Fennesz

Christian Fennesz is an Austrian electronic musician and guitarist from Wien, Austria, born in 1962 and based in Vienna. He is often credited simply as Fennesz. His work sits across ambient, drone, electroacoustic music, glitch and modern classical, and his sound combines guitar with digital processing such as granular synthesis. The result is often layered music that mixes melody and conventional instrumentation with irregular glitch textures and washes of noise. This approach is sometimes described as “rock meets PowerBook”, and Rolling Stone calls him “the most pictorial composer-programmer in laptop electronica”.

Style and work

Fennesz’s music is strongly associated with laptop-based electronic composition and with the use of guitar as a source for digital manipulation. His releases include material that ranges beyond his core solo style into broader experimental and improvisational settings.

Collaborations and groups

He records and performs with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and also works with Keith Rowe, Sparklehorse and Mike Patton. He is part of the improvisation trio Fenn O’Berg with Peter Rehberg and Jim O’Rourke. He also works with David Sylvian, who sings on the album Venice, and Fennesz writes the music for “A Fire in the Forest” on Sylvian’s album Blemish. Other associated groups include MIMEO, 4g, Regenorchester XII, Maische, Till the Old World’s Blown Up and a New One Is Created, Golden Tone, Orchester 33⅓, The Kilowatt Hour, and Christian Fennesz & Hildur Guðnadóttir & Stephen O’Malley.

Selected releases and recognition

Hotel Paral.lel receives the Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction for Digital Musics in 1999, shared with Pita’s Seven Tons For Free. In 2008 he releases Black Sea on Touch. The following year he teams up with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse on In The Fishtank 15. He then issues Szampler, a cassette of his sample collection, on Tapeworm; this later receives a remix release as Goldmann vs. Fennesz: Remiksz.

Festival appearance

He performs at the final holiday camp edition of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands, England.