Simon Kanzler
Simon Kanzler is a German composer and laptop improviser based in New York. His work explores the intersection of natural and mechanical organizational principles, questioning how technology shapes our perception of the world. With a background in jazz, his music is driven by a deep fascination with rhythm and time, employing algorithmic processes to create a pulsating physicality, seamlessly combined with intricate timbral interactions between instruments and electronics.
He was a participant in the IRCAM Cursus 2022/23 under the guidance of Pierre Jodlowski and studied composition with Mauro Lanza at UdK Berlin, as well as vibraphone performance at the Jazz-Institute Berlin.
Kanzler is the co-founder, co-artistic, and technical director of the New York-based ensemble PinkNoise, where he performs on his live-computer instrument and collaborates closely on numerous projects.
2024.25 Artistic Research Residency
MAP, a Multidimensional Approach to comPosition
A multidimensional approach to composition through desynchronization and synchronization of spatialized instrument groups
In collaboration with the IRCAM-STMS Analysis of Musical Practices team
This residency is intended to explore the compositional potential of desynchronized polymeter and polytempo structures combined with the spatial distribution of instrument groups and electronics. The goal is to develop computer-aided composition tools for the creation and notational representation of temporally desynchronized structures through the process of automatic score generation in the Bach environment in Max that aim to give the composer the possibility to control all three dimensions of time, frequency and space and to test the sonic outcome by score simulation. By examining already existing works that deal with either desynchronization or spatial composition in both the history of contemporary music and in the context of improvised music, Simon Kanzler aim to formalize my own concept that can fuse both ideas in a meaningful way. Composition sketches will be tested by using advanced audio simulation and in experimentation with musicians. He aim to explore how the composition of space can be enriched by using both synchronization and desynchronization of groups of musicians placed at different positions in space and by playing with the temporal relationships these groups have with each other. Simon Kanzler is interested in the different ways that polytempo and polymeter structures can be used to organize musical forms in novel ways that go beyond linear form processes and how they can help to create a complex spatialized polyphony and an immersive environment for the listener.
