2 by Weird Weapons

Recorded in Berlin 2009 at Ausland.

REVIEWS

[…] The other disc with Williamson is also a disc of improvisation, but then as trio, along with Tony Buck on drums and Olaf Rupp on acoustic guitar, also covering two pieces. This might very well a live recording ('Berlin 2009 at Ausland', it says on the cover). It promises to be an interesting disc. Buck and Williamson has energetic players, but Rupp is best known as a more delicate player of the acoustic guitar. Together they deliver some heavily intense acoustic improvised music. It has the same minimal gestures of repeated banging, hitting, strumming and playing that is present on the solo disc, but here they seem to move more easily between various patterns, and Rupp adapts easily to the schematics at hand. Sometimes they leap into free jazz
land, which are not parts I was particular fond of, but in their more radical free form playing I found some great beauty. They treat their instruments as they are supposed to be, although hardly in a way that they probably learned in music school. Not an easy disc as such for all the intensity of the
performance, but take a piece at a time, and they love this. Franz de Waard (Vital Weekly)

With Weird Weapons 2, the multinational trio of German guitarist Olaf Rupp, Canadian double bassist Joe Williamson, and Australian percussionist Tony Buck create a sound that Buck has rightly described as “very active and busy.” Both long tracks are intense and relentless essays into the unconventional applications available to conventional instruments. This is acoustic music as the sound of raw materials—string instruments and drums decomposed into wood and metal elements in a clattering, scraping cloud of sound. On occasion the recognizable voice of guitar or double bass emerges, only to recede again into the sound signatures of its constituent parts. The overall effect is of an accumulation of countless individual sonic facts into a thick mass. dbarbiero (AMN Reviews)

After a first CD on Emanem, the Weird Weapons trio is back with a second outing. Weird Weapons 2 features two excellent and lively free improvisations. Semi-famous for The Necks and some rock-leaning projects, Buck remains a great free drummer. Here, he deploys treasures of invention, as does Rupp, whose approach to the acoustic guitar falls somewhere between Bailey and Chadbourne. And this record – better than their first one – shows a certain evolution in the band. Let’s hope they keep at it as a unit! François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

I discovered this project more than five years ago on the Emanem, mainly for the great interest I have in The Necks' musical experiments as well as for any side-projects of the musicians belonging to this band and one of them, the talented Australian drummer Tony Buck is one of the three gunsmiths of this forge, assembling Weird Weapons together with Canadian bassist Joe Williamson and German guitarist Olaf Rupp. Maybe instead of a forge it should be more correct to refer to their combo as an advanced textile industry due to the way they name their long session - lasting approximately half an hour -, so highlighting their approach to their sonic products and after they referred to naugahyde, a sort of artificial leather, and spandex, a notorious sinthetic fibre also known as elastane, in the first musical document signed by this skilled subversive trio, they chose shantung and buckram. Such a choice could be considered eccentric, but it's an original way to describe their textures or better their weaving. Both of their sessions rich of rhythmical acceleration, feverish piling of tones and circular mechanical motion could infer the listener to imagine the incessant and hypnotical movement of an automatic loom or an imaginary orchestral performance played by heald shafts, flywheel, electric motor, cloth roller and other parts of a weaving machine or the entrancing dances of an hosiery mill or a knitting machine. You can imagine how funny could be to notice the similarities between some features of each session and workmanship and peculiarities of the mentioned fabrics: while Shantung reflects the irregular interlacement, the coarseness by touch, the gaudy colours and an half matt half shining weft of the fabric, derived from a sort of wild silk, Buckram sounds stiffer just like corresponding cotton-made cloth. A really weird and wired listening experience! Vito Camarretta (Chain DLK)

Peut-être certains d'entre vous ont-ils déjà entendu le premier volet de ce trio, Weird Weapons, publié en 2005 sur Emanem. La suite, publiée par CS encore, garde la même configuration: Olaf Rupp à la guitare acoustique, Joe Williamson à la contrebasse, et Tony Buck à la batterie, pour deux longues improvisations de vingt-cinq et trente minutes.

