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| ELL | EL CASTATA | ||||||
| ELL | devil intus mestra de la fore | ||||||
| ELL | COR | ||||||
| ELL | schmerzarie | ||||||
| ELL | E INOM RAH | ||||||
| ELL | todaycom | ||||||
| EL CASTATA • | |||||||
"...The voice - miracle Christian Wolz : breathtaking vocal improvisations that shake the walls of the auditorium..."
taz Berlin / 1992
"...There are musicans who've got quite a good voice, then there are a few who, with technical gimmics, sound as if they do, and finally there's a third category of exeptionary artists. They often disappear among the current popular musical taste because they just don't want to surrender to any musical stile. Christian Wolz, age 26, who, among the Berlin vocal artist fans, is considered the most promising new discovery, fits exactly this category."
SFB 2, Berlin / 1992
"What a voice! Sometimes mourning songs ao almost arabian strangenes, somtimes desperate screams, but mostly an unbelievably powerfull bass-voice, made use of like a real virtuoso. Vocal-cord-manipulations, resonance-miracles, sound-acrobatics. How exiting for an audience to emerge into this."
RAY - San Diego / 1991
"An unusual and courageous publication by the male counterpart of Diamanda Galas. It certainly deserves attention."
ZILLO, Germany / 1992
"...when Christian Wolz lets his voice sound through the room it sends a shiver down your spine. Screems of hounted soul..."
DER TAGESSPIEGEL, Berlin / 1992
"Within the Danse Macabre-program Christian Wolz's music is certainly the strangest and simultaneously most impressive. Seeing him live is an absolutely unpredictable and unique experience."
INDICATOR, Germany / 1992
"In terms of vocal art Christian Wolz is the most surprising record of this issue. "EL CASTATA" is almost a more classical record than an independant production."
EB METRONOM / 1992
"...so Christian Wolz, the Berlin vocal-artist, has created a an avantgarde record; and that is certainly very unique for the nineties..."
SUBLINE
Christian Wolz is a force in vocal art and El Castata (birth), his new release on Danse Macabre, combines brutal poetry, dark minimal music and powerful, haunting vocals with bass, all provided by Wolz. El Castata is the first in a trilogy about the smaller and larger contexts of human life in which fine lines are swayed across fantasy and reality, life and death, pain and more pain. His formented, desperately screaming voice is at the peak of his expression. Vocal sections that dip into virtual mantras and seemingly "speak in tougues" take listeners through deep levels of hypnotic states and whisk them away to new heights of hysteria...
CMJ / August 1992
...This was one of the weirdest CD's I've ever heard. And it's not experimental either. It sounds like Christian Wolz explored some of the different religious tribal chants from Africa, Arabia, American Indian, Greek and even eerie viking war chants. Most songs only have layers of vocals, where other songs add a little cello.
Isolation / November 1992
It’s unbelievable what this man’s got in his throat - weeping children, buzzing saws, medieval monks, tortured victims, Arabian lamentation. Of course with a little help of modern technology. But whoever has the opportunity to listen to a Christian Wolz vocal performance would probably think that this man’s got at least four vocal cords.
Christian Wolz moans and groans, screams and whimpers, hackles, coos, wails and grumbles, and adds his own sound mixes ranging from ambient to touches of Arabian or Gregorian chanting.
Der Tagesspiegel / 1992
"EI Castata" is one of the most unconventional and extraordinary Danse Macabre releases, which documents the progressivity of this label and its artists. Christian wolz. a Berlin born artist, puts all his efforts and talent into expression vocal art Cliristian‘s voice is the only instrument he uses for the expression of life, suffering and dying. There are also some other instruments on -EI Castata-, but all of them are pushed into background, because Christain‘s incredible voice still remains as the main medium. EI Castata" is the first part of trilogy.: Birth-Life-Death and this masterpiece is thousands rniles awav from everydavs music cliches. An excellent tvocal perforrnance, which can be compared to irrestible and unforgetable vocal style of Lisa Gerrard. ' This eccentric and exceptional piece of work will be appreciated by all the listeners who are familiar with this kind of vocal art.
