RALF WEHOWSKY/JOHANNES FRISCH - TRÄNENDE WÜRGER
Korm Plastics KP 3021
CD only - releasedate: May 1st, 2005, shipping: april 20th

1) Johannes Frisch
works since the late 1970s as a performer, composer and improviser of contemporary music between experimental rock, free jazz and other openminded styles. on his main instrument, the double bass, he works for more than three decades consequently on an individual expressive language. he played with lot of musicians of the international scene of free improvisation and all experimental fields - among others Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Johannes Bauer, Le Quan Ninh, Paul Hubweber, Michael Vorfeld, Misha Feigin. Compositions for theatre, film and dance theater actual projects: Kammerflimmer Kollektief; Home of the beast, with Peter Hollinger und Helmut Bieler-Wendt; Ensemble Sondarc, music for six double basses; rat'n'X; trio with Paul Wirkus & Mikolaj Trzaska; concerts & festivals all over europe.

2) Ralf Wehowsky
founded the group P.D. (in 1981 renamed P16.D4) and the label Wahrnehmungen (in 1982 renamed Selektion) in 1980. P16.D4 were one of the most influential groups of experimental industrial music. They developed concepts of materialaustausch long before the term remix was even coined. for their live appearances they were equally at home at punk and no wave festivals as at the holy grails of academic avantgarde like the Ferientage Neuer Musik, Darmstadt. since the early 90s Wehowsky worked under his own name (rlw). the quiet, highly complex style of composition, based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic lateral noises, evolving out of his collaboration with bernhard günter was influential for numerous artists in the fields of electronic and improvised music. some reflections on his work can be found on TULPAS, a 5CD-box-set, featuring more than 50 artists performing their versions of rlw pieces (incl. Jim O´Rourke, Brume, Achim Wollscheid, Toshiya Tsunoda, John Duncan, Antanas Jasenka, Ryoji Ikeda, John Watermann a.o.). the new decennium started with a surprise for many as first releases showed a new approach of integrating improvised music and composition (as can be found on the CDs VIEWS and SIGHTS, the latter w/ long-time collaborator Bruce Russell).

3) Tränende Würger
is based on free improvisations by the Frisch/Wehowsky duo, reworked with electro-acoustic means. the compositional process did not intend to mask the nonlinear nature of the improvisations. quite on the contrary their organic character has been emphasized by crystal-clear sharpening of details. you´ll find complex structures and dark atmospheres, not unlike those on some P16.D4-, This Heat- or Mnemonists- releases, though absolutely rooted in the 21st century. beauty and posoning are not far from each other.

'Tränende Würger' comes in a plastic bag, 15x15cm with the artwork on six seperate sheets, dealing with poisenious plants. Design by Meeuw.

This CD is available for 16 euros including worldwide shipping. You can pay with paypal. Send an e-mail to order

listen to excerpt

reviews

JOHANNES FRISCH/RALF WEHOWSKY - TRÄNENDE WÜRGER (CD by Korm Plastics)
The duo of Johannes Frisch and Ralf Wehowsky deconstruct sound like over-amplified child's play with a host of instruments. They solder, bobble, saw and otherwise get quite methodically physical in their playroom. The tones range from dull to high squeal and all in between as the pitch is made, and the catch is on the fly. But this ain't no ballgame, it's a disconnected frequency that just keeps plugging itself in again. With feverish echoes that call out into depths and frontline nitty-gritty nervous percussion, the two have their way with the psychedelics of space, stretching the depth of field out of perspective quite riotously. The low flying 'copter rhythmics fall and fly away as boxes seem ripped open, and other caustic battery tests are performed. This may only be a test, and if they were playing on tusks it wouldn't surprise me, there's a ferocious quality to the disc. And yet, at times, it's as if they are just tuning up, testing, dawdling and playing for themselves and not an audience, a real uncut, freeplay feel with unplanned feedback and common sounds as if they were under surveillance. Some of this is pretty naked and unedited feeling, but just when it seems that you are listening to a cassette of a mechanic testing an engine, they mix some pure tones from the oud and the sitar that blend so well. And yes, there is the striking of Frisch's contrabass which sounds, in part, like a tuba case being slammed, its vibration makes your hair stand on end. And when he tweaks the strings its as if you would be swallowed whole if crossing the studio's path. In this way it's a very intimate recording that could only be shared by two like minded reverse engineer-styled composers who take us into tomorrow. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
(Vital Weekly 475)

