Charly Steiger's
designs are not wildly beautiful, however, they are solid, consistent,
refined and clear. Throughout the four CDs and one book sitting
in front of me, there is a reference to exaggerated, stylized text
and trim color selection. The cardstock design on all four CDs is
the same gatefold sleeve without digipack's alternative commodity's
boring tastefulness. Wehowsky and Drumm's CD cover is quite beautiful,
its large, pale blue type floats behind small yellow green words.
These covers do not add to the sounds, they are not philosophical
or conceptual continuations. Their neutrality is breathing room
that allows each work to be discovered without undue weight.
Achim Wollscheid
- Selected WorksSelektion SB04
Although totally
understandable, a catalogue is a difficult and ultimately vain attempt
by an artist to document their art. Catalogues with drawings or
photos seem to work better, even if the original quality of light
and surface has been slicked down to magazine glossy. However, installations,
especially kinetic and audio installations, are totally lost in
book form. So, I tried to look at this book as a way for this artist
to pass ideas along in their sketchbook form. I enjoyed the book
very much.
At first I questioned
this work, not for its autonomy, but for its overall form and construction.
I didn't like all the wires, and I especially dislike sensors as
a rule for living. (Their stupid trickery is not a substitute for
organic interaction, I am just not impressed by automatic doors.)
Also, and more weighty, I dislike minimalism and this tradition
of first impact with no story afterwards. Oh, and another rule for
living: I avoid public art vehemently, its agenda is rarely above
kitsch, and yet it is not bad enough to be fun kitsch itself. So,
there were many things stacked against liking Wollscheid's book.
But as I'm reading
and looking at the dry, cool, technical photos I begin to see something
flickering. Of course, I am not looking at the installations themselves,
but their 2x4 inch color photo documentation. But I can definitely
see something going on when 3 rows of 3 windows in an apartment
building flick on and off to confuse and entertain people sitting
at a traffic light in their cars. There is a glimmer of fun behind
the circuits, as well as a funny passion for seemingly useless demonstrations
of electricity, like a junior high school student at the state fairground.
There is a funny touch of boyish cruelty behind the dryness and
precision of this work.
But also, as seen
in the precious little house designed by Seifert/Stockmann, I get
the image of a home stereo buff turned a little fanatic. This system
works so alternating microphones and amplifiers can either electrically
bring sounds from outside to the inside, or sound from inside to
the outside. This is a strange convolution of public and private
space, as well as a technical demonstration, both of which could
have been solved by opening some of those windows the architects
so thoughtfully designed into the house. Nevertheless, the house
is gorgeous, and the piece works on the same wave of almost excessive
simplicity in the idea, yet realized with complicated cables.
The funniest part
of the book comes from Wollschied's artist statement at the beginning
which strips the opinion of anyone looking at his work by a simple
and clever play on importance: "opinion is therefore not the
artistic work, but the onlooker's or participant's feedback, which
the work itself instigates as a function." So instead of being
a work of art which is subject to the normal imperfect human grading
system, Wolleschied maintains that his work is successful if it
evokes feedback ANY feedback from the viewer, since that was its
main point from the beginning. So he has built himself a shield
to comfort himself against anyone who does not like him. Although
I do not agree with him, I can understand this need, and I like
this idea.
Nmperign - Selektion
09
The opening notes
describe a few beautiful and engaging thoughts about their sounds.
"And we must keep a look out for these
fluorescence wherever, whenever and however they pop up, because
they represent news from the very edge of our consciousness."
For the audio
demonstration of these notes, they use trumpet and sax to
make mouthy bubbly airy balloon blows and screaks. These sounds
are richly varied, obviously studied, and well intended by the musicians.
What quickly came into my mind and then remained with me for the
entire CD was that this sounds like flatulation. Putting air in
and out of the body - respiration - is one of the top three essentials
for any organism, so it is very logical for someone to explore sounds
associated with this process. (Upper body and lower...)
My problem is that
gerbil farts are very funny, and this CD is very serious.
