kenneth kirschner & joseph branciforte
from the machine, vol. 1
catalog: 002
release: 28 may 2021
duration: 40:20
formats: vinyl + digital
vinyl edition: 150
jade conlee, piano
mariel roberts, cello
meaghan burke, cello
tom chiu, violin
wendy richman, viola
christopher gross, cello
greg chudzik, double bass
The first volume in an ongoing collaboration between composers Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte, From the Machine explores the application of software-based compositional techniques — including algorithmic processes, generative systems, and indeterminacy — to the creation of new music for acoustic instruments. Featuring members of Flux Quartet and International Contemporary Ensemble.
Bandcamp, Best New Contemporary Classical, June 2021
Although digital approaches to music-making are most closely associated with the use of electronically generated (or modified) sound, computer-based composition opens up a vast space of possibilities beyond timbre, into fundamental questions of basic musical structure. This collaborative project between composers Kenneth Kirschner and Joseph Branciforte sets out to explore some of these possibilities by adapting techniques from electronic composition — including algorithmic processes, generative systems, and indeterminacy — to the creation of new music for acoustic instruments.
From the Machine: Vol. 1 documents two pieces that were composed using non-linear software techniques, translated into traditional musical notation, and performed by acoustic ensembles: Kenneth Kirschner’s April 20, 2015 for piano and two cellos and Joseph Branciforte’s 0123 for low string quartet.
Kirschner’s April 20, 2015 began its life as a completely electronic composition, constructed through the digital manipulation of fragmentary piano and string recordings. Using digital techniques such as time-stretching, looping, and recombination, Kirschner transformed a small amount of audio source material into a composition rich in gesture and intricate in form. In 2017, the piece was painstakingly reverse engineered by Joseph Branciforte, resulting in a fully notated score for small chamber ensemble. Although the digital domain is often associated with the rhythmic conformity of a fixed grid, Kirschner’s compositional process unfolded in a free, entirely non-metric space. The primary challenge in adapting April 20, 2015 for performance was thus the need for a metric structure that precisely captured the emergent rhythms of the electronic composition, all while remaining intelligible to performers.
Recorded by pianist Jade Conlee and cellists Mariel Roberts and Meaghan Burke, the acoustic adaptation of April 20, 2015 brings a new level of nuance and a heightened sense of drama to a piece originally composed without the human performer in mind, while preserving the expanded sense of rhythmic, harmonic, and structural possibility that Kirschner unearthed in the digital realm.
Joseph Branciforte’s 0123 is a generative work dedicated to the systematic exploration of a single four-note pitch cell — {0123}, a simple chromatic cluster — and the effects of its transformation through musical voice-leading. Composed entirely in the Max/MSP programming environment, the underlying algorithm derives the complete harmonic vocabulary of {0123} playable by a given set of instruments — in this case, a low string quartet consisting of double-bass, cello, viola, and violin — and defines rules for organizing and traversing the resultant data set. Beginning from the ensemble’s lowest possible voicing, the piece ascends through a meticulously constructed voice-leading spiral with inexorable logic, spanning one octave of the double bass’ range over its nearly 20 minute duration and forming a closed musical loop. Compositional parameters such as rhythm, tempo, and dynamics are all controlled by the same underlying data set. The result is a rigorously procedural work, one that ultimately enlists computer algorithms to mediate between the realm of pure mathematical possibility and its realization in musical space and time.
0123 was recorded by a distinguished ensemble consisting of violinist Tom Chiu (Flux Quartet), violist Wendy Richman (International Contemporary Ensemble), cellist Christopher Gross (Talea Ensemble), and double-bassist Greg Chudzik (Talea Ensemble).
An entryway into Kirschner and Branciforte’s ongoing experiments with digitally mediated chamber composition, From the Machine: Vol. 1 also represents a point of departure for the greyfade label as a whole, which seeks to be a vital outpost for algorithmic and process-based music in the coming years. Whatever novel results lie ahead, Kirschner and Branciforte’s first release provides a model for a music that is elaborately constructed, exactingly realized, and deeply personal all at once.
