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Living theory without anecdotes

by Nicolas Wiese

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Hand numbered edition in cut-out cardboard slipcase, with text inlay

    Includes unlimited streaming of Living theory without anecdotes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Due to idle 06:05
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2.
Subfertile 11:04
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3.
Der Elefant im Porzellankäfig 06:33
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4.
El Jardín Revisitado 20:02
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about

It’s not unlike being invited to make your camp for two weeks inside a Mark Rothko painting, with no outside communication allowed.”
— The Sound Projector (UK)

“Musik, die man am Besten zusammen mit einem Stück experimenteller Poesie hört, oder wenn man die Wirklichkeit mal wieder in all ihrer Abstraktion etwas greifbarer braucht.”
— De:Bug (DE)

“Auf Corvo wird konsequent Wert auch auf gutes Aussehen gelegt. Dass das eigentlich nur auf Vinyl und im Format 31 x 31 cm geht, versteht sich dann quasi von selbst. ”
— Bad Alchemy (DE)


The album Living Theory Without Anecdotes conflates Nicolas Wiese’s acousmatic compositions from the years 2009-2011. There is a common thread: all four compositions are constructed out of samples from acoustic instrument and object recordings, and mostly have rather floating structures with slow crescendos and little disruptions.
A significant element in Wiese’s soundworks is the spatial layering – there is an architecture of foregrounds, backgrounds and different midgrounds that integrate an analoge room feel, subdivide the dynamics in a manner unusual for a ‘non-played’ music and therefore question the obvious digitality in most of today’s electronic productions.

The longest piece, filling the entire B side El Jardín Revisitado, is based on a 2 hours long multiscreen video / ensemble piece conceived together with composer Tom Rojo Poller. Sound manipulations from the original instruments have been taken into further processing by Wiese afterwards, serving as a pool for a series of audiovisual solo performances. The album version contains compositional ‘cells’ which vaguely resemble the original ensemble piece, altogether employing them in a very different meta-structure.
Der Elefant im Porzellankäfig (the elefant in a cage of porcelain) has been developed as a re-assembly of a few short samples delivered by German sound collagist Thorsten Soltau. Most of Soltau’s samples have been played back and re-recorded through tiny speakers, partially coverd by plastic and other sounding / sound-blocking matter. The result is a merging of borrowed sounds and their haptic transformation – layered, cut and overlapped into percussive and harmonic properties and relations that have not been there before.
Subfertile is an elegy; maybe the most elegic piece Wiese has ever written. It is comprised almost entirely of string samples, plus a few textural percussion layers recycled from Wieses ‘Breathing Gadgets’ (2004). The origin of the string instruments is impossible to track back since most sound bits have been drawn from recorded live performances, in which Wiese has used all kinds of string instrument sources.
Due To Idle is based on samples taken from the same recording sessions that have been set up for ‘El Jardín’. Additionally, Wiese performed some zither scrubbings and cello pluckings himself. The idea of the piece is a concurrence of ‘hectic’ and ‘calm’ elements, resulting in an ambiguous tempo.

credits

released December 6, 2017

Nicolas Wiese — samples, mixing desks, feedback, digitl and analogue layering

Composed, recorded, assembled by Nicolas Wiese 2009-2011
Mixed by Nicolas Wiese 2012
Mastered by Kassian Troyer
Sleeve artwork by Wendelin Büchler
Typesetting by Nicolas Wiese

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Corvo Records Berlin, Germany

Corvo Record is a label for sound art and contemporary music, founded 2010 in Berlin by Wendelin Büchler. We focus on the production of primarily vinyl records and art books. Each of the label’s release, is ambitiously produced with the highest possible sound quality and great care for both the visual and haptical aspect. This gives our releases an object-like character. ... more

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