05/01/2023
RLW "Agnostic Diaries" CD $10
Black Rose Recordings / Dirter Promotions (U.K.) BRCD 20-1016 / DPROMCD156
"The common factor linking these recordings are projects that were never fully realised. The basic recordings started in 2005, however the period of reworking and transformation (2016 to 2017) is more important. All vocal parts and general revisions were done during this period. Agnosticism was the basic idea for the vocal/musical re-working of the pieces with the vocals implanted into the basic pieces, not just as simple overdubs, but inserted in a dialectical confrontation with the basic sounds and structures.
Track 1 relies on George Antheil's 'Ballet Mecanique'; track 3 on a co-operation with Anla Courtis using some sounds by O***y Lodge planned for the Gerald Jupitter-Larssen series which stopped far too early. Track 4 includes RLW’s parts for a collaboration with Marc Baron whilst track 6 includes vocals by Dylan Nyoukis, also used for a collaborative CDR with him.
Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected electronic composers of our day and was also a founder member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today’s experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O’Rourke, Achim Wollscheid and Lionel Marchetti. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact, it could be all of these.
Ltd to 500 copies" packaged in mini-LP sleeve.
RLW "Satanic Inventions" CD $10
Black Rose Recordings (England) BRCD 22-1021
"This album from Ralf Wehowsky (aka RLW, founder of P16.D4) is a critical examination of COVID-19 as a cultural phenomenon and a comparison to the black plague of the Middle Ages: 'Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc.' The result? A true festival or irrationalism, telling us more about the human mental state than about the pandemic. In the 14th century, Ars subtiloir (subtler art) became a musical style. It was rhythmic and notional, more complex. Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past. Condensed by RLW into 15 tracks, this is a challenging journey of heavy deconstructions, transmorphed drones, and treated source sounds. Surrealistic musique concrete! Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak."
RLW "Tunnel" CD $10
Sonoris (France) SNS-20
"RLW (aka Ralf Wehowsky) whose work deals in the transformation of prerecorded sound material, the permutation of the senses and the metamorphosis of the sensitive, has been a proponent of long-distance collaborations for decades, long before lockdown made this manner of working popular. This goes way back to his beginnings with Permutative Distortion or P16.D4 and the Selektion label. He is a strict and disciplined composer, a formal organizer of discernible objects. 'Tunnel' presents five pieces built using fragments of Annette Krebs's voice. Far from being anecdotal, the work reveals a true alchemy. Vocal prints are converted into roaring metallic textures lost in an endless sonic vortex, both sculptural and masterful." digipak.
RLW "Views" CD $8
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM27
In the 25th year of Ralf Wehowsky's recording career, Anomalous Records presents his first truly solo release featuring four new compositions based on instrumental improvisations. Using simple devices (tone-generators, percussion toys, music boxes, an electric toothbrush and an electric guitar) played in unusual ways, he builds up layers of each sound to create a suite of textural pieces. Each of the four tracks takes on an identity unique from the others, as the first three each 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 21-minute piece of mysterious and drifting electronic tones. Other tracks highlight very tactile sounds and bring a much more 'live' element to his work, while retaining his skillful use of dynamics and placement of silence which have gained him so many fans. Previous releases by RLW have seen him collaborate with such diverse artists as Achim Wollscheid, bernhard günter, Andrew Chalk, David Grubbs, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, and Bruce Russell. He is the founder of the now defunct group P16.D4 and the still active label Selektion. Other releases of his work have appeared on Table of the Elements, trente oiseaux, Streamline, Perdition Plastics, Swill Radio, Meeuw Muzak, and Metamkine.
Spontaneous event and reconstruction shadow each other closely here. Four self-programming occillators, controlled by wheels rather than a keyboard, interact to create a densely striated corridor or sound on the protracted opening composition. Shorter, more understated but no less arresting, the next two pieces have the feel of secret rituals conducted in private. On the first, four spontaneous musical actions, mostly involving Orff percussion instruments designed for children, are reworked into a profoundly meditative sequence, marked by the chiming of bells. The second, in which two music boxes are manipulated, squeezed and muted, transforms the mechanistic renderings of half-forgotten tunes into a series of encrypted memories. Coming in on a single thin line of feedback, the fourth and final composition combines elements of the previous three, plus recordings of electric guitar run backwards and forwards into an uncluttered but complex series of structures and interactions.
Serious minded yet subtle, unhurried and unforced, Views is a work of deep coherence, vitality of content and unquestionable richness.
Ken Hollings in The Wire issue 243 May 2004
Ralf Wehowsky & Richard Francis "R" CD $10
Auf Abwegen (Germany) AATP88
"First collaboration between Ralf Wehowsky (Germany) and Richard Francis (New Zealand). On a trip from Auckland over Worpswede to Eggenstein Richard Francis visited Ralf Wehowsky on the weekend of September 28th and 29th, 2013. For the recording sessions taking place during these two days Richard used his analogue synth and electronics, while Ralf had a desktop and a laptop for producing digital electronic sounds at hand. For bridging the antagonistic sound worlds the input of one sound system was fed with the output of the other and vice versa. For this release two of the tracks (Piece 1, Untitled 1) are presented as they were recorded, with only slight pan and volume adjustments. The third track (Piece 3) is composed of fragments of a longer improvisation, time-shifting the contributions of the two artists against each other to constitute a system of non-simultaneity. Ralf Wehowsky is a German experimental composer, active since the 80s (with the group P16.D4 then). His work is split between solo releases (under the moniker RLW) and collaborations, exploring all fields between media exchange and realtime presence recordings. Collaboration partners include among others Lionel Marchetti, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Bruce Russell, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Anla Courtis, Contrastate, Kohei Matsunaga, Annette Krebs - and Richard Francis. Richard Francis is a sound artist from New Zealand working with electronics and found recordings. He's released solo and collaborative albums on Senufo Editions, Entr’acte, Glistening Examples, Korm Plastics and Aufabwegen. Recent collaborators include Ralf Wehowsky, Frans de Waard, Anla Courtis, Bruce Russell, Mattin, Jason Kahn and Francisco Lopez." gatefold sleeve.
