Agnostic Diaries
(Black Rose) Used CD $14.00
Consisting of raw materials from 2005, reworked and processed between 2016 and 2017, Agnostic Diaries centers around voice recording collaborations that, for one reason or another, fell through or never saw the light of day. From the fragmented communications on ‘Le Ballet’ (from George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique) to the processed speeches and deep breathing of “For Gerald,” to the less treated dialogues of “Caute!” Ralf Wehowsky uses these voices, processed or otherwise, as he would any other sound source, do not constitute vocal pieces per se. Digital sounds processed into low fidelity bitrates is also common to many tracks here. On the aforementioned ‘Le Ballet,’ they form a framework onto which computer blips and shrill, painful electronics are grafted. ‘July 2006’ feels like a continuation, albeit one with erratic reverbs, cricket-like chirps and what could even be a Geiger counter. Anla Courtis’s squalling electric guitar shines through ‘For Gerald’ clearly, alongside spacy electronics and what almost resembles a spate of kick drums, or perhaps someone transitioning from walking into running on a hard surface. ‘Monotype #6’ is another notable standout with its multi-layered fragmented voice (courtesy of Dylan Nyoukis) and stabbing horror strings, creating a complex, yet menacing end to the record.
Ajatollah Carter (eaRLy W 4)
(Editions Zero - ED6) CD $15.00
Live recordings from 1980 by avant maverick Ralf Wehowsky (PD, P16.D4) and crew. Debauched, low-key back-room skronk of the sort incorrigibly unskilled combos such as Door and The Window have delighted dozens of listeners worldwide meets the beyond-rational improv that over-educated Euros can play drunk off their asses on Jagermeister. Numbered edition of 444 copies, in a textured card gatefold jacket. Imported from Europe
Gukuruguh
(Chocolate Monk - CHOC.362) CDR $8.00 (Out-of-stock)
Vocal gurpings performed at the Nefertiti Jazz Club as part of the Gothenburg Art Sounds festival, later put through the wringer by Ralf Wehowsky. The alchemical sound transformer processes, cuts up, sprinkles liberally with electronics and other sounds, and adds healthy dollops of noise and silence. Numbered edition of 69
Organized
(Meeuw Muzak) Used 10-inch $12.00
RLW used recordings of an electronic organ and a ringing bell both played by Akifumi Nakajima. Aube used recordings of a church organ made by Ralf Wehowsky. Red vinyl from the mid-’90s. Edition of 300
Pullover
(Table Of The Elements) Used CD $4.00
Four German language texts by Markus Caspers expressed in German, regardless of the native tongue the various readers. On the semantic versions of the pieces, untreated vocals are permitted to appear, sometimes fading in and out, sometimes whispered and echoed, and sometimes even in a straight reading and sung melodically, while no recognizable voices appear on the abstract versions. Here the listener gets radio static, harsh waveforms, buzzes, burbles, whistles, and other unnamable treatments. Overall, Wehowsky retains the complex character of the human voice and balances the texts themselves and their transformations into abstract sound, with the possibilities and limitations of using such restricted sound sources. From 1996
Revu et Corigé
(Trente Oiseaux) Used CD $5.00
A shattered déjà vu of truncated drones from 1995, flashbacks of chirp orgies where flea-sized harpsichords and polygon-shaped asphalt flatteners get magnetized and helplessly swept between the talons of an electroacoustic tuning fork. The effect is akin to sitting in a barber chair spinning around as a ballerina with a fish head pumps it higher and higher towards the ceilings of 30 different cathedrals per minute. Slow, without an end, almost nauseating in its relentlessness, but completely lacking in bombast, Revu Et Corrige eventually settles into a roundtable discussion between security beavers, tuba rehearsals in a mausoleum, government-inflicted pigment removal from the bills of live toucans, and bowling ball races in a lighthouse. As debates go, this one rages.
Tulpas
(Selektion) Used 5xCD $25.00
A generous and wide-ranging collection of “reinterpretations and transformations” of Ralf Wehowsky’s 1990s work by Artificial Memory Trace, Aube, Ramon Bauer, Marc Behrens, Brume, Contrastate, Crawl Unit, Peter Duimelinks, John Duncan, Werner Durand, Michael Gendreau, David Grubbs, Idea Fire Company, Ryoji Ikeda, Antanas Jasenka, Eric Lanzillotta, Francisco López, Lionel Marchetti, Koji Marutani, Roel Meelkop, Meeuw, Jérôme Noetinger, Noise-Maker’s Fifes, Jim O’Rourke, Peter Rehberg, RLW, Runzelstirn & Gurglestock, Bruce Russell, Minoru Sato, Jos Smolders, Asmus Tietchens, Giancarlo Toniutti, Toy Bizarre, Toshiya Tsunoda, Frans de Waard, Ralf Wehowsky, and Achim Wollscheid. Tulpas “combines two major aspects of his work,” clarifies All Music Guide, “Pieces … in a permanent state of flux (as witnessed by the number of times RLW has reworked his own pieces over the years), and the collaborations, which provide … new material and new impulses…. Different participants received different inputs, ranging from a score to sequences on floppy disk to original sound material on DAT. The starting points range from … recent pieces (including seven interpretations of Nameless Victims) to earliest work with P16.D4…. The degree of collaboration also varies, in some cases involving several exchanges of material. When all the pieces had been delivered, Wehowsky edited, remastered, and sequenced them.” In a cloth-bound book with 40 pages of essays, notes, photos, and sketches.
Views
(Anomalous) Used CD $3.00
The P16.D4 founder’s first truly solo release, featuring four new compositions based on instrumental improvisations, using simple devices (tone-generators, percussion toys, music boxes, electric toothbrush and electric guitar) played in unusual ways. The first three tracks focus on one of the sound sources while the last combines elements from the previous three to make something else. The disc opens with a 20-minute piece of mysterious and drifting electronic tones. Other tracks highlight very tactile sounds and bring a much more live element to his work. Punched barcode
When Freezing Air Stings Like Ice I Shall Breathe Again
(Streamline) Used CD $8.00
This very quiet album from the mid ’90s “often borders on the imperceptible with silence as structural consideration,” explains Resonance. “Imperceptibility goes hand in hand with intangibility and sounds having very few referential angles. There’s a whole lot of mystery here. A half-light, a veil over a doorway to another world. Absolutely beautiful.”