COMPOSERS: Eberhard Weber
LABELS: ECM
WORKS: Encore
PERFORMER: Eberhard Weber (bass, keyboards), Ack van Rooyen (flugelhorn) etc
CATALOGUE NO: 471 2051
Unable to play the bass since suffering a stroke some years ago, Eberhard Weber has recently been re-working earlier pieces in various ways, as first demonstrated on his previous album Résumé and continued on his latest offering. Encore is essentially a set of studio compositions based around solos performed by Weber during his days with saxophonist Jan Garbarek; the originals are edited, repurposed and fleshed out with keyboard parts and Ack van Rooyen’s flugelhorn.
Sadly, the idea delivers less than it promises. The swoops and bounces of Weber’s distinctive bass sound are still there, but the additional material is by turns over-egged and oddly bland, while the recording itself has a strangely distant quality that carries the traditional ECM style into the realms of irritation. Might there still be time for Weber to involve some skilled remixers, as worked so well for his labelmate (trumpeter) Nils-Petter Molvaer’s Khmer way back in 1997?
Roger Thomas