September 2023; fifth title the C.P. "Shorts" program, here covering a scarce, regional issue of Swiss Guitarist & Composer Stephan Wittwer's score & additional materials organized to accompany the storied artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss' 1983 film "Der Rechte Weg (The Right Way)"; the second of the two "Rat and Bear" films after 1981's "Der geringste Widerstand (The Point Of Least Resistance)".

Wittwer's name should be familiar from his 70's collaborations with light-speed cassette-collage maverick Anton Bruhin, "Von Goldabfischer" & "Neun Improvisierte Stücke 1974 / Rotomotor 1978" (these were reissued 20 years back on Alga Marghen, along with Bruhin's unfuckwithable magnum-opus "InOut"), the early 70s group Wiebelfetzer (w/ Irène Schweizer, John Tchicai, Fredy Studer, & Krokodil-Düde Dürst), two mid/late-70s FMP sides w/ Radu Malfatti, "Thrumblin'" & "Und?" along with a late-80s ECM LP "Red Twist & Tuned Arrow" w/ Fredy Studer & Christy Doran. Fischli & Weiss are of course the geniuses behind the canonic 1987 film "Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go)"; a bonafide masterpiece consisting of a single 100 foot-long Rube Goldberg-lineage chaos engine assembled over a two-year period, then filmed & presented in a single, unedited 30m take, but they're known just as well for their ad hoc collages & installations "executed in a variety of media, including unfired clay, carved and painted polyurethane, photography, and video, their work playfully ignores the distinction between art and everything else."

Working here w/ Voice Crack/TV-Totem/16-17/UnknownmiX member Knut Remond, Ernst Thoma (ditto TV-Totem/UnknownmiX), & Markus Eichenberger (whose "Atemschläge 1-4", "Atemketten Nr.20/8 / Atemkreis" & "Atemwerke" outings of industrial/noise-tinged clarinet & electronics are all worth investigating), Wittwer's work here is a seeming one-off amidst the careful, often lowercase improvisation with which he's most commonly tied; instead working a largely rhythmic (a constant drum-machine pulse outlines the two "End Title, Extended Versions" on the A-Side) cut with sub-audio reeds, live percussion, and crackling electronics in a particularly appealing & quite unorthodox way that largely stands alone in its particular mix of elements & approaches (I can only think of the Ménard & Rustin "Contes Electroniques" LP, [CP 219 CD] as something even approximating the overall effect here, and even that's a stretch!) 

I've (personally) been on a record as a huge fan of this material (which has been a major influence on that last leg/mutation of "Generators, alongside Mikel Rouse's "Quorum" 12" & Steve Poindexter's  "Work That Mutha Fucker b/w Computer Madness"); if the idea of a Composer & his arsenal of studio musicians steeped largely in Free Improvisation & (Capital-S) Sound Art working in the modes of (Early!) Electro & Tape Collage appeals to you, then this is one of the all-timers! As with prior C.P. issues of 45RPM LPs (see: [CP 129 CD]) the C.P. P.T.B. have included the entire runtime here both in its intended speed AND at 33 RPM (for the absolute maniacs!)