There are three characters who inspired the CD 'Wittgenstein's Nephews': the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein with his famous treatise 'Tractatus logico-philosophicus', the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard and Paul Wittgenstein - the main character from Bernhard's mostly autobiographical novel 'Wittgenstein's Nephew'. Thomas and Paul were good friends and had much in common. Both were chronically ill. While Thomas had a life-long lung disease, Paul was suffering from periodic madness. The novel opens in the year 1967 when both are in the hospital on the Wilhelminenberg, which is situated on the fringes of Vienna. Two men lie bedridden: Thomas at the lung ward and Paul in the psychiatric section. In the novel Thomas describes their friendship. They have passionate discussions on music, which is not surprising since Thomas studied classical singing in the fifties. Because of his lung problems he had to stop his career as a baritone and began to write poems. Paul was an expert on music too but even more fanatical about it. In Vienna he was well-known for his enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of music. In fact some artists, especially conductors and singers, were afraid of him because he used to visit all operas performed in Vienna and either applauded frenziedly or booed madly. He influenced the opinion of the audience and the critics, hence the success or failure of a performance.   There are many analogies if one wants to compare the characters of Paul and his uncle Ludwig who was also extraordinarily talented in music. Ludwig was playing the clarinet and, more importantly, he was famous for whistling whole concert pieces with a refined technique. By doing so he used to interrupt his own performance to analyse what the listener just had heard. According to Thomas' novel, the only distinction between both was that one was a philosopher and the other a madman. Ludwig wrote down his thoughts, while Paul didn't. One published his thoughts, the other one just practised them and didn't declare them in public. But they had in common to give away all their money. Ludwig supported other artists like Georg Trakl, Rainer-Maria Rilke, Else Lasker-Schuler, Oskar Kokoschka. He even refused his heritage giving it to his siblings. Because of this particular habit and his profession as a philosopher he wasn't very well acclaimed by his family. Yet, Ludwig got some money if he needed it while Paul, the wide-eyed squanderer of his own wealth, was so disregarded by his family that he ended up extremely poor and finally died in solitude. Thomas, who describes the beginning of this period in the hospital until the death of Paul in the year 1979, observed his friend carefully but was gradually forced to end their companionship. 'His whole body would quiver and he would stammer inarticulately, frothing at the mouth and clutching one so tightly that it became unbearable and one had to resort to violence to extricate oneself.'  The CD 'Wittgensteins's Nephews' follows the traces of Thomas' writing with the grotesque that lurks in each of his figures even in himself. His sarcastic wit, his anger at the world, the incessant report of the human abyss and the absurdity of life; all that makes one laugh and cry at the same time. Furthermore the CD reflects Ludwig Wittgenstein's criticism of language as a barely reliable or even non-useful tool for explaining the world and human life in philosophical means. In the end of the 'Tractatus' he states: '…whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.' That's good, for many people…  Now, I prefer to say: of what you cannot speak, that's what you have to 'woiss' on! Of course, this term doesn't exist in the English language, not even in German. It derives from the similar sounding, English word 'voicing'; and also the German word 'Wissen', which means 'knowledge', is somehow part of this neologism. I made it up for a specific reason, that is to say, 'woissing' goes far beyond 'singing'. That's the way it is. More, I cannot say.  October 16, 2003, Alex Nowitz