Vladimír Hirsch

Vladimír Hirsch
220px Composer Vladimír Hirsch
Background information
Birth name	Vladimír Otakar Hirsch
Born	(1954-07-03) July 3, 1954 Benešov, Czechoslovakia
Origin	Czech
Genres	dark ambient, contemporary classical, industrial, electronic, electroacoustic
Occupation(s)	Composer, instrumentalist, songwriter
Instruments	pianist, organist, keyboard player, vocalist
Years active	1973–present
Labels	Ars Benevola Mater
Associated acts	Skrol, Aghiatrias, Luminar Ax
Website	www.vladimirhirsch.com

Vladimír Hirsch (born July 3, 1954) is a Czech composer, instrumentalist, and sound experimenter, integrating industrial and dark ambient music with modern classical composition with a genre overlap conception. His compositional style is characterized by polymodal architectonics, polymictrotonality and the usage of digital technique to enhance sonic means of expression, where modern classical elements fuse within experimental soundscapes. Besides creating solo works, he is the co-founder of band Skrol, the duo Aghiatrias and various other projects (e.g. Zygote, Luminar Ax, Subpop Squeeze and Tiria). His music is marked by a dark, tense and tempestuous atmosphere. Between 1986 and 1995 he was member of experimental post-punk group Der Marabu.

Biography

Hirsch has been composing since he was a teenager, when as a pianist and organ player, he started to write romantic and classicist pieces with elements of experimental rock. However, he abandoned these compositions for some time and delved into experimental jazz and rock music up until 1986, when he joined the post-punk band Der Marabu. Simultaneously he also started to apply modern classical forms to electronic and analog music resulting in a more transgressive industrial style in his solo works. During this time, Der Marabu also changed their direction to a darker and more aggressive style with some Slavic classical music undertones. After many personal changes the band finished its activity in 1996, when Hirsch established the band Skrol. Its creative principle was based on modern classical concepts with a congregation of martial industrial. Severe militant rhythms along with obstinate instrumental loops as a counterpoint to the melodic calmness are typical features of that period of Hirsch's style. Throughout their existence, Skrol recorded 5 albums, that were released between 1998 and 2009, though their public appearance was interrupted from 2002 to 2011. With a similar but more abstract sprouting of this integrated style, aiming more towards dark ambient, is Hirsch's project, Aghiatrias, founded in 1999. Aghiatrias were active from 1999 until 2007 and for that period recorded 4 albums, in which they were moving from a sombre ambient industrial character to power electronics, with an infiltration of modern classical composition and digitally manipulated instrumentation.

Hirsch's collaborative projects have never interrupted his solo output. He has continuously composed an extensive collection of music, foremost a number of conceptual or thematic albums, including symphonies, suites, concert works, soundtracks, and many experimental compositions, including works for his favourite instruments: organ and piano. He has been influenced by various 20th-century compositional techniques, including serial, atonal, microtonal, polymodal, spectral and others, however his style has emerged into what Hirsch calls "integrated music", characterized by an effort to break the borders between primarily musical and unmusical elements in composition and instrumentation, attempting to both equalize and enhance their expressive properties using technological manipulation. His work described as an alchemical transmutation of modern classical forms with dark ambient, industrial and noise components into a homogenous indivisible structure. It also represents metaphysically the central idea of Vladimír Hirsch's concept, which consists in the collision and reconciliation of two seemingly spiritually opposite worlds inside an individual.

Hirsch performs regularly in his native country and abroad. He has had a US tour in 2001 and appeared in many European festivals.

Aghiatrias

Aghiatrias was a Czech side-project consisting of composer Vladimír Hirsch and sound engineer Tom Saivon formed in 1999 as an offshoot of their sympho-industrial band Skrol. Their music was based on an integration of contemporary classical music, dark ambient and ambient industrial music. The name "Aghiatrias" is the collocation of Greek words αγία (saint) and τριάς (trinity). They (self)-released five albums, occasionally performing live. The collaboration ended in 2007 as Hirsch concentrated on his solo efforts.

In autumn 1999, Vladimír Hirsch (composer, keyboards, samplers, drums, vocals, computer) and Tom Saivon (noise generators, samplers, computer, lyrics) joined their creative efforts in this project, seeking to combine contemporary classical music (Hirsch) and noise (Saivon). In their five years of existence, the band performed at a number of European festivals and a tour of North America, often in conjunction with Skrol. Singer Martina Sanollová (mezzo-soprano) performed on Aghiatrias' recordings and live performances.

