Imperfect Forms - The Music of Kenneth Kirschner Remixed

I was invited to collaborate in the re-mixing of Ken Kirshner’s beautiful music. But instead of remixing the work, I decided to intervene at an earlier stage and re-perform it prior to electronic manipulation.

This work is an extract from a longer unpublished set of pieces, Kirschner Variations. The work explores how borrowing (acknowledged, and with permission) from a living composer might feel. Part of the problem of Being Dufay was that it wasn’t possible to ask Dufay what he thought. Ken Kirschner, on the other hand, was able to input and kindly permitted the re-use of his piece.

Rather than re-using the original piano material as recorded audio, I transcribed and re-performed it on the piano using small loundspeakers mounted inside the piano on the soundboard. Environmental sounds were played through these speakers influencing the colour of the notes and sustains. I wanted to create a dreamy atmosphere with a tint of sonic nostalgia. Reprocessing of the recorded audio was accomplished using the Kyma Sound Design workstation (Kyma/Capybara). This particular track is one of the more highly processed, leaving little trace of the original recordings as the soundscape here is distilled to just the essential elements.