Thursday 1 December 2011

AVFN - Primordial Sea, out now on Void Seance


A brand new full-length concept piece from A View From Nihil, entitled 'Primordial Sea', is available now from Void Seance. Evan (of Void Seance/Ritual Stance), who is a true artist and genuine professional, worked hard to make this the best looking and most complete AVFN release yet. Certainly the most satisfied I've been with a release since 'Triumph...'. Anyway, this is an edition of thirty copies only, of which the vast majority have already gone. So, if you'd like one, act fast.

Monday 7 November 2011

AVFN, 'The Eternal Present', Review

A View From Nihil, 'The Eternal Present' CDr, released on Sweet Solitude, as part of their Infinity Series, has been reviewed over at Musique Machine. Please have a look. The release is OOP but you can still download or stream it for free over at the AVFN bandcamp page. I'm thinking I might like to reissue it, someday.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Vol. IV - Die Reitenden Leichen 'Rauschen & Simulation'

Bezüglich HNW und Ideologie

Rauschen und Simulation

Die Ideologie ist eine Simulation. Sie hat keinerlei wirkliche Bedeutung mehr. Sie ist in der westlichen Welt tatsächlich eine nostalgische Anrufung der Tat geworden. Die Aufmärsche, seien sie physischer oder verbaler Natur, erfüllen keinen anderen Zweck mehr als eine Selbstversicherung des Gebrauchtwerdens zu sein. Die Ideologien und ihre in der Aktion in die Tat umgesetzten Inhalte, dienen der Simulation von Nutzen. Sie ist eine Selbstbespiegelung ohne Außenwirkung.

Das statische Rauschen entpuppt sich als Ideologie des Nicht-Ideologischen. Man kann der Noise-Wand jede Bedeutung geben, ohne das sie jemals eine Bedeutung bekommt. Sie bleibt nur Rauschen. Nur Textur ohne Inhalt.

Die jeweils angefügten Inhalte sind Ideologie im Sinne der Simulation. Sie dienen keinem realen, also auf reale Wirkung ausgelegten, Zwecke mehr, sondern sind Staffage und Travestie. Somit zeigen diese Inhalte deutlich ihre inhaltsleere. Sie zeigen ihre Bedeutungslosigkeit durch die Zwecklosigkeit ihrer Dogmen.

Nichts verärgert und erschüttert den Traditionalisten, den Konservativen, den Revoluzzer oder Idealisten so sehr, wie die Verdeutlichung der Inhaltsleere seiner Werte in einer entwerteten Zeit.

Die Noise-Wand ist in sich bewegt, aber dennoch unbeweglich. Sie erfüllt keinen Zweck, hat keinen Sinn, sondern ist einfach da. Sie deutet nichts an und verspricht nichts. Sie ist kein Verweis auf etwas anderes, als auf sich selbst. Sie ist das wissende, stoische Schweigen.

Die angehefteten Fetische und Obsessionen der einzelnen Erzeuger sind bedeutungslos. Ungeachtet dessen, ob er oder sie dies weiß. Und eben gerade durch diese Bedeutungslosigkeit von Inhalten, ist die Noise-Wand die adequate Versinnbildlichung des Zustandes der post-modernen Epoche und ihrer Menschen.


English Translation:

Hissing & Simulation

The ideology is a simulation. It has no real meaning anymore. In the western world it has become an nostalgic calling of the act really. The marching-ups, either of physical or verbal nature, fulfill no other purpose than as a self-assurance of "being needed". The ideology and it's contents put into action, serve the simulation of use only. It is the self-admiration without external effect.

The static reveals itself as the ideology of the non-ideological. One can apply any meaning to the noise-wall, without itself gaining any meaning at all. It stays static. Texture without content.

Contents added in each case are only ideology in the sense of the simulation. They serve no ideological purpose based on real-life effects, but are merely decoration and travesty. Through that the contents clearly show their emptiness. They show their meaninglessness through the uselessness of their dogmas.

Nothing annoys and shakes the traditionalist, the conservative, the revolutionary or idealist as much as the elucidation of the content-wise emptiness of their values in devalued times.

The noise-wall is moving within itself, but unmoved nevertheless. It fulfills no purpose, makes no sense, but rather simply is. It suggests nothing and promises nothing. It is no link to anything but itself. It is the knowing, stoical silence.

The applied fetishes and obsessions of the single producer are meaningless. Regardless of whether he or she knows this. And exactly through this meaninglessness of contents, the noise-wall is an adequate epitome of the condition of the post-modern epoch and it's people.


