #occupyBMCA, un nuovo format di interventi nello storage della collezione organizzato dalla curatrice Alexandra Grimmer e iniziato nell’estate del 2024 dalla cooperazione con la pittrice Bianca Regl. La collezione già vanta collaborazioni nell’ambito della sperimentazione musicale, specialmente con Karlheinz Essl, già ospite nello storage di BMCA in occasione di eventi di musica elettronica come M!ndf*ck e One on One.
L’evento musicale dei Los Modulinos tenutosi l’11 Febbraio ha raccontato una storia di casualità e creatività. Nonostante la collaborazione dei due compositori sia abbastanza recente, Essl e Wanke hanno saputo trovare una perfetta intesa instaurando un dialogo musicale continuo.
La performance, divisa in due parti scandite da un breve intervallo, ha catturato l’attenzione del pubblico per tutta la serata offrendo agli spettatori un’esperienza unica, fatta di affascinanti sperimentazioni sonore date dalla manipolazione del suono in tempo reale. La libera improvvisazione dei due musicisti, basata sull’interconnessione e sulla loro personale sensibilità, ha infatti dato vita ad una sinfonia di suoni spettrali, caos e rumore, capace di condurre il pubblico attraverso paesaggi sonori sconosciuti e offrendo un’esperienza nata durante la performance stessa.
Alle loro spalle, l’ampio dipinto di Huang Min 黄敏 (*1975), Untitled, ha contribuito a valorizzare le suggestioni di molteplicità ed eterogeneità suggerite dal vortice dei suoni.
L’entropia dei toni iniziali ha assunto gradualmente le sembianze di melodie elettroniche dagli accenti grotteschi, futuristici e quasi alieni, proprio come echi di un linguaggio e di una dimensione non più umana. Nella seconda parte, invece, ad un’inizio di suoni gravi, interrotti e frammentati, ha fatto seguito un crescendo di acuti, poi dolcemente affievoliti, a creare un’equilibrata armonia tra suoni e silenzi.
La live performance dei Los Modulinos, in conclusione, ha intessuto sequenze sonore capaci di narrare una dimensione dove il caos è origine di creazione e creatività. Le trame musicali generate dai due compositori hanno coinvolto il pubblico, chiamato a recepire stimoli nuovi, emozioni continue e differenti: un processo capace di aprire in ciascuno nuovi soggettivi orizzonti sonori, una performance creativa in grado di generare creatività nei componenti del pubblico.
Image: Gert Resinger, Glock bench, 2016 & Huang Min, untitled 2019 (in the background)
Karlheinz Essl (b. 1960) is an Austrian composer, performer, improviser, software developer, media artist and composition teacher. He studied composition in Vienna with Friedrich Cerha and completed his musicology studies with a doctorate on Anton Webern. Composer-in-residence at the Darmstadt Summer School (1990-94) and at IRCAM in Paris (1991-93). From 1995-2006 he taught algorithmic composition at the Bruckner University in Linz. Since 2007 he has been a Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Between 1992 and 2016 he was music curator at the Essl Museum in Klosterneuburg.
His work with computers and a long-term preoccupation with the poetics of serial music have been formative influences on his compositional thinking. During the 1990s he carried out various projects for the Internet and became increasingly involved in improvisation. In 1997 Karlheinz Essl was a featured composer at the Salzburg Festival.
In addition to writing instrumental music, Karlheinz Essl also works in the areas of electronic music, interactive real-time compositions and sound installations. He develops software environments for algorithmic composition and live electronics.
As a performer and improviser he plays his own computer-based composition environments as well as instruments such as toy piano, electric guitar, modular synthesizers and analog electronics.
Otto Wanke (b. 1989) is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. His work combines instrumental writing with electronics as well as with interactive media or visual art. He studied electroacoustic and instrumental composition at the mdw and MUK with Karlheinz Essl and Wolfgang Liebhart. He completed his doctorate also at the mdw with Gesine Schröder and Martin Supper. Since 2020 he teaches electroacoustic composition at the Janáček Academy of Music in Brno. He has worked with ensembles and orchestras including PHACE, OENM, Black Pencil Ensemble, Grafenegg Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie or SOV Symphony Orchestra Vorarlberg. His works have been premiered at Wien Modern, Acht Brücken and Carinthian Summer, and he has collaborated with institutions such as the National Opera in Warsaw and the ZKM in Karlsruhe.