Une description minutieuse me paraît complètement impossible et inadéquate pour ces deux pièces. Il y a un aspect linéaire, l'intensité reste toujours la même, le timbre également ne change que très peu, tous les mouvements se font plutôt dans les changements de densité. La plupart du temps, batterie et contrebasse saturent l'espace, tous les instruments percussifs sont utilisés à un rythme frénétique, tandis que la basse de Williamson occupe un spectre harmonique proprement vertigineux, tout l'ambitus de la contrebasse est constamment utilisé. Quelque fois, nous avons un peu de répit, l'archet se fait moins tendu au profit d'un pizz plus aéré, les cymbales et la grosse caisse laissent quelque place à d'autres peaux moins virulentes et oppressantes. Et c'est à ces moments surtout qu'on peut apprécier la virtuosité et l'originalité d'Olaf Rupp, qui doit certainement beaucoup à sa technique de jeu inhabituelle (il pose sa guitare verticalement sur ses genoux). Le dialogue entre chacun est tendu, puissant, l'espace est très serré et parfois aux limites de l'oppression, heureusement que certaines baisses de tensions viennent alors équilibrer les nombreuses accalmies. A les entendre, on dirait parfois que des centaines d'espèces d'insectes grouillent autour de nous, pas du tout des insectes hostiles, juste des insectes qui font leur vie à nos côtés. Les sons fusent dans un magma rapide fort et très dense, comme une maille très fine d'une laine un peu rêche, rêche car il y a quand même quelque chose d'hostile et d'austère dans cette manière de laisser si peu d'espace.

Deux improvisations très vives et denses, peu conventionnelles et impressionnantes. Hjulien (Improv Sphere)

Je pensais, jusqu’à cette écoute, pouvoir reconnaître la guitare d’Olaf Rupp. Mais au début de Buckram, est-ce elle qui gratte ou la contrebasse de Joe Williamson ? Et aussi, est-ce elle qui gonfle ou la peau de la caisse claire de Tony Buck ? Impossible à dire.

Heureusement, la guitare de Rupp me revient, répétitive et acharnée sur les trois ou quatre cordes qui suffisent à ses arpèges. Cette fois nul doute c’est bien là Williamson alors que Buck s’escrime à enfoncer ses baguettes plus profond dans les fûts. Je reconnais donc la guitare de Rupp parce que je m’aperçois que ses deux partenaires sont occupés ? Soit, qu’importe. Ce qui importe c'est que tout tourne et que les arpèges dansent avec un drone et un bruit de métaux. La guitare classique de Rupp ne lâche rien, elle tient bon sous la pression conjointe de bassiste de Trapist et du batteur de The Necks. Le premier Weird Weapons était sorti sur Emanem. Le second ne trahit aucune de ses promesses. Héctor Cabrero (Le Son du Grisli)

Almost from the time the professional music business was established in this country, the expected route for success has been for artists to head off to the larger market down south and set up shop there. Canadians from Percy Faith and Maynard Ferguson to Joni Mitchell and Teresa Stratas effectively followed that formula. But today, as American musical hegemony lessens and modern communications almost literally shrink the world, musicians, especially those who play improvised music, can demonstrate that a permanent home in Europe is as beneficial as becoming an American resident. Take Vancouver-born Joe Williamson for instance. On Weird Weapons 2 (Creative Sources CS197 CD www.creativesourcesrec.com), the bassist, who now lives in Stockholm after stints in London, Berlin and Montreal, is matched with German guitarist Olaf Rupp and drummer Tony Buck, an Australian turned Berliner, for two extended selections of intuitive improv. No lounge guitar trio, this band creates sonic sparks that almost visibly fly every which way. Rupp’s constant, intense strumming often elasticizes into slurred fingering as Buck buzzes drumstick on cymbals, pops his toms, door-knocks his snares and rattles and reverberates any number of bells, chains and wood blocks for additional textures. Keeping the improvisations grounded is Williamson, who splays, stretches or saws upon his instrument’s strings, scroll and body wood when he’s not creating added continuum by slapping out pedal point resonation. On the nearly 30-minute Buckram, the three reach such a level of polyphonic coherence that the cumulative textures seem to ooze into every sonic space. Moving to the forefront then fading back into the ensemble, Rupp pinpoints jagged licks that eventually accelerate to stentorian multi-string runs, as Buck concentrates pitter-pattering and agitatedly clanking into tremolo whacks. Finally, a climax is reached, as Williamson’s multi-string variations, consisting of col legno strokes vibrating with a near-electronic pulse, push the three to a decisive conclusion. Ken Waxman (Whole Note)

