Christian Wolfarth percussion

The creative process, a means by which creative work finds its way into realization, has consistently reconfigured its basic principles as the content of art has evolved. The choices we make, the decisions that make sense to us, reveal our nature and our passion to assemble the things we wish to share with others as an experience. We are offered a number, as a title for this recording, which we have seen before and we'll see once more, as Christian releases this second of three chapters of “39" for us to explore.

The vocabulary is as familiar as it is austere. We mostly recognize what we hear but this is immediately superseded by the organization of these familiar sounds into periodic fields that spatialize rhythmic relations and redistribute density. These choices can sometimes feel arbitrary but their temporary universes belie an acoustic science which intentionally draw us toward how similar layered frequencies, carved mostly from one source, blur away from that source into a meta universe. Often the rhythmic organization of the source material is transformed by its layered collective continuum.

One of the mysteries of abstract art is how rigorous methodologies can surpass their own logic to provide a content that need’s no explanation. We easily grasp there is a system underlying how the sonic material is ordered, but equally marvel at how a stone falling in water can logically transition to a gentle microscopic tremolo. It’s as if the crafting of these incongruent elements provide a nutrition to the overall experience of this music. Ultimately the intuitive compositional choices that Christian discovers in his process, deftly balance proportions and relations that adhere to the central organizing principle of 3, 9 and 39.

Gerry Hemingway