Michael Renkel
Michael Renkel is a German concert guitarist who extends his instrument via live electronics and computer.Life and works
Michael Renkel was born in Celle. At the age of eight he began to learn playing concert guitar ; he studied at the Hamburger Konservatorium classical guitar and developed his style since 1989 using preparations and advanced playing techniques.
He is engaged in aleatoric composition, variable forms and structures as well as notation. Influences include John Cage, Morton Feldman, Hans Werner Henze, Helmut Lachenmann, Violeta Dinescu, Derek Bailey, and lute music. He was the first musician to transform concert guitar by means of computer patches and live processing.
Renkel works exclusively in long standing projects developing a group aesthetics and language: since 1989 Activity Center with Burkhard Beins, the electro-acoustic trio phono_phono, the ensemble phosphor with Axel Dörner, Ignaz Schick, Robin Hayward, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, the Berlin Electric Guitar Unit and the duo with Sven-Åke Johansson. He performs Europe-wide on several festivals, including musique action, nous sons and LEM Festival/Spain, Expozice Nové Hudby, Czech Republic or International Art Bienale in Poland.Discography
- 1996 Nunc
- 1999 Möwen & Moos with Burkhard Beins
- 2001 Activity Center
- 2001 Phosphor
- 2002 Rabecca
- 2002 Sitill, L'Innomable with Luca Venitucci
- 2003 Berlin Strings
- 2003 Activity Center & Phil Minton
- 2005 Errorkoerper III
- 2005 Ensemble Phosphor, Neue Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000
- 2007 phono_phono trio with M. Mayas, S. Vogel
- 2008 Kalte Welle 102 with Sven Åke Johansson
