Christian Wolfarth percussion

Frantz Loriot - viola
Jason Kahn - analogue synthesizer
Christian Wolfarth - percussion

The first release of the group Loriot/Kahn/Wolfarth. Recorded during our European tour in October 2022. Handpainted covers by Jason Kahn. Limited edition of 200.

 

'This Swiss trio combines two pre-existing duos, each which includes percussionist Christian Wolfarth. The possibility that the combination would scramble already established dynamics may have been amplified by the uncertain about what Jason Kahn, who has cycled through several different instruments in recent years, would play. His tools of choice this time were analogue electronics and radio, whose charched abrasions contrast felicitously with the scrape of Loriot's unamplified viola and Wolfarth's restless patter and pitiless scrapes. While no one here plays gently, neither do they get particulary loud; the listener is invited to listen actively and project their attention into the music's blind corners and empty spaces.'

Bill Meyer (The Wire 472, June 2023)

'In October 2022, Kahn played electronics with his trio, including Franzt Loriot (viola) and Christian Wolfarth on percussion. They stopped in Köln to play a concert on their first tour as a trio. Quite an interesting piece, in which the percussion and viola sound, most of the time, quite like one expects, but with Kahn's electronics being the oddball here. His contribution
provides a more abstract side to the music, and maybe he drags the other two into playing, at times, a more abstract approach. There is a fine balance between the acoustic and the electronic, with the drums playing sounds that are sometimes very electronic. Another balance well kept is the quiet-loud approach and the short versus long process. The music has a radicalism that we don't hear much, not chaotic or nerve-wracking, but piercing frequencies and screeching tones. I can imagine that in concert this sounds great!'

Frans deWaard (Vital Weekly, May 2023)
 

'Put out on the circuit via Jason Kahn's self-run Editions label on March 24th, 2k23 is "Köln", a 34 minutes spanning one track album which sees the Zurich-based artist performing in collaboration with Frantz Loriot and Christian Wolfarth on viola and percussion respectively. Released as a limited edition of 200 copies with hand- painted covers the extended piece, recorded live in Cologne in October, 2k22, sees the triumvirate of artists embark on a journey into the realms of freeform Improvisation including non-linear percussion, irregular and unusual treatment of the viola strings from unhinged plucking to brutal, creaky bowing accompanied by probably modular retrofuturist background space bleeps, brittle high frequency emissions, minimalist atmospheres as well as upswelling Noize, indistinct scrapings, swirlings and occasional rhythmic patterns, all falling in place in a somewhat field recorded-fashion which leaves the listener as a close by, near field observer of both chance and communication prevalent within the intimate interaction of the three participants. One for a limited avantgarde aware audience, this.'

Baze.Djunkiii (Nitestylez.de, April 2023)