STARS OF THE LID
		May 19th 2008 Cube Cinema, Bristol www.myspace.com/starsofthelid

 

STARS OF THE LID + SCORCES + Jez riley French

The Cube Cinema, Bristol
Mon 19 May 2008 / £10 adv / 7.30pm

Brought to you via Blackout Arts, Cube Cinema, Qu Junktions, Sparror, Steal From Work, & under_score:

The Cube Cinema is blessed with an evening of heavenly musics led by the cult ambient/drone ensemble Stars of The Lid. Last time they visited Bristol they channelled the reverb-drenched acoustics of Redland church. Now they set up in a cinema augmented by string quartet and 16mm projections and plan to bathe the Cube deep in lush swells of sound, colour and motion for your immersive pleasure.

Add the spooked moonshine music of fellow Texan travellers Scorces, and waves of Jez Riley French's environmental field recordings and you have three distinct atmospheres to fill your ears this night. Six promoters have teamed up to bring these acts to Bristol, creating a unique line up that floats ambiguously between the classical, rock, art, techno and film worlds.

Since forming in Austin, Texas in 1992, Stars of The Lid's six releases on Chicago's Kranky label (home of Charalambides, Labradford and Deerhunter) have mapped out a barely-there yet emotionally charged sound that taps into the haunted ambience of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks soundtracks, the post-classical lushness of Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and the melancholic fragments of William Basinksi. Out of time and out of space, a blissed out wave of guitars, piano, strings and brass rise, swell and feedback as one through an impressionistic haze of effects. Joined by live string quartet and visual artist Luke Savisky splicing together found film and library stock via multiple projectors, they seem to offer a picture of pure, unfettered consciousness.

Over here and out there for their first ever UK tour, Scorces make music that is heady, physical and timeless. A duo comprising Christina Carter (also half of Charalambides) and Heather Leigh Murray, their pedal steel, guitar and vocal compositions stop the world spinning and portal the listener to places unknown, unkept and starless. Like Earth, Yellow Swans or Gyorgy Ligeti they make music of a certain elemental power... it can do these things.

Opening the bill is Jez riley French, an improviser, field recordist and visual artist, who has created created a body of work that both celebrates and challenges concepts of emotive response (in sound and image), naturally occurring music, hidden sonic architecture and the imposed definitions applied to the creative arts; especially those applied to the terms 'music' and 'sound art'.

The ‘Stars’ are one of those bands loved by the drone heads, the film buffs, the minimalists, the artists, the street and the sitting room – hence the many involved in putting tonights show on.

 

LISTEN
www.last.fm/music/Stars+of+the+Lid?q=stars+of+the+lid
www.myspace.com/starsofthelid
kranky.net/

 

TICKET OUTLETS
Bristol Ticket Shop (The Galleries, Broadmead, Bristol, BS1 3XB)
Telephone bookings: 0870 4444 400 /Web bookings: www.bristolticketshop.co.uk / or in person

Rooted Records (9 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8AA)
In person only

Here Shop (108 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RU)
In person only

20th Century Flicks (3 Richmond Terrace, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 1AB)
In person only