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

Label : Vocal - Art

Distribution :
Vocal-Art
web : http://www.citoma.de

Contact :
Christian Wolz
e-mail : wolz@citoma.de