***'Rauschen & Simulation' contains four tracks totalling thirty-nine minutes, in which time it crafts a static landscape with astounding levels of precision, clarity and focus. Stiletto tones and static needles evolve into an oppressive bass blur and crushing fuzz abrasions that wrestle for control of your speakers. Distant field recordings, taken from the inner-ears of an objective tinnitus sufferer, whine and crackle hypnotically. Angular shards rattle in a muffled hollow cloud, tossed around by vibrating wires of buzz. This record is a textural gauntlet that is much more in line with his criminally over-looked work as Iron Curtain than it is with previous DRL tape filth. Comes in shatter-proof jewel-case, with uniform Order of the HNW cover design and with Order of the HNW emblem sticker. Each booklet contains a written piece penned by the artist (see above).***

Prices, including postage, are:

Single Volume: £4.00 (UK), £5.00 (EU), £5.50 (USA, RoW)
Two Volumes: £7.00 (UK), £9.00 (EU), £9.50 (US, RoW)

Send payment in GBP to: orderofthehnw@gmail.com

Monday 10 October 2011

Vol. III - Bachir Gemayel 'HNWar'

Harsh noise wall, a wall of sound, a wall of pure static, and a sound formed as a boundary. Boundaries are a form of limitations that involve two various parties that clash. When they clash, we have what we call war.

War is also a wall, a punishing, merciless wall that leaves no room for grey space. You cannot sit in between the two; you must join a side or fight both. War however is not a motionless entity, instead it is one that shifts and bends, like the battle for a city block, or a large building that would be considered a highly militaristic advantage.

Urban warfare in general is not consisted of great battles, but often short outbursts that occur and last somewhere between 10-30 minutes. This is the reasoning for the length of this release. In twenty minutes a team of armed soldiers can take on the enemy, destroy them, and then claim the territory for themselves.

These are the ideas behind Bachir Gemayel. As a tribute to my people who continue to fight, what seems to be the case today, an endless wall of enemies. It is their resistance as a wall that keeps the others out.

The quick pace and quick changes show the fierceness of war. Bullets flying past you, making nicks in the wall. There are car bombs tearing the concrete from underneath them and spraying bystanders. Screaming families hiding in stairwells, listening to the sound of RPGs hit their home. Slitting the throat of your enemies or intruders, leaving their world and their families in ruins.

The walls constructed are made of nothing more then misbaha beads and bullet casings, standard items either held or scattered around war torn areas of Lebanon. This is HNW on a realistic level. Inspired by life and the world around me, in the name of my people, I produce Walls of War.


***Bachir Gemayel presents a twenty-minute textural assault. This wall continuously moves, methodically and mercilessly, down textural avenues and alleyways of ruptured concrete and contorted steel. Throughout the piece, there is a tremendous sense of friction and violent tension between the frequencies, causing different lines of texture to, at times, meld into one another and, at others, to violently repel each other, giving birth to a multitude of textural contractions and expansions. The use of misbaha beads and bullet casings as source material, along with the absence of distortion effects, gives this material an organic tangibility that is often the backbone of quality noise. Comes in shatter-proof jewel-case, with uniform Order of the HNW cover design and with Order of the HNW emblem sticker. Each booklet contains a written piece penned by the artist (see above).***

Prices, including postage, are:

Single Volume: £4.00 (UK), £5.00 (EU), £5.50 (USA, RoW)
Two Volumes: £7.00 (UK), £9.00 (EU), £9.50 (US, RoW)

Send payment in GBP to: orderofthehnw@gmail.com

Sunday 24 July 2011

Vomir, A View From Nihil, Unearthed, London Gig


This will be the first AVFN live event.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Forthcoming Releases 2011

Two further volumes of the Order of the Harsh Noise Wall CDR series will be released this year. When I began this series, it was my intention to value quality over quantity. As a result, it has taken me two years to find material of a high enough standard with which to continue the series. It may take me another two years to find further contributions, or I may never find any at all. Either way, I am unconcerned, as long as this series maintains its integrity and that of the genre.

Volume Three will be by the Lebanese-North American act Bachir Gemayel. Volume Four will be by the German project Die Reitenden Leichen. Both are atypical, yet well conceived and meticulously composed, works of HNW.

Saturday 12 February 2011

HNW Archive Blog

A new archival blog of out-of-print HNW releases has been started by the HNW producer Gluttoness. Lucas (of the afforementioned Gluttoness project) briefly outlined his reasons for doing so thus:

1. [to] Give a website for labels and artists to promote themselves by making free versions of their old works available.

2. [to] Provide an archive of out-of-print material (which is the vast majority of it, due to the small runs generally associated with HNW) for fans who missed out on a release and would just like to hear it.

3. [to] Have a resource for those curious about HNW sound to be able to hear complete works without having to spend $$ on something they're not sure they'll like.


The more important concern, of whether this will indeed promote HNW development and creativity or lead to grindcore/suicidal-black-metal levels of stagnation and over-saturation via internet downloads, remains to be seen. Either way this much is certain, I will be using my membership to post important and/or interesting releases exclusively. The first of which is Vomir's Claustration. Although, given that the blog requires, quite rightly, permission from the artist before posting, posts may be few and far between.