01. Who are you ?
Willebrant is the ambient field drone project of Melbourne/Naarm bassist, composer and producer Karl Willebrant.
Willebrant creates immersive textures and emotive expanses that allow the listener to conceive a visual experience through the mind’s eye, traversing the sound spectrum with bass guitars, found instruments, synthscapes, and field recordings.
02. What are you listening actually ?
At the moment I am listening to Eno’s new album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, such a brilliant record. Stasis Sounds for Long Distance Space Travel II by 36 and zaké, an excellent follow up to Stasis Sounds for Long Distance Space Travel. The Desert is Paper Thin and Letters to my Robot Son – Corntuth. Awake within the Dream: Sound Meditations, Vol 1 by IKSRE, this is an incredible album, one of my stand outs of 2022. Animals (2018 Remix) by Pink Floyd – good, but hard to get used to when you are so familiar listening to the original mix for 30 years! Unfurled Works by zaké and everything Claire Rousey.
3. How you came to music ?
My friends in high school had a band but no bass player, they wanted me to take up bass. That Christmas I got my first bass and started playing with the guys in the drummer’s garage on weekends. We played Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Skid Row, The Angels, AC/DC etc. I went on to University to study jazz and contemporary all the while holding down various gigs across genres of funk, jazz, rock, reggae, and blues.
4. What gear do you use in studio/live ?
Logic X
Focusrite interfaces
Fender Precision Bass 1971
Maton JB4 bass
Fender Jazz Bass fretless
SWR Marcus Miller M2 Bass pre amp
Markbass 121P bass amp
Fender Acoustic and electric Guitars
ebow
diatonic harmonicas
kalimbas
5. Do you have an anecdote or a memory to tell us about your music ?
I think I have always had an attraction to ambient and drone music without even realising it, as a child I would hear the street hum and environmental sounds on a Sunday morning and feel a real sense of calmness and contentedness within me. Another time, which I will never forget was when I went to a James Brown gig in the 90’s and there was this low drone occurring in the arena before the show, it created so much tension that I thought it was a precursor to the band exploding on stage. I soon realised that it was just the air con in the building and if the band had exploded on stage in the key of G, it may have just worked, but they didn’t…this was where I believe my love for drone began.
Anyways, I have tried to create my music around that childhood feeling. I am always in search of that nostalgia hit.
6. Which artist would you dream of working with?
Probably Brian Eno but more from an outlook on life and art perspective
7. What are your plans for the future?
I have a couple of tracks appearing on compilations coming out before end of the year/early next year and an ambient acoustic lo fi ep scheduled for February on the Shady Ridge Records label.
I’ve done a little bit of live playing with this project this year and plan to explore this further.
ARTIST LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/willebrant/
https://www.instagram.com/_willebrant/
https://willebrant.bandcamp.com/
Photo : Amaya Iturri
