On July 29, composer and improviser Otto Willberg will play a solo show at bar “Aleponija” (Ernesta Birznieka-Upīša street 22) in Riga, Latvia. The concert starts at 21:00, and tickets can be purchased at the entrance. Their price is 7 EUR.
Otto Willberg performs unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. Strangely abstracted funk and fusion, a blend of the abstruse and immediate. Silky smooth, luxurious, odd and compelling, “like listening to Eberhard Weber through a drainpipe”.
Often heard on acoustic and electric bass with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete//This Heat), 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.
He has a solo record called ’The Leisure Principle’ out on Oren Ambarchi’s the Black Truffle label. Its a “wildly singular, wickedly trippy and sensual set of fusion jams for electric bass and harmonica with simmering/beautiful melodies fucked deep in the mix – RIYL Mica Levi, Jaco Pastorius, Laurie Tompkins, chopped & screwed Primus.” – Boomkat on Otto Willberg’s “The Leisure Principle”
In 2021, Otto Willberg played at Riga, Latvia’s Skaņu Mežs festival together with singer and saxophonist Ashley Paul. This concert is organized by Skaņu Mežs, too. Willberg lives and works in the UK, but it is known that his ancestors hail from Riga.
