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RLW - The Pleasure of burning down Churches

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Black Rose Recordings BRCD 07-1009 Release Year: 2007 Note: dark, disturbing, almost misantrophic sound collages; musique concrete doom?; 4 masterful solo compositions using many field recordings & found sounds Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info Der nette Titel des neuen, insgesamt sehr düsteren, fast schon mistantrophen RLW-Werks basiert zum Teil auf Feldaufnahmen einer Vietnam-Reise die er in den 90er unternahm, wo ein US-Vietnam-Veteran stolz auf dort zerbombte Heiligtümer verwies.... Das Gesamt-Klangbild variiert zwischen field recordings und recht ruhigen, aber angespannten z.T. collagierten Soundscapes und kulminiert in einer höchst aggressiven Nachrichtenabfolge auf einem Anruf-Beantworter, die einen kaum kalt lässt. 4 tracks, 44 Minuten. "Solo music by RLW (Ralf Wehowsky) is a pretty rare thing. For RLW the act of music making lies in creating something with others, wether or not by meeting up or exchanging sounds by (e-)mail. 'Views', reviewed in Vital Weekly 413, was a rare instance of a solo work and now, quite some time and many collaborations later, 'The Pleasure Of Burning Down Churches' is a new solo work. The churches of the title hark back to meeting a US veteran in Vietnam who told RLW that he liked bombing churches because they were easy targets. Field recordings from Vietnam also form the input of 'More Churches'. It's hard to see this otherwise than as a political piece. Just as the guy who rants against an answer machine on 'Helplessly Friendly' - it's hard to decipher his German, but it's sure not very friendly. I don't think I had expected RLW to overtly political and he perhaps he isn't. But it seems to me as if RLW isn't using sounds just for it's sheer beauty. On these two pieces he wants to bring a message across. On the opening piece 'Towards A Decontamination Breakthrough' this is less obvious. Quite a drone like piece of music, quite unusual for RLW. Collage techniques are to be found in 'More Churches' and 'Helplessly Friendly', the first with quite a nice intro of car horns and the second has a scary feel to it, both through the voices and the spiraling sounds of 'paper string actions'. In 'Burning Pianos' things move into the abstract again, not political view, just the exploration of a piano. RLW's work moves on the edge of musique concrete, but never looses it's touch with industrial music on hand and with microsound on the other. But it defies these categories and can perhaps only be classified as RLW music. Great work, but perhaps you shouldn't believe me; I find much of his work great!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]