First Listen: Fennesz, 'Agora'
The Austrian electronic-music pioneer uses his laptop to splice, sample and otherwise subvert the sound of his guitar and field recordings, in the process forming crackling electric symphonies.
Even if you've never heard the name of Austrian electronic-music pioneer Christian Fennesz, you've likely heard the effect of the work he's been releasing for two decades under his striking surname. An early advocate for using a laptop to splice, sample and otherwise subvert the sound of his guitar and field recordings — in the process forming crackling electric symphonies — Fennesz has long explored the shapes and colors taken on by clouds of static. On 2008's , shards of noise as sun-streaked as the most radiant orchestral fanfare; on his early landmark, 2001's , ravaged guitar chords funneled the chimes of a miniature gamelan ensemble that felt like a surrealist hit.
