| Vladimír Hirsch | |
|---|---|
Vladimír Hirsch |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Vladimír Otakar Hirsch |
| Born | July 3, 1954 Benešov, Czechoslovakia |
| Origin | Czech |
| Genres | dark ambient, contemporary classical, industrial, electroacoustic |
| Occupations | Composer, instrumentalist, songwriter |
| Instruments | pianist, organist, keyboard player, vocalist |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Labels | Ars Benevola Mater |
| Associated acts | Skrol, Aghiatrias |
| Website | www.vladimirhirsch.com |
Vladimír Hirsch (born July 3, 1954 in Benešov, former Czechoslovakia, today Czechia) is a Czech avantgarde composer, integrating industrial and dark ambient music with modern classical composition. Besides creating solo works, he is the founding member and leader of Skrol, Aghiatrias and various other projects (e.g. Zygote CZ, Luminar Ax or Tiria) [1]. The music is marked by a dark, tense and tempestuous atmosphere.
Contents |
Vladimír 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 stopped in 2002. 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.
Vladimír Hirsch's solo work was never interrupted during his conjoint projects. He has been continuously composing an extensive collection of music, foremost a number of conceptual or thematic albums, including symphonies, suites, concert opuses, soundtracks, and many experimental compositions for his favourite instruments, organ and piano. He was influenced by various compositional techniques of the second half of 20th century, incl. serial, atonal, microtonal, polymodal, spectral and others, however his style has emerged into what Hirsch delineates “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. This act can be in total 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. Vladimir Hirsch performs regularly in his native country and abroad. He has had a successful USA tour in 2001 and appeared in many European festivals.
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 [2] and its revisited version Graue Passion, a conceptual ambient-industrial album Underlying Scapes and the extensive dark ambient-neoclassical composition Contemplatio Per Nexus. All of them represent deeply immersive perception and expression of ubiquitous inner dialogue, but predominantly, the fight against the anthropocentric and materialistic likeness of contemporary society. This theme undeniably intermingles the majority of the composer's works.
Vladimír Hirsch has also written a good amount of articles and essays about music, musicians [3] and art,[4] 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.
Composers of contemporary classical music (Skladatelé soudobé vážné hudby - in Czech): Vladimír Hirsch, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Zdenk Blažek, Francis Poulenc, Iannis Xenakis, Alfred Schnittke (Czech Edition), Books LLC, ISBN-10: 1232847011.