Aghiatrias recordings are conceptual in character. Their first album, Field Mass (2000) were a classical opus, using standard liturgical elements with a simple central plot framework. With their second album, Epidaemia vanitatis (Epidemy Of Vanity) (2002), the duo attempted to integrate tonality into atonality and classical into postindustrial. The third album Regions Of Limen (2004) was a dark ambient album with the theme of subliminal perception, released on the Czech label Epidemie Records. The fourth album Ethos combined contemporary classical, dark-ambient, noise and industrial. In 2007, they released a compilation, Reliquary, of previously unreleased material.

Other activities

Hirsch has also written articles and essays about music, musicians and art, including many of the lyrics found in his albums and is the graphic designer for the overwhelming majority of his solo albums and conjoint projects. Not interrelated, but interesting from Vladimír Hirsch's biography is the fact, that he graduated in 1980 Faculty of medicine of Charles University in Prague and practiced as a physician until 1999.

Works

The music crosses over from experimental manipulations to unambiguous strictness in composition which are marked by a dark and highly evocative atmosphere enriched by conceptual themes ranging from metaphysics, anxiety to spirituality. To his best works belong Symphony No.4: Descent From The Cross and its revisited version Graue Passion, a conceptual electronic-ambient industrial album Underlying Scapes, the extensive dark ambient-neoclassical compositions Contemplatio Per Nexus or Invocationes, power electronics-neoclassical Mass Missa Armata, electroacoustic composition Endoanathymia or as fully conceptual albums adapted soundtracks Tobruk and contemporary classical Markéta, the daughter of Lazar. They represent an immersive perception and expression of ubiquitous inner dialogue, but predominantly, the fight between spirituality and the anthropocentric and materialistic likeness of contemporary society. This theme intermingles the majority of the composer's works. In 2010, all the main works until that time were released as 8-CD box set collection The Assent To Paradoxon by Italian label Ars Benevola Mater.

• Synthetics – Themes, op. 17, experimental electronic work, 1987
• Symphony no. 1 in E, Op. 20; symphony for synthesizers. 1988–1989
• The Ambits Of Material World; experimental organ composition, 1990
• 7 Parts Of Desolation, op. 29; piano cycle, 1989–1991
• Aion, op. 33; composition for organ, water harp and ambient recordings, 1992
• Intermezza, op. 36; compositions for piano and vocal, 1994
• Simplicity Of Heresy (Heretical Antiphony), op. 39; suite for integrated ensemble, 1996
• Insomnia Dei, op. 42; conceptual work for group, 1997
• Symphony no. 2 „Defensa“, op. 47; symphony for synthesizers, 1997
• Concert industriel pour orgue, op. 49; concerto for organ, percussions and integrated ensemble, 1997-8
• Casual Crime, op. 51; new arrangements of jazz compositions 1977–1998
• Symphony no. 3 „Brands Of Tyranny, op. 52; symphony for integrated orchestra, organ, percussions and vocal, 1998-9
• Sense Geometry, op. 54; experimental electronic work, 1998
• Dances & Marches, op. 57; suite for organ, piano and integrated ensemble, 1998–2005
• Exorcisms, op. 61; suite for integrated ensemble, 1999–2000
• Nenia, op. 62; experimental organ composition, 1999–2008
• New Laws / New Orders, op. 63; conceptual work for group, 2000
• Missa armata / Cryptosynaxis, op. 64; mass for integrated ensemble, 1999–2004
• Elegy, op. 65; experimental composition for piano and gas organ, 2000
• Symphony no. 4, “Descent From The Cross”, op. 67; symphony for integrated orchestra, soloists and choir; 2001–2009
• Invocationes, op. 66; cycle of dark-ambient prayers, 2002
• De regionibus liminis (Underlying Scapes), op. 68, ambient-industrial electronic work; 2003–2010
• Endoanathymia, op. 70; conceptual album of experimental electroacoustic compositions, 2003–2004
• Trigonal Sonata, op. 71; sonata for two pianos and digital technique, 2004
• Fragments,thèmes et images scéniques', op. 72, adaptation of soundtracks
• Nonterra, op. 73; suite for integrated techniques, 2005
• Ethos, op. 74, thematic work for integrated ensemble, 2004–5
• Les scènes ardentes, op. 75; album of composition for integrated techniques, 2006
• Contemplatio per nexus, op. 77; composition for integrated techniques, 2007–8
• Torment Of Naissance, op. 79, suite for integrated techniques, 2007
• Epidemic Mind, op.81, experimental electronic work, 2008
• Tobruk, op. 82, conceptual work, originally soundtrack, 2008
• Markéta, the daughter of Lazar, op. 85, conceptual work, originally stage play soundtrack, 2009
• Horae, op. 89, extensive composition for organ and integrated techniques, 2011
• Axonal Transit, Symphony No.5, op. 92, for integrated techniques, 2012
• Craving Urania, op. 95, composition for integrated techniques, 2014

