Sadly no M[m] staff could make the event, so instead we got on two on-the-ground reports from Lorenzo Nascitari(of Italian suicidal HNW project Nascitari &  doomed & pained  piano based  project Tomorrow I'll Shoot Myself in the Mouth). And Andrea Leonessa, with pictures by Mélissa Monrazel

Lorenzo Nascitari report:
The huge hall of this contemporary art gallery has very specific acoustics due to its depth and the particular shape of the vaulted walls. The saturated sound produced in this space creates a natural reverberation, which was employed differently by each artist to further isolate the audience in the walls of sound.

The opening performance was by Italian artist Ludwig and his new project, H.A.A.R.P., based on saturate radio frequencies modulated by means of an antenna/receiver that would pick up any radio frequencies present in the atmosphere. The sound generated by this artist would quickly range between high/low frequencies, modifying the perception and direction of the sound flow. Albeit not a typical HNW performance, Ludwig's act was an interesting introduction to the use of radio waves in a disturbing and destructive manner.

The following performance was by AMPCONSTRICTOR, Giovanni Torregrossa's HNW project. His semi-digital wall of sound was generated by a PC connected only one analog pedal. The sound generated this way was intense and brutal, but not completely static, in fact the artist widely used pan-pot stereo spatializations between the two speakers, creating a lively flow that would gradually grow within the length of the performance. As his stage name implies, AMPCONSTRICTOR seals off the speakers in a tight squeeze.

The third artist to take the stage was William Nurdin (France), the person behind the HNW project named CLOUGNIOULE. The artist brought a mysterious briefcase on stage, which was the only source of his heavy wall of sound and he spent his time staring and smiling at the members of the audience; the disturbing smile, which heavily clashed with the violence of the sound, generated a sense of terror and bizarreness in the audience, all too typical of the artist's unique black humour.

ECOUTE LA MERDE (France) brought pure violence on the stage with the forth performance of the night. He used an old tape recorder as sound source to create an unusual static sound flow. A sound spiral seemed to haunt the room, while the artist would rock back and forth to it; after a couple of minutes, he used a hammer to literally dismantle the recorder. The sound started to fade slowly while pieces of the tape recorder flew all over the place until the signal finally died. A devastatingly fast and impressive performance.

The fifth performer on the stage was Italian artist FUKTE, who presented himself entirely covered in a long, hooded black tunic, with two wires coming out; his entire set was made up of two contact microphones attached to his hands and which were used to generate a strong feedback. FUKTE lit a series of candles and spread some (human) hair in the room, in a sort of ritual, all accompanied by a lively sound flow that seemed to fiercely pound the speakers, in one of the most theatrical and engaging performances of the event.

Pure static, an element typical of European HNW, dominated the stage when it was French artist Å's turn. His set comprised various Russian Sovtek distortion pedals, which generated a huge wall of acoustic isolation. The slow sound flow and the artist's total immobility created a meditative atmosphere; the audience was forced to concentrate of the sound wall and the micro-variations that intensified it towards the end of this perfect Static Noise performance.

Andrea Leonessa report:
The final act of the event was NASCITARI (Italy). With a scenery consisting of animal bones, he puts up a show of the Grottesque; the sound coming from his set-up of distortion pedals and a wooden vibrating box, made by the artist himself, is, as always, intense. The sound is broken by its very creator's harrowing screams, which give the performance a growingly depressive and desperate vibe, up to the blood-chilling silence that puts an end to the performance and to this year's Staring at Wall festival.

Both  reports where translated from Italian to English by Alexandra

Thanks to both Lorenzo & Andrea for there reports, and to Mélissa for the kind use of her pictures.