Joe Williamson

Joe Williamson is a Canadian double bassist and improviser from Vancouver who moved to Europe in 1992. After periods in London, Amsterdam and Berlin, he settled in Stockholm, where he has become a distinctive presence in European improvised music. His playing investigates the physical possibilities of the double bass, from bowed microtonal textures and friction sounds to dense low-frequency resonance, while maintaining a strong sense of interaction within groups.

His long-running projects include Trapist with Martin Brandlmayr and Martin Siewert, the Tobias Delius Quartet with Tristan Honsinger and Han Bennink, The Electrics with Axel Dörner, Sture Ericson and Raymond Strid, Circadia with Tony Buck, David Stackenäs and Kim Myhr, and Fish-Scale Sunrise with Ab Baars and Kaja Draksler. He has also developed his own ensembles, including The Ägg and Receptacles, and works across improvisation, songwriting, bass guitar and voice.

Williamson appears on three Creative Sources releases: Weird Weapons 2 (CS197), a trio with Olaf Rupp on acoustic guitar and Tony Buck on drums recorded in Berlin; Hoard (CS199), a solo double-bass recording made at Fylkingen, Stockholm, in June 2010, concentrating on extended bowing and timbral detail; and Eye of the Moose (CS256), recorded live in Arvika, Sweden, in 2013 by Hot Four with Andreas Backer, David Stackenäs and Ståle Liavik Solberg. The recordings document both his solo investigations of string sound and his role in collective improvisation.