HNW Fest report

An event completely dedicated to harsh noise wall (HNW), with Uitgeschakeld as the headliner. It’s not that I thought David López Saludes (of Soma, Barrera and Impur fame) was lying to me when he proposed this. As a matter of fact, it sounded awesome – but with HNW being as underground as it gets, being a sub-genre within noise music, I feared this would be too obscure to pull off as a live event.

Thankfully, it turned out to be just me underestimating David’s will to make it happen. Back in January, I got the definite go that it was going to happen. I could still barely believe it, but on April 12, there I was, entering the small but comfy and atmospheric venue L’Antic Forn de Vallcarca in the Spanish metropole of Barcelona to perform alongside Barrera, Tuffo, and Urge to Kill – the latter being Òscar Alfonso, who has been running the illustrious Marbre Negre label for almost 20 years now, who organised the HNW Fest along with David.

 

David and I had met less than one year prior, in the Dutch town of Landgraaf, where Dunkelheit Produktionen was organising the third edition of the Harsh Frequencies over Limburg festival in a very apt location: a bunker. This evening featured energetic and straightforward harsh noise performances by JSH and Vincent Dallas, as well as a more eerie power electronics set by Dreamcatcher. David’s set as Soma, which saw him shoot vast slabs of harsh noise assault over the crowd, ended in a very strong and impressive way, being praised by the audience afterwards.

Talking noise, drinking beers, and exchanging jokes after the concert, David and I discussed how the once-so-lively HNW scene had quieted down over the last few years. I agreed, yet felt complicit: my last full length Uitgeschakeld release dated back to 2021 (in my defense, it was a 3xc90 set on Ominous Recordings). He promised he would try to set up a HNW event in Barcelona – and man, did he deliver.

 

After showing me and my girlfriend Lyn around Barcelona and treating us to an excellent dinner and some drinks the night before the show, on Saturday afternoon it was time to get serious. After an Iranian lunch we went to the venue to set up our gear and do soundcheck. I felt some (healthy) nerves before this moment: would I be able to produce the layered, textured wall sound that I so badly wanted to blast the audience with at the venue?

 

At the venue, we were welcomed by the friendly and musically very knowledgeable Josep Maria – who managed to combine being a sound technician, bartender, and ticket controller on one single evening. After he let me connect my chain of pedals to the venue’s sound system, the moment of truth arrived. I turned the mixer’s volume know to the right and an elation came over me: the bass, the rumble, the fuzz, and all the other layers – they were all there. I was ready.

Of course, I got to socialise with the other artists before the event. Immediately, Tuffo and Urge to Kill gifted me some of their stuff (Barrera had already done so the night before), which confirmed the friendliness I had already sensed in them during our conversations. Luckily, thanks to Tom Rushton, I was able to snatch some of my own older Uitgeschakeld tapes that were released on his Void Singularity Recordings label back in 2021. I went home with some excellent tapes and cd’s, which I have been playing as a way to relive this memorable evening.

At 7.20 PM, it was time for the first set to begin and Barrera had chosen to do the honors. As HNW listeners, we are used to tracks with very precisely rounded lengths, like 10:00 minutes – or, more often, 30:00 minutes. Barrera honored this tradition in his 15 minutes and 0 seconds long set – which also turned out to be the exact duration of the downing of one bottle of beer by David. The picking up of the bottle and bringing it to his mouth was the only physical movement that Barrera made during his performance.

But those are mere details. Barrera immediately evaporated any silence from the room with his loud and layered wall sound, which launched a flood of both low and high tones over the audience, all while using a ‘no input’-set up, unbelievable!. There was no remorse for the people present; Barrera’s wall relentlessly blasted on at very high volume, with his silent and somewhat nonchalant stage presence serving as a stark contrast. At the beginning of the set, some of the visitors voiced their enthusiasm in loud cheers. However, as the set dragged on, many of them became enthralled in the wall – just standing, taking in the punishment that Barrera was dealing out. It’s incredible that this was his debut performance, this is how an HNW show should be.

