Advertise on podcast: New Music by Karlheinz Essl

Binaural production - listen with headphones! Everything's moving. Everything' on the move. Transferring and transmutating: with the bicycle across the Danube, on a motorcycle jumping over the hills, through a private space of a mysterious figure called Miryam van Doren under the guidance of the artist Jack Hauser, and finally a trip back home on the train. This generative soundscape is based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded on 19 September 2026 during a bicycle trip. 1) A cross-Danube ferry ride. 2) Motocross track near Pulkau. 3) A walk through "Wohnung Miryam van Doren" with the artist Jack Hauser, who is preparing a cucumber salad. 4) A train ride back home. Released: 21 September 2026

Binaural production - listen with headphones! A tribute to Edvard Munch, the inventive Norwegian painter. This generative soundscape is based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes recorded in Oslo, Norway, between 31 August and 1 September 2026: 1) A virtual visit to Munch's villa in Ekely. 2) A museum room displaying Munch's monumental works. 3) People working at the Munch museum's woodcut workshop. 4) The Badstuforening sauna near the museum, where you can swim in the sea.

Live recording, performed by Karlheinz Essl at Museum Liaunig on June 20th, 2026. https://www.essl.at/works/zuschreibung Using synthesisers he has developed himself, composer Karlheinz Essl explores the sculpture gallery at the Museum Liaunig and the art work by Robert Tauber on display there. Using sounds never heard before, he makes his mark on this gigantic space with its extraordinary acoustics and sets it vibrating. In doing so, the gallery becomes an integral part of a hybrid instrument that combines analogue electronics with acoustic resonators. Instead of the usual mixing desks, amplifiers and loudspeakers, Essl uses equipment stripped down to the bare essentials, with which he embarks on a tentative and exploratory journey through space and time.

Binaural production - listen with headphones! An acoustic portrait of Krakow, a vibrant and energetic city in Poland. This generative soundscape is based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded in Krakow, Poland on June 7th, 2026. Released: 10 Jun 2026 1) Cleaning up Rynek Square on Sunday morning. 2) Roadworks with an excavator. 3) Florianska Street with bells and trumpets. 4) In the Adam Mickiewicz Park.

Binaural production - listen with headphones! An acoustic portrait of the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, founded in 1133 and world-renowned for its Gregorian choral school. As well as nourishing the soul, the body should not be neglected either – a shaded outdoor dining area is available for this purpose. A generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, recorded in Heiligenkreuz between 2020 and 2026. Released: 25 May 2026 (Pentecost) 1) The monks’ noon prayer 2) A requiem for a deceased brother 3) The gravedigger and mourners 4) In the monastery’s outdoor restaurant

Electronic music based on a recording of a self-developed modular synth called L0P7OP, performed on 18 May 2026 at Studio khz. Produced with REAPER. L0P7OP is another addition to my ongoing work in progress, 'My Daily Wobble': minimalist modular system comprising a phase-locked loop, a random generator, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a resonating voltage-controlled filter (VCF), with lots of feedbacks and cross-modulations.

Gerhard Eckel: electro-dynamic feedback system Karlheinz Essl: modular electronics Recorded live at Studio kHz on May 1, 2026. Mastered by Gerhard Eckel. https://www.essl.at/div/rhibozom.html YouTube video: https://youtu.be/JKOG74rIdNs rhibozom is a duo of Karlheinz Essl and Gerhard Eckel working at the intersection of electrodynamic feedback, analog synthesis, and shared physical instrument-making. Gerhard Eckel performs on an electrodynamic instrument played with ferromagnetic objects that act as resonators, modulators, and sound sources within the instrument's pickup and speaker field. Karlheinz Essl performs on a compact modular synthesizer, its sounds projected through a separate loudspeaker on the shared table. Both performers place, move, dampen, and excite the resonating objects — the handling of physical material is a joint practice, not divided by instrument.

An acoustic portrait of Belfast where I visited the famous Sonorities Festival at the Queen's University where my composition VIRIBVS VNITIS for harpsichord and toy piano was performed by Yonit Kosovske and Xenia Pestova Bennett. Binaural production - please listen with headphones! A generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, which were recorded in Belfast (Northern Ireland) from 16-17 April, 2026. 1) Post-concert talks in the Harty Room at Queen's University after a performance by Xenia Pestova Bennett and Yonit Kosovske during the Sonorities Festival. 2) A visit to the Botanical Gardens in Belfast. 3) A walk through the Palm House in the Botanical Gardens. 4) Waiting for the bus at Grand Central Station in Belfast.

