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WERL: Aidan Baker & Tomas Järmyr + James Welburn & Amund Kleppan
Kafé Hærverk, Hausmannsgate 34, 0182 Oslo.
14.09.18 from 8 pm. 200 kroner on the door.
WERL is a duo of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker (also of Nadja, B/B/S/, etc.) and Swedish drummer Tomas Järmyr (also of Zu, Motorpsycho, etc.) making entirely spontaneous, improvisational music which encompasses chaotic free-jazz, blistering metal, atmospheric drones, and experimental ambient.
WERL released their debut, self-titled 2CD album in 2016 on Belgian label Consouling Sound and released a follow-up LP, HH.2016.09.08, documenting a live performance in Hamburg, jointly released by the German label Wolves & Vibrancy and the Italian label Dio Drone.
"With Werl the drone genius of Nadja fame has teamed up with Tomas Järmyr from none other than Motorpsycho and Zu to explore the most liminal and immaterial depths of drone and dark freejazz…The result is something staggeringly dense and intricately mental: static dark matter and abstract ritualistic percussion encircling a black hole of drones and coalescing into falling ash."
– Cvlt Nation
"Every so often it becomes necessary to remember that there are only two musicians making this magnificent racket, such is the intensity and particular breadth of the soundscape the pair create together. The level of concentration and stamina on display here is often palpable, and the exertion both muscular and mental is occasionally exhausting just to listen to…Likewise, their technique is exemplary, the ego-free interplay of sounds bearing witness to their dedication and ability to both listen and develop their shared direction together in harmony (and indeed, discordance and noise) while almost physically inhabiting their collective sound, so well do Järmyr and Baker work together."
– Freq
https://www.facebook.com/WERLduo/
JAMES WELBURN's debut album 'Hold', published by Miasmah, was described as "Like watching a massive twisting fire slowly fading into the open skies, accompanied by a drum section so repetitive yet mind bending that you're unsure if it's ever going to stop"
Hailing from the UK, but located in both Berlin and Lillehammer, James has been on a path to catch the perfect drone through the last years, playing an abundance of underground drone and noise sets in Berlin and Norway.
His biography already boasts notable collaborations, such as the one with the legendary drummer Tony Buck of The Necks or those with Tomas Järmyr (of Zu & Motorpsycho), Andrea Belfi and the pioneering '60s New York drone composer Phill Niblock.
Today Welburn performs a live set on the boundary between noise rock and electronica, modifying dirty electric bass sounds with abstract software effects into dark engulfing soundscapes and searing bass drones that breathe with a mysterious forceful energy. A relentless rhythm section, performed by Amund Kleppan, drives the music forward, forming epic compositions of sound and noise.
"… Full of sounds and structures to get lost in, to bathe in the layers and wade through the textures that Welburn constructs with consummate skill…marks him out as a solo artist and collaborationist to watch"
– The Quietus.
https://soundcloud.com/james-welburn
They played Moskus Bar – Trondheim last night. Absolutely hypnotizing.
[img]https://i1.wp.com/thoregilphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/ThorEgilLeirtr%C3%B8-Werl-4-9138702.jpg?fit=780%2C707[/img]
https://thoregilphoto.com/2018/09/13/2018-09-13-werl-moskus-bar/
I'm just listening to WERL's first album "s/t" (which I assume stands for "self-titled"). I'm ambivalent about drone music – as a some-time meditator with an interest in Indian culture and a love of some of the drone sounds found in that culture's (especially Hindu devotional) music, I feel like I ought always to get "the feels", but some of it just doesn't hit the right chord. For example, I listened to some Sunswitch and couldn't get into it. But this album is fantastic! It's not an album I'd listen to much, but I'm really getting off on it right now
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