Två egensinniga musiker med rötter i Kanada möts för en oförutsägbar konsertkväll. Den ena (Bob) är i Sverige för första gången och spelar in skiva med svenska The Second Hand Orchestra. Den andre (Joe) bjuder på releasekonsert för sitt debutalbum Zombie, som släpps just denna afton.
A spellbinding solo album from Canadian artist Joe Williamson (now residing in Sweden) which could be mistaken for an amazing long lost loner-folk cult album….
With minimal instrumentation (acoustic guitar and vocals, to be exact) ,these stripped to the bone-songs goes straight to the DIY heart, in the same way as the music of Daniel Johnston, Roky Ericson’s home recordings, the moldy peaches and early Elliott Smith does…
“This isn’t just a first single, it’s a strong statement about who Williamson is as an artist. He’s carving out a space in the folk music scene that values authenticity over polish. “Zombie” captures both a touching and grounding feeling, resonating with anyone who has ever felt unheard or invisible while longing to express themselves.” Zillions Magazine
Joe Williamson was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. In 1992 he moved to Europe (Berlin,Amsterdam and London) and finally landed in Stockholm, Sweden where he’s been residing since 2008.
Joe Williamson is a phenomenal double bass player and hsve been heard and seen in numerous exciting experimental music acts the last years. Mainly in improvisational music, be it jazz or noise etc
The last years he has been a vital part of the Swedish Underground/Experimental scene via bands like Receptacles, The Greys, The Electrics, Christopher Cantillo (drummer from critically praised band Dina Ögon) , And this year he’s been touring as doube bass player in Daniel Ögren’s live band (Dina Ögon). He is also in the Berlin group Booklet…And he’s probably in more bands he forgot to tell us..
When Joe lived in London, raising his newborn babies, he started to play the acoustic guitar instead of the mighty bass as it didn’t wake the babies up. And after some months of guitar sketches and riffs, the words and singing came to him, without a warning. He surprised himself by writing “quite structured songs”. Or the songs was writing themselves and wanted him to be the host.,
Living in Sweden he was devoting his time playing the double bass again and he slowly forgot about those songs of his.
Fast forward to summer of 2024 when Joe re-visitied the acoustic guitar again. Spending his summer vacation drawing and painting (his favorite hobby) And when he was taking some breaks from the brushes and the pens, he noticed that his old acoustic guitar was always laying around him in arm length’s distance, waiting to be picked up. So he did, more and more and when the summer was over ,he had written the 11 songs that make up his forthcoming solo album “Zombie”.
While there might not be a overall theme or concept to these strangely sweet, everyday consideration-songs - these delicate gems are more like passages and notes from a lost diary found in a..bunker…
“Can’t control my brain, maybe never could. Became a zombie for you…”