Discography

Albums

• Synthetics – Themes, MC, D.M.R. 1987, (reedition CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 1999)
• Organ Pieces, MC, D.M.R. 1991, (reedition CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 2001)
• Out Of Your Objects, 1993, digitally released by LBA Records in 2011
• Cruci-Fiction (Der Marabu)”, MC, D,M,R,, 1994, (reedition CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 2000)
• There´s No Human Triumph”, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1996
• All Of Us Will Fall Away” (Der Marabu), CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1996
• Casual Crime, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1998
• Martyria (Skrol), 10´´, Loki Foundation (Power & Steel), 1999
• Heretical Antiphony (Skrol), CD, M.D.Propaganda, 1999
• Dreams Of Awakening, CD, CatchArrow Recordings, 1999
• Field Mass, (Aghiatrias) CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1999
• Geometrie nevědomí (Zygote), CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2000
• Insomnia Dei (Skrol), CD, RRRecords, 2001
• Epidaemia Vanitatis (Aghiatrias), CD, Integrated Music Records, 2002
• Symphony no.2 & 3, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2003
• Regions Of Limen (Aghiatrias), Epidemie Records, 2004
• Fragments, thèmes et images scéniques, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2005
• Dances & Marches For The Orphan Age (Skrol), CD, Dagaz Music, 2005
• Sense Geometry, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2006
• Ethos (Aghiatrias), Epidemie Records, 2006
• Torment Of Naissance, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2007
• Concert industriel pour orgue, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2007
• Epidemic Mind, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2008
• Symphony No.4 Descent From The Cross, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Tobruk, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2008
• Exorcisms, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Nonterra, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Les scènes ardentes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• Contemplatio per nexus, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• New Laws, New Orders (Skrol), CD, Twilight Records, 2009
• Graue Passion, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• Underlying Scapes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• The Assent to Paradoxon, 8 CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2010 (collection of works)
• Cryptosynaxis, DVD, Integrated Music Records/ARM, 2010
• Markéta, the daughter of Lazar, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2010
• Luminar Ax (Luminar Ax), digital release, LBA Records, 2011
• Endoanathymia, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2011
• Missa Armata . Invocationes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2012
• Epidemic Mind, Surrism-Phonoethics, digital, 2013
• Selected Organ & Piano Works, Integrated Music Records, Surrism-Phonoethics, 2CD & digital, 2013
• The Sheep Barn Entertainment (Subpop Squeeze), Alkemy Brothers (Black Work), USA, digital release, 2014
• Axonal Transit, Integrated Music Records, CDr, 2014

Appears on

• Thorak (Ewigkeit ), Skrol, CD, VAWS, 1998
• Ten Years Of Madness – Behind The Iron Curtain (Fall A Prey), Skrol, 2CD, Achtung Baby!, 2000
• A Rainy November Day In Wroclaw (Syncrasia), Aghiatrias, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2004
• Glass Anvil II. (Hermeneutic Crc.4), CDr, Zvukovina, 2009
• Why I Remember (Nenia), Hypnotic Dirge Records, 2 CDr, 2009
• Icy Breath On Burning Flesh – Douche Froide Series Vol. I (Exegete #2), CD, Douche Froide, 2010
• Peak the Source Vol.1 [suRRism-Phonoethics sPE_0100] (Soul Eater Codex) Surrism-Phonoethics, digital, 2011
• Wroclaw Industrial Festival - 10th Anniversary Compilation (Dei Irae II), Skrol, 2CD, Bleak 2011
• Saur Maas (Iscariot), digital, Kalpamantra 2011
• Jaan Patterson & Friends, digital, Surrism-Phonoethics 2015

External links

• Official website