"If you listen carefully, you will hear
the human spirit dancing."
--Goes the final statement to their introduction. Yes I agree that
there is a certain kind of dancing going on, but is it from life
or garbonzos? (And what is the difference afterall?)
The other problem
I have with this CD is its devices --rubbery lips on the sax, sputtering
on the trumpet-- begin to repeat itself quickly. This would not
be a problem if the composition were more intense. As it stands,
traditional improv dynamics (build up, lots of fluttering, climax,
long silences punctuated by a dying rat...) only heightens the sense
of repetition without much variation.
Its strong points
lie in its focus, inspiration, spirit and novelty. However, it has
some wind to air out.
Kozo Inada - Selektion
07
A slow moving,
barely perceptible experience. Sound events, reminiscent of airplane,
bullet train, or whitenoise travel rather than musical structures.
While the sounds deny music, its structure is fully classical, using
an not varied build, climax and release form. Actually mid energy
all the way through, Inada speaks of "harmony without perception",
that makes a poetic sense it is hard to put a finger on. These sounds
are natural and human made at the same time, and could be compared
to a vapor trail, or a blinking satellite in the visual world.
Harmony - mathematical
fractional correctness - is an overused idea, and seems to be the
only thing that matters in the sound world. Even in "noise"
music here with Inada, he uses the word 3 times in his short liner
notes. This is perhaps indicative that people have enough pollution
and saturated suffering in their lives - we want to clean up, make
a utopian harmonic world - we want relief and we want it now. Inada
offers a clean space for contemplation, his only technique seems
to be to build up and break down combinations of wide band noise
in an hour long: wwwwwoooooooOOOOOssshhhhhheeeeeeEEEOOshhh
I'm not convinced
that this CD lives up to its own liner notes, but there is definitely
a shy presence of a struggling human being making waves through
the air with his hand.
Kevin Drumm and
Ralf Wehowsky- Selektion 030
These sounds are
high, scratchy, trebly, tremble, jingle, and sharp. The movement
and positioning of the disc seems improvised, yet fairly layered
and cut, indicating later editing, which is where their description
comes in "Musique Concrete realized 1999/2000 in Chicago and
Mainz".
At times I am not
pleased with the composition, at minute 5 in track 2, the high pitch
has continued for a long time, and seems to serve nothing in particular.
Sometimes composing does not matter. By minute 7, Drumm is salivating
on his guitar, drips of fm riffs are hollow and compete with a lower
dribbling pitch, it could stop, or keep on going. (It keeps on going
for another 6 minutes before two pitches come in close to each other
warbling fast.)
The overall technique
is very studied and excellent. I wonder about the purpose for making
this. Well drawn lines that offer nothing but the art. I alternate
between liking these lines, and thinking they are hollow. The sounds
are certainly earnest, perhaps arch. Here we have two serious guys
making very intense sounds that are not music, but that is neither
here nor there. It ends badly, it stops at the warble, and still
nothing but the typefont, like admiring a book in Korean, which
I unfortunately do not understand. I like it anyway.
tmrx "difficulte
de comprendre dans le bruit" - Selektion 03
Vacuum cleaner
opens the CD, it sounds like comes from a hall. It is cut short,
something starts to beep, then the vacuum cleaner in the hall, resonating
with its own engine, plus some harmonics and a few people talking.
Sharp cut to the beeps, soon a deep organlike pulse, a few clicks
and the chase is on.
The composition
is very intense, and it works with space between mass like a Corot
giant dark, oil on canvas. It has a mystery and drama that feels
like an old radio play, a good one. The title says something like
difficult to understand in the raw, which alludes to the process
outlined in the liner notes.
Some sort of affect/no
affect, blending compositional tool was used to treat field recordings
to make the piece. The diagram and this method seems totally unnecessary
for the enjoyment of the tense, strange audio. The piece sounds
anything but a diagrammatic study on the properties of sound. It
has only a peripheral sense of grid, the main body carries itself
along like a story without a protagonist.