Keith Fullerton Whitman, a student of ethnomusicology at Berklee College,
began playing drum'n'bass in Boston under the moniker Hrvatski.
The music documented on
Oiseaux 1996-1998 (Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge, 1999), following a
debut LP titled Attention Cats (2008), was actually a kind of digital sound-painting composed out of cut-ups of break-beats,
that only marginally promoted dancing (Routine Exercise).
He used acoustic and electric instruments, but played in unorthodox manners
and then deformed their sounds electronically.
His soundscape, though, remained somehow related to the aesthetic and dynamics
of dance and rock music, not to the abstract soundpainting of the classical
avantgarde.
Glitches a` la Kid606
were incorporated into Swarm & Dither (Planet Mu, 2002), further
reducing the ratio of dance beats
(Vatstep DSP, 2nd Zero Fidelity Mandible Investigation,
Echoes, EWC4)
while increasing the abstract ambience (Anesthetize Thineself).
The material was recorded over a period of eight years.
Under his own name, Whitman released For Acoustic Guitar
(Apartment B, 2001), an
abstract piece for guitar and laptop computer that borrows the "phasing"
technique of minimalist composer Steve Reich and adapts it to the shrill
tones of the digital world. The second part is instead an essay of gentle
floating cosmic music.
The 7" Live (Tonschacht) captures a 14-minute performance of the
same kind.
Electronically-manipulated guitar tones are protagonists
on the five
compositions collected on the album Playthroughs (Kranky, 2002).
Whitman indulges in the massive ambient music of Feedback Zwei
and gently droning minimalism of ACGTR SVP before sailing for the
15-minute cyber-journey of Modena, which virtually invents the new
genre of "catchy glitch music" by creating the impression of melody out
of a thick collage of percussive dissonances.
Swarm & Dither (Planet Mu, 2002) continues Hrvatski's venture into
brainy psychedelic jungle.
Darthmouth Street Underpass (Locust, 2003), credited to
Keith Fullerton Whitman, is a two-part work of composition/manipulation:
the first part is the field recording of the sounds of a tunnel, and the
second part is an electronic composition that uses those sounds.
Antithesis (Kranky, 2004), a mini-album again credited to
Keith Fullerton Whitman, collects four unreleased pieces composed between
1994 and 2002:
the droning trance of Twin Guitar Rhodes Viola Drone (1994),
the beehive nebula of Obelisk (1997),
the minimalist undulations of Rhodes Viola Multiple (1995),
the guitar psychedelia a` la early Pink Floyd of Schnee (2002).
Schoener Flussengel (Kranky, 2004) is the other half of the project
begun with Antithesis. This one collects six pieces, mostly short ones,
each one exploring a different electronic idea. The centerpiece if the
slowly-whirling mantra of Bewusstseinserweiternd Tonaufnahme.
The timbric dissonances of Gravicembalo col Piano e Forte,
the polyrhythmic fibrillation of El Seny
and the suspended music of Weiter
(juxtaposition of country guitar and musique concrete)
are ideas that need further development.
The electronic and digital ideas of Schoener Flussengel and Antithesis are more fully explored on
Multiples (Kranky, 2005).
A few of them are still fragmentary and, alas, underdeveloped (the charming
three parts of Stereo Music for Serge Modular Prototype, each of which
would deserve a much more articulate treatment)
The minimalist concerto of Stereo Music For Disclaiver Prototype, Electric Guitar and Computer creates perhaps the most original crescendo of repetition
since the time of Steve Reich's early "phasing" techniques.
And Stereo Music for Farfisa Compact Duo Deluxe, Drum Kit is one of
the most creative essays on sustained tones ever, linking Bach's organ sonatas
and modern droning music, i.e. the ancient affirmation of counterpoint and the modern negation of counterpoint.
The second part of Stereo Music for Acoustic Guitar, Buchla Music Box 100, Hewlett Packard Model 236 Oscillator, Electric Guitar and Computer is no
less intriguing: the process of minimalist repetition is actually a process
of blending, that eventually creates a static drone in place of the original
pattern.
Hrvatski's
Irrevocably Overdriven Break Freakout Megamix (Enschuldigen, 2005)
documents a live drum'n'bass jam.
Yearlong (Carpark, 2005) is a live collaboration between
Whitman and Greg Davis of laptop improvisations that include manipulations
of found sounds.
The culmination of Keith Fullerton Whitman's experiments with guitar and
electronics and field recordings and Alvin Lucier-inspired feedback-driven
music was perhaps Lisbon (Kranky, 2006), a 41-minute live
improvisation recorded in october 2005 that
bridged Brian Eno's original ambient ecstasy and Autechre's glitchy soundscapes.
It begins with a funereal, icy, melodic drone that revolves slowly around
its tonal center.
After about 12 minutes, the celestial drone becomes unstable and soon begins
to mutate into a satanic distortion. After about 22 minutes, this distortion
multiplies into a polyphony, or, better, a cacophony, of unpleasant sounds
that cannibalize each other. A louder distortion, the sum of all dissonance,
emerges from the chaos, sounding like the bombastic ending of a symphony.
After 28 minutes, this massive drone implodes into percussive noises.
The soundscape changes dramatically, revealing cracks and crevices, radioactive
fields and apocalyptic deserts. The sounds coalesce one more time into
a terrifying wall of noise only to finally decay in a last minute of
sidereal silence.
The mini-album Track 4 2waysuperimposed (Room 40, 2006) documents his art of digital soundsculpting. He reworked an older track and extended it to be "bi-directional" (it can be played forward as well as backwards).
July (GM/KFW, 2009)
documents a live collaboration with Geoff Mullen (recorded in 2006).
The mini-album
Disingenuity/ Disingenuousness (2010) collects two tape collages
reminiscent of
Pierre Henry's musique concrete.
The seventeen-minute Disingenuity evokes vocalnic eruption, running
steps, robotic dialogues, cosmic landscapes, and so forth. Then voices escape
from a menacing black hole and swirl in a melasse of hostile timbres.
The sixteen-minute Disingenuousness stages an apparently
trivial game of digital drones and frantic beats until it evolves into
a minimalist-style repetitive pattern of harsh tones.
Keith Fullerton Whitman has mastered the art of
polished electronic/digital tone poems.
070325 b/w 080409 (2011) is a split LP that contains Keith Fullerton Whitman's synth improvisation 070325 (recorded in 2007).
Aggregatepulseripper
(Amish, 2011) was a split LP with Ben Vida.
The cassette Generators (2010) contains robotic warped vignettes of
ordinary electronic madness.
Generator (2012) collects two live performances of that piece: Issue Generator (17'30") and High Zero Generator (17'30"), recorded in september 2010.
Ben Vida, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis collaborated on Esstends-Esstends-Esstends (Pan, 2012).
Occlusions (february 2012) documents improvised live electronic music.
