Vladimír Hirsch

Vladimír Hirsch was born in Benešov, lived in Ledeč nad Sázavou until he was 18 and then moved to Prague, where he now lives and works. Composing since 1973, he started with small romantic and classical compositions for piano and organ, but very soon abandoned the experiments and devoted himself only to rock and jazz.[4] A long-time member of the Prague-based post-punk group Der Marabu,[2] after its disintegration, he founded the ensemble Skrol (1995) and several other parallel projects like Aghiatrias, Zygote, Subpop Squeeze, Luminar Ax, etc.[3]

Without ever abandoning his projects and ensembles, in 1987 the composer began working in parallel on solo production, and around 2002 it became his main program. Emphasizing the use of modern means of expression and the search for specific compositional techniques, he bring together serial, atonal, microtonal, polymodal, and spectral music. Partly inspired by the traditions of 20th-century Slavic classical music, Vladimír Hirsch keeps building hybrid working models in tonal principles, composition, and instrumentation. Using digital techniques for classical orchestras together with a wide range of sound sources, he searches to achieve the alchemical transformation of sounds into a homogeneous, indivisible substance. This principle, called "integrated music"[5] by itself, also represents the metaphysical idea of the creative concept, which consists in the collision and reconciliation of two seemingly opposite spiritual worlds within an individual.

Vladimír Hirsch regularly gives concerts both at home and abroad, including tours in the USA, Germany, Great Britain and Italy. In 2010, an eight-disc set of key recordings was released by the Italian publishing house Ars Benevola Mater entitled "The Assent to Paradoxon". He has also collaborated with foreign artists on different projects like Dawn Carlyle aka Dove Hermosa, Nadya Feir, Cecilia Bjärgö, Igor Vaganov, Alessandro Aru or Kenji Siratori.

Vladimír Hirsch's music lingers between experimental projects and compositions of a very strict compositional order, but is almost always of a conceptual nature:

"It is the work of a non-conformist individualist, forging a completely original aesthetic form, where the unifying element is a rather dark, emotionally tense, often apocalyptic atmosphere of compositions, characterized by their metaphysical, existential anxiety, and spirituality." (Stephen Ellis)[6]

His most notable works include "Symphony No. 4" with the subtitle "Snímání z kříže" (in English: "Descent from the Cross")[7] and its revised, live version "Graue Passion" (Šedé pašije);[8] the conceptual dark ambient albums "Underlying Scapes", "Exorcisms", "Invocations" and "Scripta Soli";[9] the extensive ingressive composition "Contemplatio per nexus"; the post-industrial mass "Missa Armata"; the composition for piano, percussion and combined electroacoustic techniques "Endoanathymia"; the digital symphony "Axonal Transit"; the microtonal dark ambient album" Epidemic Mind"; the selection of compositions for organ and piano "Selected Organ and Piano Works", and Concerto for Organ No. 2 "Horae".

While the composer's work seems to be permeated by a very elaborate and authentic expression of the internal conflict of values within the individual and one's confrontation with the anthropocentric model of contemporary society, the composer disagrees it was the initial idea in throughout the compositions. For the insiders of the industrial and post-industrial scene, Vladimír Hirsch produces very intense, full of suggestive and stormy atmosphere music.[10]

Vladimír Hirsch is included in Olivier Bernard's Anthology of Ambient Music,[11] and in the encyclopedic publication of composers of contemporary world music.[12]

Hirsch's work is represented by the activities of his ensembles and also by an extensive collection of solo works. He is the composer of a number of conceptual albums, several symphonies, suites, concert and experimental compositions, stage music, and many smaller compositions.

• Synthetics – Themes, MC, D.M.R. 1987, (reissue CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 1999)
• Organ Pieces, MC, D.M.R. 1991, (reissue CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 2001)
• Cruci-Fiction (Der Marabu)”, MC, D,M,R,, 1994, (reissue CDr, CatchArrow Recordings 2000)
• There's No Human Triumph”, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1996
• All Of Us Will Fall Away” (Der Marabu), CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1996
• Casual Crime, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 1998
• Martyria (Skrol), 10", Loki Foundation (Power & Steel), 1999
• Heretical Antiphony (Skrol), CD, M.D.Propaganda, 1999
• Dreams Of Awakening, CD, CatchArrow Recordings, 1999
• Geometrie nevědomí (Zygote), CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2000
• Insomnia Dei (Skrol), CD, RRRecords, 2001
• Epidaemia Vanitatis (Aghiatrias), CD, Integrated Music Records, 2002
• Symphony no.2 & 3, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2003
• Regions Of Limen (Aghiatrias), Epidemie Records, 2004
• Fragments, thèmes et images scéniques, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2005
• Dances & Marches For The Orphan Age (Skrol), CD, Dagaz Music, 2005
• Sense Geometry, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2006
• Ethos (Aghiatrias), Epidemie Records, 2006
• Torment Of Naissance, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2007
• Concert industriel pour orgue, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2007
• Epidemic Mind, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2008
• Symphony No.4 Descent From The Cross, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Tobruk, CDr, CatchArrow Recordings, 2008
• Exorcisms, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Nonterra, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2008
• Les scènes ardentes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• Contemplatio per nexus, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• New Laws, New Orders (Skrol), CD, Twilight Records, 2009
• Graue Passion, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• Underlying Scapes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2009
• The Assent to Paradoxon, 8 CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2010 (collection)
• Cryptosynaxis, DVD, Integrated Music Records, 2010
• Markéta, dcera Lazarova, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2010
• Endoanathymia, CDr, Integrated Music Records, 2011
• Missa Armata . Invocationes, CD, Ars Benevola Mater, 2012
• Epidemic Mind, Surrism-Phonoethics, digital, 2013
• Selected Organ & Piano Works, Integrated Music Records / Surrism-Phonoethics; CDr, digital, 2013
• Axonal Transit (Symphony No.5), Integrated Music Records; CD, 2014
• Horae (Organ Concerto No.2), Surrism-Phonoethics; digital 2015
• Introscan (Subpop Squeeze), CatchArrow Recordings, digital, 2016
• Anacreontics (Subpop Squeeze), E-Klageto (a division of PsychKG), CD, 2017
• Scripta Soli, Old Captain, CD, 2017
• Ecstatic Arc, live, Integrated Music Records, digital, 2018
• Eschaton (Skrol), Old Captain, CD, 2019
• Ex Litteris Of St.Paul, Integrated Music Records, digital, 2020
• Katagenesis, symphonies nos.5 and 6 + Do Not Let Us Perish, Zoharum[13] Old Captain, CD, 2021
• Le Grand Jeu, a conceptual album for pianos and integrated techniques, Integrated Music Records, 2021
• Artefacts, a conceptual selection of tracks for compilations of "VA" type for integrated techniques, Integrated Music Records, 2022

Vladimír Hirsch also deals with computer graphics: among other things, he is the author of the design of all his solo albums and the vast majority of albums of his projects. In this regard, he often collaborates with the Czech art photographer Jan Vávra, a representative of the so-called neopictorialism, whose works became a model for the unified design of Hirsch's set of albums "The Assent to Paradoxon". He is also the author[14] of a number of articles and essays.[15] not only on music[16] and art.[17][18][19] He has long been committed to the use of the geographical names Czechia (Česko).[20][21]

• Official website