Being composed of one man, a digital library of recorded instruments and an array of sound processing software, Borut Kržišnik Symphonic Orchestra is a rather unorthodox orchestra. As such it is the culmination of an aesthetic vision of Borut Kržišnik, a composer, music producer, mastering and music programmer and a guitarist. Although he integrated music sampling tools in his earlier work, the virtual orchestra in its full fledged form was first used to record his 1997 album Stories from Magatrea. An unprecedented approach for Slovenia at that time, it did cause some muttering in certain composers circles. With time, the approach has gotten a wider acceptance and usage and as for Kržišnik, he continued his artistic path by composing and producing music in this way for a innumerable dance performances, theatre plays, ballets, exhibitions, performances, films and also his own albums. Among the more resounding collaborations of his is definitely his work with the famed director Peter Greenaway, for whose multi-media artistic output Kržišnik has prispeval a lot of musical context.
Borut Kržišnik's background
Starting as a self taught guitarist, his musical career started in the late 1980s, when he played for the famed groups Laibach and Borghesia. At that time, he also started composing and wrote music for an art exhibition. This was soon followed by writing music for dance and theatre performances, and throughout the 90s he has dome much work with a number theatre directors, especially Emil Hrvatin. Continuing his involvement in other art practices, he collaborated with Marina Gržinić and has done much work with Nataša Prosenc.
Data Direct
Data Direct were Borut Krišnik, saxophonist Primož Simončič (the already also a member of Lolita), clarinettist Mario Marolt and violinist Vuk Kraković. Only one record (released simultaneously by Front Rock and the German label Discordia in 1995 and called La Dolce Vita) is officially attributed to them but in fact a more or less similar postava and musical orientation was xcy for Borut Kržišnik's first album from 1991 (which was then already released by a foreign (UK) records company, anticipating his successful international career). The group's interest concentrated on the exploration of contemporary eclectic music, surpassing any precise definition of genre but generally moving in the coordinates of symphony orchestra, ethereal folk music of the Balkans and improvised, free or 'cool' jazz and avant-garde rock.
On the album La Dolce Vita and some livew performances they were joined by the double bass player Giovanni Maier (of the Enrico Rava Group), the saxophonist Hugo Sekoranja, Roman Dečman from the concert formation of Laibach, perccusionist Zlatko Kaučič and Sandra Rekar on piano. Under the name Data Processed Corrupted, they appeared on the Ljubljana’s Druga Godba Festival in 1993, performed on the “Vorax” festival in Vicenza and at the “Synthesis – Music of the 20th Century” festival (Skopje).
The album, first released by KUD France Prešeren, was two years later also released by the American label Falcata - Galia Recording. It has been like that
Namesto da napišem partituro, postavim predse 60 ljudi in jim dirigiram, sam odigram linije na klaviaturo in povem računalniku, kateri zvok ali katera orkestrska sekcija naj jo izvede.
Moja želja je bila in je še vedno, da bi moje skladbe izvajal simfonični orkester. Imel sem malo sreče, malo vztrajnosti in nekaj plodnega sodelovanja, predvsem z Markom Letonjo. Na to gledam kot na še dve izvedbi - “unpluged” izvedbi - skladb, ki pa so na ploščah izšle v moji računalniški izvedbi.
epričan sem, da je razlika med obema pristopoma, progresivnim in konceptualnim, bolj odvisna od glasbenika kot od same metodologije. Če bi želel delati po klasičnem, konceptualnem principu, bi to počel, ne glede na to, ali skladam z računalnikom ali s partituro. Prav tako ni nobena redkost – predvsem med novejšimi skladatelji – da je pisanje partiture bolj dinamičen proces, ki vključuje številne spremembe in obrate, ki jih na začetku nismo predvideli. Osebno uporabljam oba pristopa in jih sploh ne ločujem kot nekaj, kar bi se samo po sebi izključevalo. Vsa predvidevanja na eni strani ter sprotna presenečenja in navduševanja na drugi strani se prepletajo. Tudi če se določene ideje, ki smo jih predvideli, ne uresničijo, pa potem gotovo na nek način vplivajo na razvoj skladbe, že z iniciacijo lastne različice, nadgradnje ali celo negacije.
