Last Updated 12/04/2024 07:24 PM EST
LOG IN
CART
Cart Items :
Sub Total :
artist
label
title
catalog #
any field
advanced
New Releases
Artists
Labels
Forthcoming
Best Sellers
Reviews
Jobs
soundclips
[All Countries]
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Europe
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Korea
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russian Federation
Scotland
Senegal
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
UK
Ukraine
United States
Uruguay
World's Leading Terrorist State
World's Misleading Terrorist State
[All Formats]
Book
Cassette
CD
Clothing
Digital
DVD
MISC
VHS
Vinyl
[All Genres]
CLASSICAL
COMEDY
ELECTRONIC
EXPERIMENTAL
HIPHOP
JAZZ
Misc
ROCK
WORLD
artist
catalog #
label
title
any field
Tweet
Send Email
PRICE:
$31.50
$31.50
IN STOCK
01. Otto Willberg - Reap What Thou Sow
Your browser does not support the audio element.
02. Otto Willberg - Shadow Came Into The Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis
Your browser does not support the audio element.
03. Otto Willberg - Mollusk
Your browser does not support the audio element.
04. Otto Willberg - Wetter
Your browser does not support the audio element.
05. Otto Willberg - Had we but world enough and more time
Your browser does not support the audio element.
06. Otto Willberg - Licker
Your browser does not support the audio element.
ARTIST
WILLBERG, OTTO
TITLE
The Leisure Principle
FORMAT
LP
LABEL
BLACK TRUFFLE
CATALOG #
BT 106LP
BT 106LP
GENRE
ROCK
RELEASE DATE
9/8/2023
Black Truffle announce
The Leisure Principle
, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist
Otto Willberg
. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with
Laurie Tompkins
(
Yes Indeed
) and
Charles Hayward
(
Abstract Concrete
), as well as the fractured no wave unit
Historically Fucked
. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for
The Leisure Principle
, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening "Reap What Thou Sow", a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behavior of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of
Sam Andreae
's graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On "Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis", a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, it's almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On "Mollusk", echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of
John Abercrombie
's "Timeless", before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record's second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On "Wetter", bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on "Had we but world enough and more time", the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg's melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from
Jaco Pastorius
to
Mark Egan
's singing tone in the early
Pat Metheny Group
. But with its radically reduced instrumentation,
The Leisure Principle
is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of
David Rosenboom
or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of '80s underground groups like
De Fabriek
.
Customers who bought this title also bought these titles:
Other releases on BLACK TRUFFLE