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Courtis/Wehowsky, "Return of the Stone Spirits"
Anla Courtis and Ralf Wehowsky combine their talents to create an album of distorted, erratic textures that scrape the eardrums to inspired, ecstatic effect. The spirits they conjure don’t seem very happy to be awakened, unleashing their exquisite vengeance with a wrath like the Furies.
Most of these tracks were recorded live in the sense that there were no further alterations of sounds after the fact other than minor edits and mixing, and appear much the same way as when they were formed. Only one track was created from layering two separate recordings, but it’s an aspect that not easily noticed.
The first couple of songs are the most jarring. "Cristalizacion Espontanea" starts with a chittering sizzle that's soon cut by what sounds like a distorted power drill demolishing stone, giving rise to insects angered at the intrusion. The next track is even wilder and louder as extended distorted passages interspersed with brief bursts of melancholy seep through the cracks, capped by tortured screams of amplified metal. The album gets quieter from here as bass and feedback drone solemnly while something like scissors cuts against the track before household machinery wails like sirens signaling trespasses, ascending warning tones that give way to open vents. The quietest track is "Han Sido Atrapados Antes Que Se Agote El Reloi De Arena…" with sounds reminiscent of ripped packing tape, a dot matrix printer, falling objects, and an unwinding toy. Quiet and cacophony combine on the monster "…Mit Ihren Weidenringen Die Steingesiter Zu Fangen," seemingly made from syncopated muffler riffs and a large, imploding machine. Feedback billows in the ears and howls like a form of communication, perhaps the voices of the stone spirits themselves.
As noisy as their music is, none of it has any irritating squalls or high frequency screeches that send me searching for earplugs. The textural balance is impeccable and held me fully enthralled for the entirety of the disc. Music this abstract can be hit or miss, but on this album Courtis and Wehowsky carve out my skull in the most blissful way.
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