o, v primerjavi s klasičnim skladateljem, z mojim virtualnim orkestrom ne samo komponiram, ampak skladbo tudi izvedem. Izvedba je torej popolnoma odvisna od moje ideje, in to je gotovo eden od najdragocenejših momentov tega načina dela. Hkrati pa je tukaj prisoten praktičen moment in to je, da je izjemno težko priti do izvedbe simfoničnega orkestra, moj virtualni orkester pa mi na svoj način omogoča tudi to.
VPR Tako je tvoj način tudi veliko cenejši, bolj dostopen. V tehničnem smislu tvoj postopek komponiranja poteka tako, da zbiraš sample iz orkestrske muzike (to so kratki, sekundo ali dve dolgi sampli), ki jih razvrstiš na klaviaturo, potem pa iz njih sestaviš skladbo.
irtualnega orkestra
PR Želel bi, da za uvod pojasniš koncept Magatrejskega simfoničnega orkestra, ki si ga razvil na plošči Magatrejske zgodbe in ga uporabljaš tudi pri glasbi, ki jo trenutno pišeš.
Tega načina komponiranja sem se vedno posluževal, tudi na prejšnjih ploščah, le da so te vsebovale več v živo posnetega gradiva, ali pa se niso gibale v vodah simfoničnega orkestra. Gre torej za virtualni orkester, sestavljen iz samplerjev in računalniške tehnologije. Samo ime se nanaša na motiv, ki sem si ga sposodil iz knjige Štoparski vodnik po vesolju Douglasa Adamsa
odobna tehnologija mi ne omogoča samo tega, da lahko skladam in snemam brez odvisnosti od orkestra in inštrumentalistov, temveč tudi tisto, kar je z živo izvedbo neizvedljivo. Vsak inštrument je različen in ima posebne tehnične lastnosti in prav tako to velja tudi za računalnik. Z njim ne moremo igrati violine, tako kot to počne violinist, zato pa lahko počnemo marsikaj, kar je izven fizičnih možnosti bodisi samega inštrumenta bodisi orkestra v celo
ll the sounds I use are in fact real, but with computer special care and technique it gets certain specific performing quality which is very hard to achieve live. By computer one can take care about every single instrument, one can control their performance, articulation and whatever parameter of sound one wants. On the other hand, in orchestra praxis everything that is not included in group of musicians siting on their chairs and holding their instruments in their hands is treated as extra demand and you don't have to ask much to be too much. It's a shame that power of such a fantastic tool like symphonic orchestra is diminished by its rigidity, routine and, last but not the least, its expensiveness.
artly yes, but those are just sounds, just instruments. They can be something special or not, but it's just in music where they get their value. My dayly expierence is not to be able to use some perfect sounding instrument recorded in some milion dollar studio, and use some cheaper and "worse" one. I didn't care if Vuk, violinist on my albums had no name violin as long as he performed it with such a strong presence. And vice versa, some solo violinist from big orchestra may have the most expensive violin but if he came in my studio and reads notes technically flawlessly, I couldn't care less. I don't want the musician to read notes, I want them to play.
stems from various musical areas, including Borut Kržišnik has wide experience in stage and film scores; he has collaborated with Julie-Anne Robinson, Zlatko Bourek, Bojan Jablanovec, Tibor Levay, and VSSD.
Since 2000 he has collaborated with Peter Greenaway on music for the Map to Paradise from Ljubljana, produced by Muzeum Institute.
is CD contains the principal themes from Krzisnik’s score for A Life in Suitcases, the new feature film and multi-media event by Peter Greenaway, due for release in 2006.
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