devil intus mestra de la fore •
Christian Wolz / "devil intus mestra de la fore" - live and cd
Christian Wolz has often been compared to Diamanda Galás, a comparison which doesn't go beyond the fact that both are vocal artists. His debuet-album El Castata was crowned with the track "Ba chain" on the Danse Macabre Sampler II. In the Netherlands he still isn't well accepted, he wasn't able to absorb the audience on the Wave Revival at Paradiso last year; the most interesting parts came audio-visually from Marnix Carpentier-Alting. Christian Wol'z new album "devil intus mestra de la fore" containing the song "Lied eines Wahnsinnigen" conduct you through his world of madness. Twentyfive minutes of nerve-testing helpness screaming guided by one deep synthesizer tone, explores the method of communication between mentally disturbed people. What he wants to make clear is that we all live in a mad reality. By always trying to deny things, we can continue our "normal" life.
netherland / 1993
portrait of Christian Wolz
Hey, there’s someone screaming out all the suffering of the world - vibrating vocal cords singing tenor, bass and countertenor all in one, reaching dizzying heights and ecstatic depths. Wolz is an exceptional soul in the deep valley of male singers in a vocal landscape in which usually only women live and work. He doesn’t really fit in anywhere - he left behind the dark wave and gothic scene long ago, and in the avant-garde scene his extreme emotional outbursts strike light lightning, leaving behind perplexed faces.
Jazzthetik / Anna Bianca Krause / 1993
Christian Wolz "devil intus mestra de la fore" CD
The most eccentric artist on Danse-Macabre offers us here another masterpiece, a follow-up release to his "El Castata" MCD. If you are familiar with it, then you know what to expect from Christian. Apart from "El Castata", Christian's voice is more strengthened by slow floating ambient atmospherics, however voice still remains as the most dominanting instrument to express his feelings and emotions. Even if "Devil Intus..." is just one song, we can devide it to several parts which merge into one another. This vocal avantgarde is not accessible to larger amount of listeners, but surely there are people related to this musical expression and to them this CD is a piece of art.
Antius / 1993
a breath of endless
Wolz creates an extremely effective relationship between the photographs and his person. He provokes voyeurism and sexual attraction while at the same time appearing open and vulnerable. His vocal work remains in the foreground, ranging from animalistic grunting to imploring melismatic singing to cries of desperation. With the help of studio recording and technology, his voice is distorted and multiplied in an orchestral effect, and the highly subjunctive release of his sensations embodies the quality in addition to his sensory power of incredible authenticity.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Januar 1995
Whoever’s had the opportunity to experienced him on stage was either deeply impressed by the performance or left the room not having the slightest idea what hit him. What the Berlin vocal artist can do with his voice breaks all sound barriers the ear is normally accustomed to.
artefakt / Angelika Teschner / 1996
crying animal
Christian Wolz turns every cavity of his body into a musical sound box. Once he’s found his rhythm, the whisper of the softest breath can turn into a last desperate scream. The 30-year-old has created a huge spectrum of musical forms of expression. Often his exhausting vocal experiments darkened by a touch of doom have been compared to Diamanda Galas’ heavily orgiastic style. However this comparison suffocates Wolz’ search for authenticity.Wolz treads new paths and opens the spectrum of sensual perception to take in more of life. Electronic voice processing creates such a thick sound reminding one of an opera in a dramatic and overkill kind of way.
Die Tageszeitung / 1997
Christian Wolz Schmerzarie (Aria of Pain)
When I listened to an album of Christian Wolz for the first time - it was Cor - the experience was very intense and this album still remains among my favorites. And the same alchemy occurs when listening to Schmerzarie.