Up next was Tuffo, who broke protocol by doing a dynamic harsh noise set instead of a static HNW one. This was a surprise, but all was forgiven due to the quality of his show (though maybe organiser Barrera will forever hold a grudge, haha). Using a self-made instrument of junk metal, carried over his shoulder with a guitar strap, as a noise source, Tuffo blasted these sounds through a set of pedals, which resulted in nice crunchy, rumbling noise sounds that were periodically alternated by violent screeches of more hissing noises. A classic harsh noise set that was not out of place on this wally evening and which was well received by the crowd.

Then it was Urge to Kill’s turn – and he set the mood in a two-pronged approach. The first sound to erupt from his gear was not harsh noise, but an iconic movement from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, although the sound quality was already giving off a noise vibe. Also, he had made sure to put up a stroboscope in front of the show, that gave off such intense light flashes that not everyone made it to the end of the set.

Which is a pity, because they missed out on something special. Urge to Kill has done over 50 shows in Spain alone and it really shows: Oscar was in control of his gear, sometimes approaching audience members in a way that was slightly scary. But what impressed me most was the sound. Thundering textures of both bass-heavy and more sneering noise sounds felt like a tornado swirling around me, all in an overwhelming assault of unchanging yet densely layered noise.

After all having been allowed a moment to breathe after that violent noise set, it was my turn to bring Uitgeschakeld to live in this setting. This unpronounceable Dutch word means both ‘defeated’ and ‘terminated’, which has always been my goal with HNW: I want my walls to be an all-encompassing listening experience that ‘defeat’ the listener by overwhelming her or him with layers of wall noise, thereby ‘terminating’ their ego.

 

It is of course impossible to review your own set, so I will just describe my personal experiences. For my show, I had prepared a chain of six different pedals connected to a Walkman’s tape setting, but with no tape in it – so technically no input, but not far from it. After taking a couple of conscious breaths, I slowly turned the volume knob to the right, turning an initially modest whirlpool of rumbling, buzzing, and blasting sounds into a loud, all-powerful wall pushing the venue’s speakers to its limits – keeping it loud as fuck, but without losing the density and layers of the wall.

I had not prepared anything else besides the sound for the set, and just allowed myself to get high on my own supply, drifting back and forth behind the gear table. Focusing intensely on the wall sound, I felt my body making some gestures, raising my hands, kneeling down, stretching out my arms. It only happened half-consciously, being a result of my focus on the wall, which seemed to direct my movements. Later, I decided to lie facedown in front of the audience while my wall loudly rumbled on. I obviously couldn’t see anyone, but still felt like we were sharing a common experience – and a special one at that.

 

Keeping up with HNW protocol, I did not alter the sound of my wall during the set. The only adjustment I made was increasing the volume around two-thirds of the set, with which I was able the push the effect of encompassing the entire room in a vast noise wall even a little bit further. After around 30 minutes, I felt that it had been enough, and abruptly terminated (yes, Uitgeschakeld) the set. It’s amazing how the silence after this sudden change can feel more deafening than silence has ever sounded.

I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to play in Barcelona, the warm welcome at L’Antic Forn de Vallcarca, and for the (very) kind and heartwarming words I received after the show. It fills me with joy that harsh noise wall still speaks to so many people, in a way that is hard to put into words. A little birdy told me that there is already talk of organizing a second edition of HNW Fest in 2026, with a very special headliner – so wallheads better keep track of what’s being organized in Barcelona and be sure not to miss it. I know I won’t.

 

Picture credits-  first/ menu- Barrera, Urge to Kill, Tuffo, Uitgeschakeld. Photo by Josep Maria

Uitgeschakeld Live. Photo by Lyn Tiesema

Urge to Kill Live. Photo by David Lopéz Saludes

Tuffo Live. Photo by David Lopéz Saludes

Uitgeschakeld Live. Photo by David Lopéz Saludes