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Christian Fennesz

Christian Fennesz (born December 25, 1962) is an Austrian electronic musician, often credited on albums simply as Fennesz. A key figure in the ascent of IDM and electronica in the 1990s, Fennesz uses guitar and notebook computers to make multilayered compositions that blend melody and conventional musical instruments with harsh, irregular glitch-influenced sounds and washes of white noise. He lives and works in Vienna, Austria and Paris, France.
Endless summer
Endless Summer, originally released in 2001 by Mego, was a breakthrough album for Christian Fennesz. The album which brought his name and music towards the first steps of mainstream recognition. Following on from the more experimental Hotel Paral.lell and the Beach Boys homaged Plays single Endless Summer brought the guitars more to the front, the electronics shimmered more, and the melodies shined more brightly. It went on to be a classic of its time, topping many end of year polls. This new de…
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Mosaic
★ Japan exclusive LP ★ First press limited edition. Fennesz, who creates unique electronic sounds with guitars and computers, has released his first album in about five and a half years, "Mosaic." It is an unparalleled masterpiece with incredibly beautiful sound images constructed with incredible precision. This is Fennesz's most introspective album to date. It was written and recorded at the end of 2023 and finished in summer 2024. Fennesz opened his third new studio space in the last four year…
Venice
The 20th anniversary re-issue of Fennesz's best-selling 'Venice', originally released in 2004, is now available as a deluxe version remastered by Denis Blackham, with new and extra tracks not on the previous CD or vinyl versions. Included in the DVD-format edition is a booklet with texts by Fennesz himself, Denis Blackham & Jon Wozencroft, with unseen photographs from the original 2004 sessions. The booklet also reproduces David Sylvian's original handwritten lyrics for 'Transit'. This "stunning…
Senzatempo
The music of 'Senzatempo' moves in balance between composition and improvisation. It is a symphonic work for an imaginary orchestra in which melodies, counterpoints, dynamics and sonorities define a structural breadth reminiscent of classical music. Austrian guitarist, composer, and electronic musician Christian Fennesz is recognized as the key figure and one of the most distinctive voices of electronic music today. His wide international reputation has been consolidated through his substantial …
Becs
*2022 stock* CD edition: the last time Fennesz released an album on Austrian label Mego it was 2001 and the name of that release was 'Endless summer'. Now, in 2014 P-Vine Records is extremely proud to release the conceptual follow up that landmark of abstract pop. Becs (pronounced 'baeetch') is Hungarian for Vienna and is the first full length Fennesz solo release since 2008's 'Black Sea'. Eschewing the more drone orientated works of 'Black Sea', 'Becs' returns to the more florid pop mechanisms …
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Hotel paral.lel
*2022 stock* "Re-mastered at Piethopraxis in Köln, July 2007. "Hotel Paral.lel", originally released in September 1997 by Mego, was Christian Fennesz's debut solo album. Following up from the EP "Instrument", it was an investigation into the sonic possibilties residing in guitar based digital music, recorded just before mobile computing devices became the norm. A far more darker and experimental work than what was to follow. Freeform noise, sliced techno beats and subtle ambient textures create …
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Black Sea
Christian Fennesz takes his time. He's been a busy guy all through this decade in terms of collaborations, live records, remixes, and so on, but he's only released a few proper albums under his surname, and each has been brilliant. Just before the new millennium he released the 1999 album Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08". It took the blissed-out sense of surrender that My Bloody Valentine specialized in into a harsh and assaultive realm, and the album can seem downr…
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Hotel Paral.lel (2LP)
Hotel Paral.lel, originally released by Mego in 1997, marks the full-length debut release from Austrian Christian Fennesz. The album followed the twitching drone as found on the 1995 EP Instrument, also included in this deluxe double-LP reissue. Once launched, Hotel Paral.lel was to instigate a sublime exploration of a wide variety of forms, from formal abstraction to shimmering drone around to ground zero glitch pop. Recorded just before mobile computing devices became omnipresent it was an inv…
Agora
Agora is Christian Fennesz's first solo album since Mahler Remix and Bécs. Fennesz writes: "It's a simple story. I had temporarily lost a proper studio workspace and had to move all my gear back to a small bedroom in my flat where I recorded this album. It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s. In the end it was inspiring. I used very minimal equipment; I didn't even ha…
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It's Hard For Me To Say I'm Sorry
