Tag: Adam Weikert

Adam Weikert (and I confess that I had to look him up) is a musician, composer, performer and producer from Leicester and, I have to say, a bit weird – or should that be extremely individual? The title of his album, To Whom Ourselves We Owe, is taken from a 17^th or possibly 16^th century play which seems to be a mash-up of Macbeth and a Feydeau farce. Adam does everything on the record apart from brief contributions from Chris Conway (whistle), Nicole Robson (cello) and Roger Wilson (fiddle) and that includes a lot of instruments. I reckon that a fair amount of electronic wizardry is also involved although the sleeve notes aren’t specific.

Adam has written three of the tracks, there is one cover and the rest are traditional and, although the tracks are, on paper at least, separate on the record they form a continuous piece. The opener, ‘The Strange And Merry Death Of England’ is a Weikert original and possibly the strangest thing I’ve heard since the last time I played Trout Mask Replica. It sounds like the laboured breathing of a vast subterranean beast which fits the title and is accompanied by the sound of the sea. I’ve tried to work out what is being played, I think an organ may be involved but further than that I’m not prepared to go. That eases into a relatively conventional take on ‘The Princess Royal’ (after more field recordings) followed by the cover of Ed Pickford’s ‘Ah Cud Hew’, a darkly gothic rendition which is also available as a single.

There are many field recordings on the album so I won’t mention them again except to point out the role they have in blending one track into the next. Having lulled you into some sort of sense of security we now have a version of ‘Greensleeves’ sounding much as it would have if Henry VIII had played the swanee whistle. ‘Low In The Broom’ is relatively straight but that’s followed by an instrumental version of ‘God Save The King’. I’m sure Adam has a valid reason for including it.

‘Our Captain Calls’ put me in mind of Steeleye’s ‘Fighting For Strangers’, although taken much more slowly, and that’s followed by ‘Bear Dance’ and I hasten to point out that this is the Ute ceremonial dance and not the one beloved by rugby clubs. ‘The Medway Farewell’ is the second of Adam’s compositions, a pretty, flowing instrumental featuring accordion … until it bursts out to sound like a Highland march. ‘Green Grows The Laurel’ is anguished and we close with the album’s longest track, ‘Farewell To The Green Man’, which takes us back, philosophically at least, to the theme of the opening track.

Regular readers will know that I’m a fan of Lunatraktors and Adam Weikert is at least a blood relative. Both have an experimental flair and a freewheeling approach to their music. I admit that To Whom Ourselves We Owe isn’t an easy listen but it repays repeated plays and one can only applaud Adam’s imagination in putting together such an album.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: https://adamweikert.com/

‘Ah Cud Hew’ – official video: