The I.K.K.-project started in 1794, when Christoph Schmid wrote the lyrics for Ihr Kinderlein Kommet, using a melody by contemporary composer Johann Abraham Peter Schulz. It was performed soon after in Thanhausen an der Mindel for the first time. In 2001, a few weeks before Xmas, I recorded my daughter Sonja (aged 5 then) singing some of her favourite Xmas tunes.

Wonderful recordings. Her singing is full of emotional power and she even hits the right notes from time to time. The interesting moments are when her voice is moving around those notes. Instead of burying those recordings in the archive I came back to them soon after, because Jos Moers (the owner of the label Meeuw Muzak) was asking me to contribute to a series of Xmas 7"s he does once every year. So I recorded one for him early in 2002 for 2003’s yearly event: merry merry. Side 2 has a funny piece composed from a transformed Ihr Kinderlein Kommet. When the 7" was done I had the impression that the transformed sounds had a quality of their own, so I used them for further transformations, as well as to compose a new piece of about 15 minutes: I.K.K. – Purpur – Scharlachrot. Following my inclination for collaborative works I thought that this material could be of interest, not only for me, but also for other artists to work with. So I prepared a CD-R with the existing versions and some basic material from the piece. Pieces have been submitted by Dan Warburton, Andrew Deutsch, Chris Halliwell, Strotter Inst., Stephen Vitiello and Frisch/Rainey/Wehowsky.


Ralf Wehowsky

Founder of the group P.D. (1981 renamed P16.D4) and the label Wahrnehmungen (1982 renamed Selektion) in 1980. P16.D4 was one of the most influential groups in experimental Industrial Music. They developed concepts of material exchange long before the term «remix» was even coined. For their live appearances they were equally at home in Punk and No Wave festivals and at the holy grails of academic avantgarde like the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt. Since the early 1990s Wehowsky works under his own name (rlw). His quiet, highly complex style of composition – based on artifacts of instrumental and electronic sound – is influential for numerous artists in the fields of electronic and improvised music. Some reflections on his work can be found on TULPAS, a 5CD-box-set, featuring more than 50 artists performing their versions of his pieces (Jim O´Rourke, Brume, Achim Wollscheid, Toshiya Tsunoda, John Duncan, Antanas Jasenka, Ryoji Ikeda, John Watermann and others). His recent work embraces musique concrète improvisée (with Bruce Russell, and Johannes Frisch, among others) as well as projects based on extended material exchange (I.K.K.).
[www.selektion.com/members/rlw/rlw_disco_b.htm] .