DAVID WALLRAF – The Commune Of Nightmares

Format: tape with download postcard + 8pp booklet / download

Release date: january 26th 2024

https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-commune-of-nightmares

The new album The Commune Of Nightmares by noise artist David Wallraf is a tapeloopbased musical game of cadavre exquis, a technique developed by surrealist artists.

David Wallraf is a noise artist and theorist living in Hamburg. His artistic work deals with the repressed and uncanny sonic residues of quotidian life, crafting soundtracks for the creeping disaster we inhabit. His works have been released on numerous international tape labels. A recent interest of his is the live scoring of silent films, including works by Luis Buñuel, Maya Deren and Jean Genet. His PhD thesis Grenzen des Hörens. Noise und die Akustik des Politischen (Limits of Hearing. Noise and the Acoustics of the Political) has been published in German, an English translation is in progress.
The Commune of Nightmares stems from the idea that nightmares are the logical reverse of ‘capitalist realism’: an uncanny undercurrent of daily experiences and an algorithmic haunting of dreams that at the same time is a shared – communal – experience of everybody. All songs are based on tapeloops that were cut arbitrarily from a stash of cassettes, some of which found on the street, others from a stockpile of 4 track tapes recorded in the late 90s and early 2000s – a musical game of cadavre exquis played with random strangers and former versions of DW.

Tracklist:
A1 He Bit His Tongue In His Sleep
A2 Where Nothing Happens But The Wallpaper
A3 She Calls In The Airstrike
A4 Behind The Billionaire’s Graveyard
B1 They Sidestep Extinction
B2 Surrounded By The Smell Of Servitude
B3 In Nightmares Screened By Algorithms

Credits:
All music composed and recorded by David Wallraf in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, first half of 2023

FRIEDL / SIEWERT – Lichtung

Format: digifile CD / download

Release date: january 12th 2024 

https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/lichtung

REINHOLD FRIEDL (piano) meets RADIAN member MARTIN SIEWERT (guitar, electronics): Three spontaneous sonic explorations – subtle and explosive!

With over a dozen releases on Karlrecords, and a total output of more than 100 albums in general, Reinhold Friedl doesn’t need much of an introduction to anyone interested in contemporary music / avantgarde: his ensemble zeitkratzer is as respected as it is feared for its radical approach on music, and it seems redundant to mention all collaborators and projects. Friedl is known for his unique piano sound, his advanced techniques, and his musical intensity paired with precise exuberant sound constructions and consistent compositional thinking. He cooperated with musicans from Phil Niblock to Lou Reed, Mario Bertoncini (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) to Whitehouse, Laurie Anderson to Rashad Becker and works as guest professor at various universities across Europe. The “multi-talented renaissance man” (as Naut Human turned it) is also known as a specialist for Iannis Xenakis, and curates the Perihel series on Karlrecords.

„Lichtung“ is the collaboration of Friedl and no other than Vienna-based Martin Siewert, himself a highly prolific and reputated innovative guitar player and producer in groups like Radian or Trapist. Martin Siewert played with the who is who in experimental and improvised music and celebrated his strong musical identity in international collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide to Oren Ambarchi, Meg Stuart to Christian Fennesz, Sainkho Namtchylak to The Necks. Siewerts guitar play at the intersection of acoustic / electronic generated sounds is unique, evoking echoes of krautrock and musique concrete to electronic jazz and avantgarde.

“Lichtung” was recorded in Vienna: Several studio meetings condensed to three intense tracks, a statement and musical adventure between noise and silence, subtle and explosive! Two musicians, who couldn’t be more diverse, here – in every sense – they act in concert.

tracklist:
Genese (24:07)
Gestade (05:33)
Gesichte (15:46)

credits:
Reinhold Friedl: piano
Martin Siewert: guitar, electronics
recorded on june 22nd 2021 in Vienna
mix and mastering: Martin Siewert
cover photo: Thomas Herbst
layout & design: kaidoh