J. FRISCH/R.WEHOWSKY - TRANENDE WURGER
Dopo un periodo di forzata inattivita, l'ex P16.D4 Ralf Wehowsky torna ad avvicinarsi ad un'improvvisazione radicale che sia centrata sulla 'fisicita' degli strumenti, distaccandosi quindi dalla rappresentazione post-industrial della musica concreta da lui proposta nel corso degli anni novanta e che ha avuto il suo culmine nella pubblicazione del momumentale quintuplo cd 'Tuplas'. "Tranende Wurger" consiste di una serie di brani in cui Wehowsky si alterna nell'uso 'informale' di harmophon, chitarra, oud e sitar, duettando col contrabbasstista Johannes Frisch, per poi rielaborarne il suono in fase di editing, cospargendolo d'impercettibile pulviscolo digitale/elettronico. Austero ma non privo di una segreta musicalita, l'album talvolta evoca l'idea di una deforme decomposzione della musica cosmica degli anni settanta. (Massimiliano Busti in Blow Up, June 2005. rated 7 out 10)

RALF WEHOWSKY - JOHANNES FRISCH Tränende Würger (Korm Plastics, KP3021): Wehowskys lässt seine Sitar auch bei ,Hundswürger' erklingen, dem vierten Stück von Tränende Würger. Daneben setzt er bei ,Kantakari' eine Oud ein, bei ,Jungfer im Grünen' eine Gitarre und bei ,Tränende Herzen' ein Harmophon, was immer das sein mag. Immerhin erklären die Tracks 1 & 4 den daraus zusammengezogenen merkwürdigen Taufnamen seines elektroakustischen Duoprojektes mit dem Kontrabassisten Frisch. Die derart blumig benamten Stücke sind durch chemische Formeln illustriert, was ein wenig an die Partituren von Anthony Braxton erinnert. Die gemeinsam erimprovisierten Klänge wurden anschließend editiert und transformiert und präsentieren sich nun als groteske ,Blumenstücke', wie sie sich nicht einmal die Einbildungskraft eines Jean Paul hätte ausmalen können. Zuerst ist da das harmophonische Gedröhn eines vor und zurück schwankenden oder stotternd abreißenden Orgelpunktes, der gespickt ist mit knarzigen, federnden, kratzenden Arcomanipulationen und dazu kommt noch eine helles, jaulendes Sägen, das fast wie die verwehte Stimme eines Muezzins oder - pardon - das I-A eines Esels klingt. Die Schraffuren verwandeln sich in ein Gehechel, durchsetzt von komischen Schnarrgeräuschen, bis das Harmophon wieder einsetzt mit einem blasebälgernen Halteton und die helle Melodielinie aus hohen, dünnen Keyboardnoten. Auf diese Vincent-Price'sche incredible Strangeness folgt, mit gut 10 Minuten nur knapp halb so lang, eine Merkwürdigkeit, destilliert aus kaum als solche identifizierbaren (Table)-Gitarren- und in nahezu violinistischen Hochtonbereichen gestrichenen Stringsounds. Wie stechendes Gewächs, das sich schrill und schneidend gegen grasendes Vieh schützt. Die Oud anschließend legt unter Wehowskys Fingern - ich glaube kaum, dass er einen Federkiel benutzt - alles ,Orientalische' ab. Hintergründig schnarrende Drones und Schabgeräusche interagieren mit Improgekruspel im englischen Art-Brut-Stil. Für die Sitar bleiben dann nur noch 49 Sekunden, schwirrende Flirrsounds und dunkle Bassdongs, Indien, abgewürgt und in einer Nussschale verstaut. Wenn man so will, ist das elektro-akustisches Impro-Plinkplonk in Augenhöhe mit den aktuell abgedrehtesten Bruitisten der Zunft. Nur dass man Wehowsky bisher nicht auf diesem freien Feld vermutet hätte und dass Korm Plastics als Forum und die bizarre Verpackung einen auf alles Mögliche vorbereiten, nur nicht darauf.
(Bad Alchemy 47)
 

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