Following performances throughout Europe, Russia and America including David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption in LA, The SUBSTATION in Newport presents the Melbourne Premiere of Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks – the American experimental pop group’s performance is a genre-breaking interpretation of the US TV series’ iconic music.
Xiu Xiu was commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery’s Australian Cinémathèque in 2015 to reinterpret the music of the TV series for the exhibition David Lynch: Between Two Worlds and has since performed their haunting captures of Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch’s compositions to sell-out audiences across the world.
Led by Jamie Stewart, Angela Seo and Shayna Dunkelman, Xiu Xiu emphasise the music’s chaos and drama. Their musings are a complex mix of post punk and synth pop, classical and experimental styles, full of brutality and emotional depth. Each performance at The SUBSTATION will be presented as a double bill of sonic offerings with Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails) taking stage on Thursday 22 June and Sarah Davachi on Friday 23 June.
Thursday 22 June: Double Bill with Alessandro Cortini (ITA)
Best known for his dream-like compositions on synths and his extensive touring with American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, Alessandro Cortini combines music and memories in his live performance of Avanti. The performance combines visuals curated and compiled by US artist and designer Sean Curtis Patrick that draw on the vintage Super 8 films shot by the musician’s grandfather and snapshots of family life from his early childhood years.
This dynamic self-portrait is strung together with the melancholy of remembrance as sung by Cortini’s modular instruments. Both meditative and sonically expansive, Avanti is a triumphant encounter of a living memory through sound and a continuation on his previous Sonno and Risveglio projects.
Friday 23 June: Double Bill with Sarah Davachi (CAN)
A composer of electronic and electroacoustic music, Sarah Davachi is a master of her craft. In this special performance, Davachi’s work will engulf The SUBSTATION with the forgotten sonics from bygone era of analogue synthesis, combined with the concurrent treatment and de-familiarisation of organ, piano, strings, and woodwinds. Utilising extended durations, psychoacoustic manipulations and simple harmonic structures, her work emphasises variations in overtone complexity and natural phasing patterns.
“Xui Xui… are experimental in the most literal meaning – not musicians exploring ‘experimental genres’ of music, but ones who actually experiment, leading to music whose ideas travel the map so broadly as to be deemed unclassifiable when put together.” – Pitchfork
Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks
The SUBSTATION, 1 Market Street, Newport
Performances: 22 & 23 June 2017 – 8.00pm
Information and Bookings: www.thesubstation.org.au
Xiu Xiu’s additional Australian performances include Dark Mofo (18 June) and the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (24 June).
Image: Xiu Xiu (supplied)