Despite decades of activity and having crossed paths in various collaborations, this release presents the first-ever duo recording from two of the most highly regarded citizens of planet experimental electronic. Individually, Jim O'Rourke and Christian Fennesz have been responsible for numerous legendary works that merge the traditional avant-garde with contemporary sensibilities. On It's Hard For Me To Say I'm Sorry these giants of experimental electronic practice come together for an immen…
Mahler Remix
Mahler Remix was recorded live at RadioKulturhaus, Vienna, in May 2011. This recording is mostly based on samples taken from Gustav Mahler's symphonies. The performance also includes an early version of "Liminality' from the bécs album, released in 2014 on Editions Mego (EMEGO 165CD/LP). Mahler Remixed was a commissioned work performed together with the visual artist Lillevan. The piece was only performed live three times, at RadioKulturhaus in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York City, and Borusan…
RE : EM
The brilliant Anna Zaradny's follows up her engrossing debut with this new EP featuring a sumptuous Fennesz rework of her New feat Old, following hot on the heels of Robert Piotrwicz's crushing side, Stara Szkola Ze Zlota, to remind us the ascetic, uncompromising brilliance of Polish experimental music at its best. On the front Zaradny utterly dominates the senses with a pulsating deconstruction of Stop the Chaos; originally a sub-3 minute rager, now distilled and expanded to three times the len…
In Four Parts (Tribute To John Cage)
Equipped with a modular synthesizer, a guitar and electronics Patrick Pulsinger and Christian Fennesz approach the master of the treatment of silence, John Cage. The piece on this album, which was recorded live at Wiener Konzerthaus, was inspired by the underlying attitude of Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts. Upon invitation by the WIEN MODERN festival the two legendary electronic music protagonists tackled the composer’s early string quartet, took it apart and adapted it for two players, alw…
Fa 2012
Fa 2012 + Fa (Mark Fell Remix). Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin, July 2012. Layout by Tina Frank. Special 12' featuring new versions of the track Fa, taken from the debut Fennesz solo album ÔHotel Paral.lel' (1997). 15 years after its initial release, Christian Fennesz gives this throbbing monster of a track a new seeing to, extending it and adding more of that magic he is so well known for. The album was always an exercise in exploring alternate means o…
Aun – The Beginning And The End Of All Things
This CD is the soundtrack to the film AUN, directed by Edgar Honetschlger. With stills from the film in the full colour 28 page booklet, the artwork is designed by Philip Marshall. Intention : 'AUN Ð the beginning and the end of all things' tells the story of mankind's quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the…
Till The Old World's Blown Up And A New One Is Created
The rebirth of cool" m=minimal is pleased to release a masterpiece of the early 21st century on vinyl. "till the old world's blown up and a new one is created" is an outstanding work of reductionism and minimalism. martin brandlmyar (radian / trapist / kapitalband 1), werner dafeldecker (polwechsel, david sylvian, autistic daughters) and christian fennesz (touch / mego / thrill jockey) on this record created a new kind of cool jazz coupled with a big portion of new york school (cage, feldman, br…
Flumina
Flumina is the third collaboration between legendary composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz. Guitar, computer [laptop] by Christian Fennesz; piano, computer [laptop] by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Denis Blackham. Recorded at Amann Studios, Vienna and at KA+B Studios, NY and Japan. Mixed at BA+B Studios, NY. Quiet, restful ambient piano and effected guitar drone. Minimal and masterful." -Touch
Seven stars
Fennesz's first solo release since Black Sea (2008) is a 4 track 10 vinyl, with a CD version soon available. Using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers, Fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure. 'Liminal', 'July', 'Shift', 'Seven Stars' (with Steven Hess on drums). Fennesz writes: Seven Stars was recorded in Vienna in January 2011. I recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. Liminal and July were existing pieces which I have reworked. (I wrote an early ve…
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Afternoon Tea
Who would have thought a relaxed sunny afternoon, newfound friendships and some spur-of-the-moment would have resulted in what's been described as 'one of the most compelling documents of both free improvisation and electronica' (All Music Guide) It's the people involved in 'Afternoon Tea' - originally released in 2000 on German label Ritornell and now available on vinyl for the first time with a new master, bonus tracks and newly discovered live recordings - that ensured it as more than a happy…
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Knoxville
Documents the collaboration between CHRISTIAN FENNESZ, DAVID DANIELL & TONY BUCK for the 2009 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN. Minimalist drum passages scatter over the top of textured layers of guitar & subsumed melodic sequences, eventually giving way to warm beds of evolving, tactile drones. Sonic rain showers roll into full-blown thunderstorms of effected guitar & pounding drums only to yield a field of shattered electronic & percussive debris