Short Stories

Since 1989, the Austrian Erste Bank has annually awarded a composition prize in recognition of the achievements of outstanding composers. In 2021, the composer, arranger, and software developer Christof Ressi, who hails from Villach, was honored. Now, Christof Ressi's first album has been released. It contains three works by the young composer: "Short Stories," the piece awarded the composition prize, recorded by Klangforum Wien under the direction of Tim Anderson, as well as two other works, "In the Beginning Was the A" and "Arcadia." Ressi's compositions are a successful crossover: new music in exchange with retro-computer sound and Euro-dance – a unique hyper-accelerationist, hauntological glitch-pop aesthetic. Christof Ressi is a composer, arranger, software developer, and multimedia artist from Austria. As a composer, he works in various fields of music such as contemporary classical, jazz, dance/theater, or experimental electronics. In addition to writing instrumental music works, he has a great interest in interactive live electronics and audiovisual art and is currently working on a series of pieces that explore the artistic potential of video game programming. He arranges music for all types of ensembles and instruments, including big band and orchestra. Together with clarinetist Szilárd Benes, he performs regularly as a duo with both audiovisual compositions and improvisations. His music is performed all over the world, e.g., in Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Japan, China, the United Kingdom, the USA, and South Africa. He has received several prizes and his computer music has been presented at international conferences, such as the symposium klingt gut! symposium on sound in Hamburg or NIME - new interfaces for musical expression at Virginia Tech. Ressi was also part of the artistic research project GAPPP at the IEM in Graz.