Do you remember that old classic Horror/Thriller image of a tall, narrow winding spiral staircase? The one where one cannot see either bottom nor top because it all seems to blur? Where the feeling of agoraphobia met claustrophobia because of what might lurk in the spaces and the spaces in between the spaces? That’s what Witness Wounds achieve on their eponmymous debut LP!
Do I enjoy this record? I am not sure. Am I impressed by it? For sure! Am I frightened by these five songs? Surely. Do I want to know what’s lurking behind the next soundscape? I am unsure about that.
However, there is something about the debut record here that keeps me want to discover more about it. To bring reason, understanding and a personal suture onto this “wound”. But let’s clear up some things about Witness Wounds first: The project brings together four beings whose definition of what music is differs largely from the vast amount of people walking this little planet of ours: on the one side we got Tomorrow I Feel Wrong unites Sara Trawöger and Kristin Gerwien, who have worked together on various occasions, and on the other we got P/O Massacre - the duo comprised of Anton Ponomarev and Anton Obrazeena. The tracks on this record were written during a three week residency (which seems to become a real trend nowadays!) in Marburg, Germany, and man that town might never have been shaking more to the core of its wonderful Baroque and Gothic old-town!
Both sides now combine forces as Witness Wounds and maybe the best FFO might be Merzbow, God is War and other such artists even though their approach is wildly different, as we are not dealing with Power Electronics or (Harsh) Noise soundscapes - my impression, which might be completely wrong, to be honest - is that these soundscapes which turn into highly elaborated electrified and distorted walls of noise are created by “regular” instruments. For example the oscillating thunder-storm-like sounds on the opener “The Sea”, which sound like the white horses foaming on the gushing, crashing waves at Portugal’s surfers’ paradise coastline have become real and have been clad with aluminium metal sheets so that their force can be multiplied.
Now some of you might wonder why that scares me - it’s easy: the songs give me a feeling of trepidation, as if I know that everything will clash right above my head, collapse and drench me to a point which disables regular breathing. If Sunn O))) ever decided to create not Drone Metal but Harsh Noise - this might be just it. They are giving us songs to fan the flames of our innermost fears.
Remember the shrill noises accompanying the aforementioned Horror or Thriller movie scenes - those gutwrenching sounds that went beyond goosebumps? That seemingly tried to rip the skin of our arms and neck? That’s Witness Wounds. And the amount of bravery that went into these compositions is not to be dismissed easily either. We are talking about five tracks: “The Sea”, “The Warden (Part I)”, “The Warden (Part II)”, “The Witness” and “Music for Mouse” and all these tracks combine to nearly 80 minutes running time with the last track taking up nearly half of it and definitely showing a more sensitive side of the project. Nevertheless, even here we have these ever-haunting elements - maybe remnants of Marburg’s spooky Upper Town located on a rock above the rest of the city.
And with the notions of ghosts and spooky things we are right back at our beginning. I do not know whether I like this record but it definitely left a mark on me. If you are brave enough to enter, have your self reshaved into new mirrors by Witness Wounds. A trip worth taking.
