Willebrant - Live @ the Brunswick Green

 

Released: December 1

Having created a sweeping discography of field recording tinged ambient releases, Australian artist Karl Willebrant has begun to dip his toes into the live scene, bringing his sometimes dark and sometimes light compositions to in-person audiences. To commemorate this new venture, Karl brings us his first ever live album under his Willebrant moniker and it is quite unexpected and wonderfully pristine. Karl takes a few of his favorite tracks from a medley of his prior releases and arranges them into a cohesive live set that feels like an album all its own. It is also not lost on me or presumably other listeners that the recording itself is absolutely gorgeous as you hear his compositions fill up the small to medium sized space elegantly. 

Speaking of the musical selections here, Karl opens his set with the first track from Cowwarr which is a peculiar choice as it is also one of his slowest and sparsest track in the entire set. But it does end up being a rather good choice as his set seems to have a nice ebb and flow to it. As subdued as this beginning is, the next selection of "A Knight on a Boat," though slow as well, brings in a much fuller sound with thick pads and resonant bass tones. This back and forth goes all the way to the end is which the set is closed out with "Inlets," one of Karl's seemingly busiest yet most serene tracks. Coincidentally, this is also the longest of his selections, giving a long goodbye to us and his audience. 

Aside from the music itself, Karl also gives us some videos to accompany each track. Here we can see the area in which he is performing. These videos are overlaid with abstract soothing video that is playing in the background in his set, but we can still see the lovely and cozy atmosphere of his performance. The aesthetic is lovely and feels like I should be sitting in a leather chair as I sip on a good bourbon or scotch and get gently lost in the atmosphere.