Stefan Schultze

Schultze deconstructs, reconstructs, and rewrites the piano – analog, digital, and automated.

Stefan Schultze explores the piano as a versatile instrument with multiple identities – from acoustic resonance and mechanical precision to digital memory and virtual simulation. At the core lies the question of how different agents – human, mechanical, and digital – engage in musical interaction. He is particularly interested in the role of the human within these hybrid systems, and how music remains physically, sonically, and performatively tangible despite technological complexity.

His work spans improvisation, composition and sound-based performance. In projects like Hyperplexia, RadiKits, Boussole Animale, and his solo formats with prepared piano, Schultze investigates not only the instrument itself, but also its performative and social contexts. His artistic process is not solely structural or conceptual – it seeks musical expression that is embodied, present, and experientially immediate.

The 2025 releases reflect different angles of this inquiry – with player pianos, visual systems, remix strategies, and new forms of human-machine collaboration.
What can piano music be today – and what might it become?

Prepared piano, virtual pianos with real-time tuning manipulation, custom sample libraries derived from prepared piano, and a self-playing mechanism converge to open up new sonic territories.

Black MIDI Ballet – An exploration of the Japanese Black MIDI subculture with two grand pianos: Schultze performs live with and against a self-playing piano and virtual pianos. The project expands into a live show with generative visuals, merging hyper-notation and post-digital virtuosity.

RMPX / SHRD01 (Schultze × boxn) Remix EP – Inspired by experimental electronic genres ranging from IDM to club music, this EP presents a collaboration between Schultze and boxn, featuring radical reworks where the piano collides with fragmented digital textures and rhythmic rupture.