biography
- "Understand that my first love was not the 'amen break', nor was it an acidic 0/1 stream from the soundcard of a Max/MSP equipped Mac laptop. It was the looping synthetic minimalism of Harmonia & Cluster, the just-this-side-of-total-chaos production of those early Mono Pink Floyd singles, the orchestrated beauty of Mussogorksy and Debussy, the logic-defying energy of Arto Lindsay and Rudolph Grey's guitars..."
Keith Fullerton Whitman from the liner notes to Antithesis
Keith Fullerton Whitman has recorded and released music under a number of pseudonyms, most notably Hrvatski. Hrvatski has appeared on more compilations than you can shake a stick at and criss-crossed the globe laying down breakbeat concret for the kids. He has worked at the Forced Exposure distribution center, written about music, lectured at Ivy League universities and is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music. And Keith Fullerton Whitman runs a record label and mail order service.
After an EP on the Apartment B label, 21:30 For Acoustic Guitar, Playthroughs is the first album under Keith Whitman's given name. The source material for every piece on Playthroughs is guitar: acoustic, electric or otherwise. From Sept. 2001 to April 2002 Keith Fullerton Whitman transformed those guitar pieces via laptop computer into the tracks on Playthroughs. Whitman has used ring modulators, granular shuffling algorithms, delays and spectral effects in a process that owes a lot to Terry Riley's Time Lag Accumulator and Steve Riech's Piano Phases.
Technology and Whitman's careful selection of notes combine to create shimmering drones and deep waves of sound. Though the source material was improvised guitar and the processing involved computer technology, Playthroughs reflects Whitman's mastery of composition.
Antithesis is a limited edition LP that collects ensemble works Keith recorded in the various apartments he has rented in the Boston, MA area. The four tracks are called ensemble works because they all feature Whitman overdubbing various instruments (guitar, fender rhodes piano, viola and percussion) and do not have any computer processing. The material veers from sheer drone to neo-kraut drum circle ritual.
Keith Fullerton Whitman is working on a new full length album for kranky entitled Multiples. Featuring guest players and a variety of vintage synths Whitman used during a stint at Harvard's sound lab, it is something we can all look forward to.
- "Playthroughs was, by one measure, one of the year¹s slightest albums, but no other drone or ambient release could
touch its emotional heft."
Mark Richardson, Pitchfork Year End Top 50, Dec. 2003
- "Regardless of how many IRCAM algorhythms he's using (you geeks out there will know what we're talking about), Whitman has captured the essence of the humble guitar in a beautiful and understated way."
Olli Siebelt BBCMusic.com
- "How did he make this work? A series of rigorously focused single-instrument studies that seems to effortlessly telescope across the historical and technical spectrum of electronic music from Varese to Fennesz. But instead of being museum-grade mummy dust, this album is listenable as hell. You want to ride this ride again."
Drew Daniel, Pitchfork 2005 Top 50 Albums
select discography
21:30 for Acoustic Guitar CD EP [Apartment b]
Dartmouth Street Underpass CD [Locust]
kranky titles available
Lisbon
Multiples
Schöner Flußengel
Antithesis
Playthroughs
external links
Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge - www.reckankomplex.com