O projecto apresentado neste álbum reune 3 músicos com opções estilísticas bem diferentes e teve a sua origem num encontro ao vivo em Berlim (2009). O trio já tinha um primeiro trabalho na Emanem (2005) mas este mostra-se ainda mais interessante. O guitarrista alemão Olaf Rupp, parece ter abandonado os efeitos electrónicos, sendo o seu estilo actual caracterizado por uma abordagem delicada e relativamente minimalista na guitarra acústica, um pouco entre David Bailey e Eugene Chadbourne. Joe Williamson, canadiano de nascimento e agora sediado em Estocolmo, é um contrabaixista virtuoso e enérgico que já trabalhou com Han Bennink, Steve Beresford e Eugene Chadbourne, tudo um pouco no círculo do ICP. O baterista Tony Buck é uma máquina rítmica e criativamente livre, que é bem conhecido pelo seu trabalho no grupo de rock The Necks. O trabalho aqui apresentado apenas em duas faixas (Shantung e Buckram) é improvisação livre de grande qualidade com instrumentos totalmente acústicos. O trio toca sem qualquer tipo de amplificação, interferência ou tratamento electrónicos, mas o close miking impede uma percepção puramente acústica da execução e está bem na “nossa cara”. É difícil descrever bem o que se passa, embora exista uma grande linearidade. O que é importante é descrever a intensidade, por vezes quase frenética, e as cambiantes de timbre e de harmonia. Em particular Williamson utiliza frequentemente uma sobrepressão do arco sobre as cordas (muito frequente no seu recente e magnífico trabalho a solo também na Creative Sources: Hoard) o que cria uma referência harmónica intensa e envolvente. Na realidade há como que uma ocupação quase permanente do espaco pela bateria e pelo contrabaixo. A percepção é quase sempre de um diálogo tenso entre os músicos, embora algumas acalmias permitam reduzir a tensão. Elas introduzem espaços de oportunidade para apreciar melhor a
virtuosidade destes músicos, com um notável destaque para a originalidade de Olaf Rupp. Uma magnífica experiência a audição deste trabalho! José Pessoa (Jazz.pt)

Listening's a funny thing. When I first played the second release by the trio Weird Weapons, it struck me as so chaotic, so unhinged, so full of arbitrary gesture, that I set it aside — not giving up on it but not anxious to revisit it either. I'd enjoyed their first release (self-titled, Emanem, 2005), but this one left me wanting.

I'm not sure what happened between listen one and listen two but upon putting it on again it was as if the contents of the package had settled. On listen two I found 2 to be a nicely centered and even somewhat gentle record. Sure it was still full of door knocking and insect buzzing, but it ably fell together. It is long-form improv and so still reflects the trajectories of flights of fancy of its players, but the spontaneity doesn't devolve into haphazardness. This is due in large part to the almost frighteningly machine-like precision of drummer Tony Buck. If guitarist Olaf Rupp and bassist Joe Williamson are each bearing 1/3 of the weight, Buck still shoulders at least half of it. He's capable of extraordinary polyrhythms, providing two or three layers of patterns onto which the others may fall.

And fall they do, like leaves and hail across the levels of tempo. Rupp and Williams both play acoustic, so their sound is woody and organic. Rupp goes for a lot of scraped and muted textures and often falls between the cracks of the percussion while Williamson is a deep soloist, occupying the front line an unusual amount for a bassist.

The record is not without frenzied passages, but each of the players is so firmly in place that even their cacophonies feel assured. Kurt Gottschalk (The Squid's Ear)

Depois de o primeiro volume de "Weird Weapens" ter saído pela Emanem, eis que, para o segundo, Olaf Rupp, Joe Williamson e Tony Buck escolhem a Creative Sources. Muito inesperadamente, diga-se, pois o alemão, o canadiano e o australiano praticam o modelo "old school" da improvisação neste projecto em trio, não propriamente o normal território de acção da editora. O que importa, realmente, é que se trata de um magnífico disco, um dos melhores de sempre do longuíssimo cardápio da etiqueta dirigida por Ernesto Rodrigues. Fúria e vertigem: são estes os ingredientes principais desta retoma, com Rupp a entrelaçar filigranas de som com a sua guitarra tocada na vertical, com Williamson em dissonâncias contrabaixísticas que descem até ao limite das capacidades graves do instrumento e com Buck a aglutinar tudo o que acontece com a sua bateria metamórfica, mas organizadora. Rui Eduardo Paes

Creative Sources releases a plethora of improv/jazz and experimental electronic music.
Founded in 2000.

creativesourcesrec.com