Satanic Inventions
By RLW
CD Digipak (BRCD 22-1021)
This album from Ralf Wehowsky (aka RLW, founder of P16.D4) is a critical examination of COVID-19 as a cultural phenomenon and a comparison to the black plague of the Middle Ages: "Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc". The result? A true festival or irrationalism, telling us more about the human mental state than about the pandemic.
In the 14th century, Ars subtiloir (subtler art) became a musical style. It was rhythmic and notional, more complex. Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past.
Condensed by RLW into 15 tracks, this is a challenging journey of heavy deconstructions, transmorphed drones, and treated source sounds. Surrealistic musique concrete! Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak.
"There have been many documentations on differences and similarities of the pandemics, which plagued mankind over the last centuries and millennia. Comparing the black plague and covid-19 there are - besides the obvious differences (more victims in absolute numbers
because of increasing overpopulation, decreasing number of victims in relative numbers because of the evolution of scientific knowledge) - astonishing similarities how people dealt with the diseases. Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats: Surely satanic inventions, spread by elites, papists, jews, communists, etc, are the source of all calamities? Human stupidity never should be underestimated. For tunately, history teaches that the misery ends
someday, even if the pandemic meets with war, famine etc. Amidst similarities new powers do grow. In the late 14th century ars subtilior must be pointed out. Liberation from religious themes, breaking open
rhythm, introducing bizarre chromatic passages, odd dissonances, etc.
Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past. Some short extracts from documentary recordings and a few fragments of ars nova/subtilior compositions have been transfor med, extended, fragmented and recontextualised, from which the 15 pieces of this release are built.
because of increasing overpopulation, decreasing number of victims in relative numbers because of the evolution of scientific knowledge) - astonishing similarities how people dealt with the diseases. Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats: Surely satanic inventions, spread by elites, papists, jews, communists, etc, are the source of all calamities? Human stupidity never should be underestimated. For tunately, history teaches that the misery ends
someday, even if the pandemic meets with war, famine etc. Amidst similarities new powers do grow. In the late 14th century ars subtilior must be pointed out. Liberation from religious themes, breaking open
rhythm, introducing bizarre chromatic passages, odd dissonances, etc.
Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past. Some short extracts from documentary recordings and a few fragments of ars nova/subtilior compositions have been transfor med, extended, fragmented and recontextualised, from which the 15 pieces of this release are built.