recorded april 9, 2018 + april 12, 2019
engineered by ryan streber at oktaven audio
edited, mixed, mastered by joseph branciforte at greyfade studio
vinyl cut by scott hull at masterdisk
BANDCAMP (US): Best New Contemporary Classical, June 2021 (read more)
SOMETHING ELSE! (US): Modern classical/minimalist music that’s got a special, cutting edge twist. Kirschner and Branciforte use 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. (read more)
SEQUENZA 21 (US): A fine example of simplicity, digital rigor and masterful string playing that combine to uncover deep emotional implications. From the Machine Vol. 1 is a step forward in the ongoing project of joining computer-based composition to the virtuosity of human performance. (read more)
HEADPHONE COMMUTE (UK): From The Machine, sounds as if numerous complex functions within a modular synthesizer have been extended to players of Flux Quartet and International Contemporary Ensemble. (read more)
THE SOUND PROJECTOR (UK): Any listener can hear what a near-perfect realisation this is, almost crystalline in its idealised forms. Far from being a “gimmick”, this has been a very successful stepped process where a lot of care and attention has been expended at every stage. (read more)
AN EARFUL (US): Both works generate a mysterious disquiet that would exist even if you didn't know there was code behind them, and represent a planting of the flag for Greyfade, claiming impressive territory. (read more)
TOUCHING EXTREMES (IT): Expresses a dramatic solemnity, substantiated by the pulsation of the adjacent partials inside the chords. The vibratory principles may be vaguely linkable to the theories of Niblock, Lucier and Amacher, yet the well-discernible harmonic changes place the whole in a category of its own. (read more)
DATA.WAVE (US): A valuable item for somebody's collection of modern experimental music. A great representation of the interest that both masters have in software-based compositional techniques. (read more)
DAILY VAULT (US): Essentially rewriting what chamber music is capable of, Kirschner and Branciforte craft a listen that's rich, exploratory, unpredictable, and worth many listens. (read more)
TOME TO THE WEATHER MACHINE (US): Strikingly intense... doom-laden minimalism... two unique visionary composers restlessly exploring what can be achieved through outside-the-box compositional concepts. (read more)
QUADERNI D’ALTRI TEMPU (IT): From the Machine, Vol. 1 recalls not only the hieratic static nature of late chamber compositions by Morton Feldman, but also the ecstatic lightness of William Basinski's minimalist loops. (read more)
PERCORSI MUSICALI (IT): Branciforte gives life to 0123, the first four numbers of the natural universe, where the tonal mass is splendidly documented by the detailed recording, where temporal vibrations are perceived in the continuous nuances of the individual microtones brought together as a whole. (read more)
SILENCE AND SOUND (FR): From The Machine Volume 1 is a fascinating experience for a utopian civilization. Successions of subtle variations with sometimes disturbing deviations, giving the sensation of traversing a ghostly space with dangerous zones, dotted with bottomless holes in opaque blackness. Very highly recommended. (read more)
LOOP (CL): Vol. 1 includes two pieces composed using software techniques that were adapted to traditional scores and played by musicians. Kirschner collects fragments of piano and string sounds and manipulates them digitally, creating an unpredictable and abstract language. (read more)
MUSIC FOR WATERMELONS (IT): Enthralling & hypnotic. Two cellos & piano dialogue in a Feldman-like environment of swirling pitches. [0123] creates an organ-like patch of clusters, a frightening, enormous & gigantic mountain of sound. (read more)
MUSICMAP (IT): It is difficult to pigeonhole April 20, 2015 into a convenient definition of atonality. The structure is fragmentary and elusive. 0123 seems to translate four lines of a seismograph into music... it has the character of scientific research. (read more)
REVUE ET CORIGEE (FR): Situated between contemporary & digital music, this is a record that will make its mark in the aural retrospective of the year.
kenneth kirschner
Kenneth Kirschner is a composer of experimental music working at the intersection of avant-garde classical composition and contemporary electronic music. His work is characterized by a close integration of acoustic and electronic sound sources; a strong focus on harmony, pattern, and long-form development; and experimentation with techniques such as chance procedures, indeterminacy, and microtonality within a digital context. An advocate of open source music, Kirschner releases all of his work freely online through his website, kennethkirschner.com, which represents a complete archive of all his published music from the 1980s to present. His work has also been released by record labels such as Sub Rosa, 12k, Line, Sirr, Leerraum, and/OAR, Room40, SaD, and Champion Version. Kirschner was a 2015 artist in residence at Eyebeam, a 2016 artist in residence in Times Square, and a 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Music/Sound. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
joseph branciforte
Joseph Branciforte (b. 1985) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer based out of New York. He is the founder of the record label greyfade.
Branciforte's wide-ranging musical activity spans acoustic, electronic, and algorithmic composition, performance and improvisation on a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments, and an expansive discography as recording, mixing, and mastering engineeer. At the bottom of each of these seemingly discrete threads lies a relentless fascination with sound as a profound emotional medium — organized through musical form, articulated by a careful selection of sound sources, and framed through the act of recording.
As musician & producer, Branciforte has collaborated with artists including Theo Bleckmann, Ben Monder, Taylor Deupree, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kenneth Kirschner, Greg Davis, Jozef Dumoulin, and JACK Quartet. As recording engineer, he has lent his talents to over 300 albums, working with some of the most respected names in jazz and creative music along the way.