Florian Wittenburg
regenprassein
GERMANY EDITION WANDWELWEISER RECORDS EWR 2306 CD (2024)
Enigmatic, mysterious, withdrawn…just some of the words in my well-thumbed lexicon that appear when attempting to account for the work of this German composer, whose records have often appeared rather hermetically-sealed, wrapped up in a plain white envelope, awaiting the patient attention of a diligent listener. He has applied his skills to classical-ish compositions before, working for piano or strings, and also shown great attention to detail in his structures.
Today he turns his face towards the genre or mode of field recordings, phonography, and documentary sounds; or does he? The track titles indicate we’re hearing recordings of a radiator / heating system coming to life, the rain falling on a metal roof, and a clock ticking; yet the credit notes indicate FW is working with synths, electronics, and a sound design environment called KYMA. It’s possible he fed his home recordings into this processing set-up, in order to create the effects he’s seeking. “The album is about daily sounds”, he mentions in his enclosed letter, almost implying he’s making a meta-commentary rather than embarking down the more prosaic route often followed by many phonographers. The point of regenprassein is that Wittenburg assumes we don’t pay enough attention to these small background sounds, either because we’re so familiar with them or because they’re virtually inaudible, or our brain conditions us to tune them out. Or some combination of all of these. His plan is to make us aware, and to bring out their “musical” qualities.
This all may sound familiar to some readers…I think it’s a line of enquiry that’s been showing up in experimental sound art for about 20-25 years now, and most of the artistes who do it or talk about it (from Disinformation to Aphex Twin, and Merzbow who spoke about other musicians recording their washing machines, and David Toop trying to listen to the sound of his own house) are always ready with a John Cage quote to express their alignment with the avant-garde, and Wittenburg likewise confirms that his regenprassein is “in the line of John Cage”. Although the record is extremely quiet, and you have to strain hard to perceive the details of the sound events on offer, there is something enduring about the way he’s managed to compress so much information into this space, as if a form of purification had taken place. It’s possible his editing, selection and processing work has led directly to this very compacted statement, however minimal it may be.
Still very enigmatic though, and I’m not sure if I am brought any closer to perceiving or understanding the nature of rainwater or clocks by this record, although I doubt that was his intention in the first place.
From 20/02/2024.