Christian Wolfarth percussion

Christian Wolfarth - cymbals

"Between 2009 and 2011, Swiss percussionist Christian Wolfarth released four 7"s presenting eight short examples of his playing. Utilising purely acoustic methods, they varied between remarkably electronic sounding drones to clattering asymmetrical rhythms with quite a range in between, and showed the process of Wolfarth finding a voice in what was already a widely researched area of sound. Scheer is a new solo disc of two pieces that consolidate those experiments in extended works. This time Wolfarth uses just cymbals, which is easily forgotten and at times almost unbelievable - the warmth underlying his bowed drones has a purity rarely heard elswhere. Scheer is a stunningly well-conceived and executed construction that shifts suddenly from long, intense drone sections to brief, viciously sharp percussive parts with an atmosphere of oppressive, imminent danger present throughout."

Richard Pinnell (The Wire 361, march 2014)
 

„One of the more exciting players of percussion music, at least for me, is Christian Wolfarth. Perhaps because his music is not always sounding like percussion music, but that might not be the only reason. Wolfarth released an excellent series of 7″ records in which he played real time his kit and more often than not it sounded like something else. Here he plays cymbals only, and to a certain extend that is what we hear indeed. Certainly in the opening minutes of ‘Scheer 1′ this is the case. It’s hard to say what he uses to play these cymbals, here or further down the line but it might include anything that makes a sound: sticks, stones, styrofoam or shavers – translated in Dutch ‘Scheer’ would mean ‘Shave’. And perhaps he uses all sorts of motorik devices on these cymbals and thus generates a wealth of overtones. Maybe he uses a bow, maybe more than one. This sort of overtone playing is quite important on this album which consists of two pieces, but it’s not exclusively done with overtones. There is a bit of ‘stick’ playing to, here and there, and the recording is warm and beautiful. Very spacious as one feels the presence of the acoustic space in which the music was played and recorded. Sometimes reminding me of Jason Kahn – who wrote the liner notes – or drone masters like Radigue, especially the deep end drone of ‘Scheer 2′, but going through various moods and changes, Wolfarth has created a fine album of his own making, free of any reference or influence, it seems to me. A work of fine composition, me thinks, rather than improvisation.“

Frans de Waard (Vital Weekly 913, 2014)