Zbigniew Karkowski (born 14 March 1958 – 12 December 2013) was a Polish
experimental musician and
composer.
Karkowski was born on 14 March 1958 in Krakow, Poland. He studied composition at the State College of Music in
Gothenburg, Sweden, aesthetics of modern music at the
University of Gothenburg
The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...
’s Department of Musicology, and computer music at the
Chalmers University of Technology
Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international leve ...
. After completing his studies in Sweden, he studied sonology for a year at the
Royal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Con ...
in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, Netherlands. During his education, he also attended many summer composition master courses arranged by Centre Acanthes in Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, France, studying with
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...
,
Olivier Messiaen,
Pierre Boulez and
Georges Aperghis
Georges Aperghis ( el, Γιώργος Απέργης; born 23 December 1945) is a Greek composer working primarily in the field of experimental music theater but has also composed a large amount of non- programmatic chamber music. He lives in Fr ...
, among others.
He worked actively as a composer of both acoustic and
electroacoustic music. He wrote pieces for large orchestra (commissioned and performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), plus an opera and several chamber music pieces that were performed by professional ensembles in Sweden, Poland, Switzerland and Germany.
Along with
Edwin van der Heide and
Atau Tanaka, he was a founding member of “Sensorband.” In performances by this electroacoustic music performance trio, Karkowski “activated his instrument by the movement of his arms in the space around him; this cut through invisible infrared beams mounted on a scaffolding structure” (Tanaka 2012).
Karkowski lived and worked in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, Japan, for the last years of his life and was active in the underground noise scene there.
Karkowski died of
pancreatic cancer in December 2013.
Discography
*''Bad Bye Engine'' (Radium 226.05 1988)
*''Uexkull'' (Anckarström 1991)
*''Phauss / Karkowski / Bilting'' (Silent 1992)
*''Disruptor'' (OR 1998)
*''World as Will'' (Staalplaat 1998)
*''Mutation'' (ERS 1999)
*''Choice of Points for the Application of Force'' (Ytterbium 2000)
*''It'' (Mego 2000)
*''Le Depeupleur'', with Kasper T. Toeplitz (Cross Fade Enter Tainment (CFET) 2000)
*''Reverse Direction and Let the Sound Reach out to You'' (Firework Edition Records 2000)
*''Whint'' (.Absolute. 2000), with
Francisco López
*''Function Generator'', with Xopher Davidson (Sirr 2001)
*''Consciously Unconscious Unconsciously Conscious'' (Metamkine 2002)
*''World as Will II'' (23five 2002)
*''ElectroStatics'' (Post Concrete 2003)
*''Turnoff'' (Noise Asia 2003)
*''Attuning / Attending'' (Musica Genera 2004)
*''Intensifier'' (
walnut + locust 2004)
*''KHZ'', with Antimatter (Auscultare Research 2005)
*''One and Many'' (Sub Rosa 2005)
*''Live at Waterland Kwanyin'' (Kwan Yin Records 2006)
*''Continuity'' (Asphodel 2007)
*''Divide by Zero'', with Antimatter
opher Davidson(Antifrost 2007)
*''Difficulty of Being'', with Brian O'Reilly (Monotype Records 2014)
*''Encumbrance'', performed by Gęba, Constantin Popp, and Wolfram (Bôłt Records/Turning Sounds 2019)
Bibliography
*Karkowski, Zbigniew. ''Physiques sonores''. Paris: Van Dieren, 2008.
References
Sources
*Tanaka, Atau.
[Gallery] Atau Tanaka” ''eContact! 14.2 — Biotechnological Performance Practice / Pratiques de performance biotechnologique'' (July 2012). Montréal:
CEC.
External links
desk.nlDiscogs artist pageZbigniew Karkowski, one of his last concerts
Noise musicians
1958 births
2013 deaths
{{Poland-musician-stub