I made PianoHertz from a collection of short sounds that I played on a piano myself. I recorded these sounds with the intention to extend them digitally to foster the birth of multiple classes, some retaining morphological and dynamic traits of the original sounds while others represent radical mutations.

So what I have created here is an “acousmatic consort” of 46 real tracks, where piano sounds outgrow their usual acoustic behaviour, projected that they are over their own causes, remote from their natural radiation. The goal here is not to imitate/degrade a noble acoustic instrument, but to bring positive ontological change (toward electroacoustics).

The transformational network used includes granulations, aggregations, and algorithmic and manual micro-editing. All the source material has gone, either upstream or downstream, through a “prismatic” convolution process, a digital technique where morphological attributes are increased. New objects are created by strong interactions between these attributes, interactions that depend on the nature of these morphologies and on the initial time points of each “coupling” (this occurs in the domain of micro-time, although the consequences can be felt through all possible time scales).

— Horacio Vaggione [English translation: François Couture, ix-17]

PianoHertz was realized in 2012 in the studios of the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (ZKM) in Germany and premiered on November 24, 2012, under the title Consort for Convolved Piano Sounds as part of the festival Imatronic Extended 2012 at the ZKM_Kubus of the ZKM. Afterwards the work was known as Consort for Convolved Pianos until July 2017 when it took its definitive title PianoHertz. The piece was commissioned by the ZKM.

Composition

• 2012, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (ZKM), Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)

Premiere

• November 24, 2012, Under the title Consort for Convolved Piano Sounds: Imatronic Extended 2012: Giga-Hertz-Preis 2012 & Walter-Fink-Preis des ZKM, ZKM_Medientheater, Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)

About this sound recording

This stereophonic recording was finalized at the composer’s studio in August 2017.

Remixing

• August 2017, version 2.0: Personal studio, Paris (France)