Franz Kirmann – Elysian Park

franz-kirmann

CD – Denovali

Elysian Park is the third album of Franz Kirmann, a French producer based in London, and is also his second release with the record company Denovali. The work includes fourteen tracks and follows “Hyper Trophies”, an installation project made by the Berliner art studio Zeitguised, which asked Kirmann to make a soundtrack for the event. This first exhibition was a crossover between art and fashion and had three loop videos as the main element: the music softens in and out, weaving and disappearing without apparently any traditional pattern. The feeling of space and emptiness are the basic elements of the sequences and force the listener to focus on the physicality of the sounds, though there are no real melodies, harmonies and rhythms. Apparently the sounds don’t strictly follow a temporary line. The waves are very hypnotic: they are articulated in an abstract and immanent way and create some suspended and emotional settings. Kirmann openly mentioned another fundamental source of inspiration for the development of Elysian Park: “The Possibility Of An Island”, a novel of Michel Houellebecq. Parallel narrations, futuristic landscapes and dystopian fantasies fill the text and, in the work, the feeling of slippage between the structural plans is deep. In addition, the almost complete disappearance of feelings and emotions pervades the poetry of the novel with many drifts, jumps and semantic fields. We are poised listening: from quiet moments to strident and urban visions, the sounds go on until reaching a dense and dark beauty, rich with suggestions, some exotic, in between synthetic turmoils and some delicate moments of stylized alienation. Franz Kirmann uses many third party plug-ins and soft synths, which have the function of articulating some granular and synthesis samples. Despite a lot of electronic scenes being ruled by the return of the analogue, here is someone who has no problem being inspired by digital processing: in this work many sounds are manipulated with iPad apps and later re-recorded with some hardware sets. It’s a simple and direct procedure, which is very effective in its final expression.

 

  • Franz Kirmann – Elysian Park
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  • Franz Kirmann – Elysian Park
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