Review 5: TOUCHING EXTREMES

[-HYPH-] - Alter.tenacio (Tourette)

Music for audiovisual performances composed by Nicolas Wiese, engendered through an excellent work of juxtaposition of pre-existing environmental sources and real instruments (xylophone, double bass, alto sax and clarinet). Besides Wiese, other musicians involved include Nice New Outfit, John Hughes and Lars Scherzberg. No qualms about concepts even remotely associated to "chords" or "melodies" here: we're instantly incinerated by a succession of loud noises, ghost-like or otherwise warped voices, free-climbing electronics and metropolitan echoes. But there's no risk of becoming tired: the composer knows when it's time to stop, so that intervals of almost complete quietness are utilized as a much needed relief amidst the carnage of samples and the crescendos of anguish characterizing the large part of the record. Essentially, this sound like latter-day musique concrete with a tendency to nervous breakdown: all sounds seem designed to create anxiety in the listener, who feels perennially surrounded by something scarcely comprehensible yet unpreventable. The mechanics of intrusive imagination are put at work heavily, and often the results are not exactly what an ordinary individual would auspicate. This stuff might unsettle, or cancel at least part of your confidences; it surely makes us think hard about how wrong certain artistic canons are, especially after listening to the conclusive "Suspend values", as disconcerting a piece as you can find. A highly recommended release.

Review 4: SANDS ZINE sept.2008 ( Italy)

"alter.tenacio" è l'ultimo lavoro targato [-hyph-], registrato in due anni, e ricco di field recordings presi tra Canada ed Israele, Barcellona e Berlino. Per quanto mi risulta, questo è anche l'unico disco che trova pubblicazione più ufficiale su supporto industriale dalla neonata Tourrette, di cui abbiamo già parlato, ma l'essenza del lavoro, non subisce alcun tipo di trasformazione, se non il fatto di essere ancora un'ulteriore studio nelle matrici di un suono che si fa più ossessivo (quasi militante) su costellazioni spesso castrate ed invertite, mantenendo con tutta l'opera del suo autore quei caratteristici tratti pericolati e fondati su istantanee che si allungano su nanosecondi e si scompongono dall'interno. Il punto di maggiore forza del disco è il montaggio: spesso i suoni s'incartano su improvvisi deragliamenti e chiusure a scatto, e tra i segnali, in questa specie di sottomondo che sistematicamente emerge in ogni passaggio, si assiste ad una specie di lotta tra contrapposizioni. "Reset barriers" vive di questi continui spruzzi di vernice ed è una piccola mappa cartografica, dove attorno si formano e si sformano voci, frequenze, imbrattamenti, allucinazioni, paure. Una progenie di questo movimento che parte dal tentativo di fuoriuscire da qualcosa, da un quadro, da un contesto, un po' alla Viking Eggeling, in "alter.tenacio" si pone come l'insieme di storie, quasi un sistema multitimbrico, multivocale, multisonoro, che tenta continuamente di fuoriuscire da se stesso, e rifondare appieno, incastro per incastro, un certo universo astratto che non t'aspetti e che pulsa in tutta la sua strabordante sregolatezza. [...] Salvatore Borelli

Review 3: Eric Lanzillotta / BIXOBAL

[-hyph-]
"alter.tenacio"
CD Tourette 004 (2008)

Here we've got soundscapes, signals, police helicopter, human voices and a few acoustic instruments put into a digital blender to paint a fractured sonic picture. The original recordings are by large messed with via heavy processing and editing resulting in a very »Electroacoustic« sound affair. While it might sound at home on the INA GRM or empreintes DIGITALes labels, this disc has a few harsher jumps and glitches than is normally heard from those institutions' releases. There are quieter moments here, but what seems to stand out the most is busy sections where things rapidly move and combine.

Review 2: BAD ALCHEMY (german)

[-hyph-] alter.tenacio (Tourette004)

Ich hoffe, Nicolas Wiese nicht misszuverstehen, wenn ich aus seinen Klangkonstrukten einen Widerspruch zu den Widersprüchlichkeiten der herrschenden Verhältnisse heraus höre. Er zitiert den Konkret-Macher H. L. Gremliza, der das Motto vorgibt: Verlautbaren, was andere nicht hören wollen in einer von Paradoxien gebeutelten Gesellschaft. Die fortschrittlichen Kräfte finden sich als schwächliche Sozialromantiker wieder und sehen asbach aus, die Stützen der Gesellschaft erweisen sich als die einzig radikalen Wreckers of Society, die 68er sind die eigentlichen Nazis, das Gegenteil kann man nur beweisen, wenn man die Bush-Feldzüge bejubelt etc. Aber ich schweife ab. Wiese präsentiert ,pulverize dreams' for city soundscape and acoustic instruments, ,reset barriers' for demonstration soundscape and human voices, ,upgrade sirens' für sirens, feedbacks and acoustic instruments, das auf 24 Min. ausgedehnte ,suspend values' for processed e flat bass clarinet sowie eine halbe Gedenkminute. Die Klänge von Xylophon, Kontrabass, Altosax und Bassklarinette sind dabei bis zur Unkenntlichkeit verwischt, die Stadtlandschaften erweiterte Kampfzonen des Stresses, der Aggression und der abstrakten Anästhesie. Halbwegs der Pulverisierung entkommen, obwohl verhackstückt, die Stimmen, jedoch nur als Stottern und Rabarbern. Die ,suspendierten Werte' sind ein Exerzitium in Seufzen, Zwitschern und Blubbern (Klappengeräusche) und in seiner reduzierten Subtilität fast schon wieder schön. [BA 58 rbd]

Review 1: Vital Weekly

[-HYPH-] - ALTER-TENACIO (CD by Tourette)

With a name like [-Hyph-] its not easy to search back issues for previous reviews, but it seems it has been over two years that we reviewed music by Nicolas Wiese (not related to John) who records under this banner. Likewise, the label has no website printed on the cover, and their no other information, so try searching Tourette on the internet - goddammit. This Wiese is from Berlin where he composes his electro-acoustic music using instruments played by others. There is xylophone, double bass, alto saxophone, bass clarinet (which he plays himself, actually) as well as field recordings from Canada, police helicopter and human voices. Before I compared this with the 'never quiet' music of Brume. There is always something happening here. No second silence seems to be permitted. Wiese uses the computer to treat his sounds beyond belief, or rather: beyond recognition. It seems to me that he tries to tell us a story, as there is a multitude of voices to be detected in this work, but it's not easy to grasp that story. The titles seem to give a clue however: Pulverize Dreams, Reset Barriers, Upgrade Sirens and Suspend Values (the latter is called track 5 on the cover, meaning there is one track without a title). Maybe it has to do with idealism versus state control (or perhaps any sort of control really), I don't know. What I do know is that the music is very much along the lines of @C, reviewed elsewhere: very vibrant, very free in approach and result, composed from the original ideas of musique concrete, but with a strong touch of his own. Perhaps not entirely new (either), but it's all done with great care and style. Before I said good to see it released and not just a radio piece, now I can safely say: great to see this on CD, rather than the fleeting format of CDR. (FdW)