Gerhard Eckel: electro-dynamic feedback system Karlheinz Essl: modular electronics with resonators Recorded live at Studio kHz on March 31, 2026 https://www.essl.at/div/rhibozom.html YouTube video: https://youtu.be/EhgA_eu_92E rhibozom is a duo of Karlheinz Essl and Gerhard Eckel working at the intersection of electrodynamic feedback, analog synthesis, and shared physical instrument-making. Gerhard Eckel performs on an electrodynamic instrument played with ferromagnetic objects that act as resonators, modulators, and sound sources within the instrument's pickup and speaker field. Karlheinz Essl performs on a compact modular synthesizer, its sounds projected through a separate loudspeaker on the shared table. Both performers place, move, dampen, and excite the resonating objects — the handling of physical material is a joint practice, not divided by instrument.

Soundtrack for a dance performance by Andrea Nagl. Recorded live by Karlheinz Essl on custom-built modular electronics at Studio kHz on March 12, 2023. https://essl.at/works/geology-of-thought.html

My first experiment with the Music Thing Modular Workshop System, a powerful compact modular desktop system. In this patch, I was creating a chaotic system using two ring-modulated oscillators with frequency modulation from two slope generators and a self-resonating bandpass filter. Part of the work-in-progress "My Daily Wobble" (2025 ff.) https://www.essl.at/works/my-daily-wobble.html Performed live at Studio Ölberg (25 Jan 2026)

Free improvisation on a MakeNoise 0-COAST in two parts, using the two generators of a KORG NTS-2 oscilloscope as modulation sources. A passive Doepfer A-183-1 dual attenuator is used to attenuate certain signals. Performed live at Studio kHz on 30 December 2025. Recorded with an iPhone. https://www.essl.at/works/coastlines.html

Nava Hemyari (voice) & Karlheinz Essl (electronics). Part of the album "Karanava" (2025). Two composers, differing in terms of gender, age, cultural background and instrument, leave their writing desks and venture into the unknown. Despite — or perhaps because of — these differences, they create something genuinely new together: songs composed instantly, without any prior planning, in the moment. https://www.essl.at/div/karanava.html

A composition for melodica and live-electronics by Karlheinz Essl. It was commissioned by the Non-Piano/Toy Piano Weekend and premiered by Steven Tanoto on November 22, 2025 at Resonanzraum St. Pauli in Hamburg. Recorded and produced by Karlheinz Essl. If we think of the organ as a giant mountain, then we can think of the melodica as a kind of shrunken-down version of that - a tump. In my piece, this weak and humble instrument is given a powerful voice so that it can match with her great ancestor, the organ. The play on a melodica is manipulated by a sophisticated computer program (written in Max) that expands the sound in many dimensions. It is controlled by the player while performing the meticulously notated score. However, the musical result is not just an "orgified" version of the melodica. It is full of microtonal deviations, harmonic shifts and glissandi that are difficult to achieve on an organ. In a mesmerising interaction between the melodica, the performer and the computer software, we can listen to the mysteries of the reeds... In a certain sense, the piece can be heard as a parable, telling the story of weakness and strength through the language of sound.

Binaural production - listen with headphones for full immersion! I embarked on a dreamlike journey through Cologne when I visited the Museum Ludwig that presented collaborative works by John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg. An interactive installation by the latter encouraged visitors to engage in unusual activities such as clapping, shouting, singing and whistling. Occasionally, you would also hear the gentle voice of John Cage. Afterwards, I immersed myself in the cathedral, which resonated with the sounds of its visitors. A generative soundscape based on a two-dimensional random walk between four binaural soundscapes, which were recorded in Cologne (Germany) on 2 Nov 2025. Released: 10 Nov 2025 1) The gallery rooms at the Museum Ludwig, which feature videos of John Cage and Merce Cunningham. 2) An interactive installation by Robert Rauschenberg that responds to visitors' sounds. 3) Inside Cologne Cathedral. 4) The cathedral's crypt.