Christian Wolfarth

Following his two previous 7“s with ‘acoustic solo percussion’ (see Vital Weekly 687 and 706), here is the third volume. Like before it’s hard to believe its percussion music. But this time we get a detailed notes on the proceedings: side E has ‘two cymbals bowed together with one cello bow’ and side F has ‘a snare drum rubbed with a ring of styropor and two cymbals bowed together with a cello bow’ (and made me wonder how many hands Wolfarth has?). Oh, did I mention ‘no overdubs, electronics and other aids? Maybe that’s something that applies more to side F than E: the rotating sound of the styropor on the snare drum has a percussive element, with the bow bringing the oddity into the composition, but on E, the higher pitched sound of the bow and the cymbals have quite a distinctive electronic feel to it. Two more great sides from a great imaginative player. May I ask for a CD release of all four records, in due time’ – Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, August 2010
’ Three down, one to go! Swiss percussionist Wolfarth's tetralogy of seven inch solos continues with "Crystal Alien" and "Amber", two more fine but frustratingly brief (said that before) slabs of austere but typically elegant work. The A side – well, E side actually – is for a couple of cymbals bowed together with a cello bow, and "Amber" uses the same instrumentation plus a snare drum rubbed with a ring of polystyrene. Burkhard Beins would be proud of him. I see, on perusing the pages of Frans de Waard's Vital Weekly, that I'm not alone in hoping that the complete series will one day be released as a single disc (said that before last time, too) – that is, if the fourth and final instalment is as good as the first three. And I don't see why it shouldn't be. Watch this space folks.’ – Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic, 2010