Christian Wolz is a complete artist, at a time photographer (this is how he started his career 12 years ago), musician, singer, actor, director, choreographer, his albums cannot be achieved without the constant visual aspect around his
productions. Specialist of vocal art, his voice sounds by vibrations, suffocations, screams, voices of tenor and counter - tenor, from the highest to the deepest point, he also sings in the "monkish songs" way, uses the technique of
the glossolalia (experimentations with the tongue) ...etc his vocal ropes are a cathedral of extreme and beautiful sounds. His favourite themes remain birth, life and death.
Schmerzarie " is a lament of pain, under all its shapes, in its big mystery. Everyone knows what is pain, it can be emotional, physical, mental, but no one can describe it and can define it completely. Christian Wolz is interested in
pain, but goes back to its origin. Only art can try to take out the various emotions facing the pain, to understand them, by pure emotion. The album is composed of 7 parts, in which the pain is transcended under all its vocal and
visual shapes, so much this music is visual and conceptual. It is impossible to describe the music of Christian Wolz, so much it is unique. The impressive work on his voice, mixed to symphonic, experimental, electronic and
medieval orchestrations, doesn't sound like anything equivalent. Perfect notes at the perfect place.
Some tracks, such as "Schmerz-Ursprung" or "Aufbruch" go far beyond the emotional and mystical sensations of the best tracks of Dead Can Dance. We can't only listen to this music, we have to live it, it transcends the soul. The
words become useless to describe so much beauty and suffering, this album speaks by itself…
Christian Wolz is a genius, and sooner or later, time will prove him right.
Indispensable !!!!!!
Stéphane Fivaz / August 2000
CHRISTIAN WOLZ • E Inom Rah • Iris CD, 12 tracks, 50'
This is the first time I listened Christian Wolz's music and by knowing a little other Iris releases it surprised me, because I was expecting something more mellow than the dark Medi-Oriental guttural vocal ambient music I found into E INOM RAH. For the fans of Diamanda Galas would be a pleasure to discover E INOM RAH because of the thin synth lines disrupted by the improvised vocalizing of the german artist. His singing technique comes from "Glossolalia", a self created language. The titles also seems to have not a particular meaning and the thing let the listener chose his own by listening to the traks. Let your senses de-codifying the Wolz's music, don't use your mind!
Maurizio Pustianaz / C H A I N D . L . K . / Dezember 2000
CHRISTIAN WOLZ - "E Inom Rah" (CD)Prikosnovenie/Triton
There's no doubt that CHRISTIAN WOLZ, the exceptional vocal artist from Berlin, is a phenomena, a vocal genius with the ability to constantly rediscover himself and his "singing" in new ways and to transport his fans and his kind listeners to entirely new scenarios. As compared to past releases, "E Inom Rah" has a slight ethnic touch which makes Christian's voice sound a bit Arabic or Asian. The Berlin resident's vocal art is
musically fortified by a violin and keyboard pads, but even electronic percussion ("darrg") play a role and expand the listening experience of this extraordinary release. Once again, everything with CHRISTIAN WOLZ revolves around the cycle of birth, life and death which the artist is able to convey in such an emotional way through various noises, screams,
whimpering, singing and humming. The final result always turns out extremely experimental and bizarre. But whoever's had the pleasure of experiencing CHRISTIAN WOLZ in action "live" on stage will agree when I reward "E Inom Rah" the full 10 points. Surely it's not a work of art which is easy to consume, but it's definitely an enrichment for listeners who like to expand their horizon.
(T.W.) Black-Magazine 2000
CHRISTIAN WOLZ
Todaycom
CD, Vocalart
Todaycom is a soundtrack for a dance performance with the same title
by Norbert Kliesch dealing with self perception in the world of
media. Christian Wolz has created the soundtrack using his acclaimed
talent of diverse vocal techniques accompanied by some electronics.
The extraordinary use of his vocal cords expands into really profound
textures often with a strongly ambient sense, at the same time giving
a strong emotion to the sound, being from the most personal
instrument of them all. For people enjoying all sorts of experimental
sounds, this should be quite interesting.
Jukka Mattila [8/10]
PROSPECTIVE (FIN)
http://www.prospective.nu