REVIEW - The Stars 'For Which all Evenings Wait'

Stars of the Lid Play MuseumLondon

Over the years I have been fortunate to see a wide variety of live performances in several venues around the Forest City (London, ON). Last night’s presentation by Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride (the Stars of the Lid) at Museum London was one of the best in memory. Despite a late start (due to typical US Canada border rigmarole) and a ‘slightly’ awkward room, the music was magnificent. Smart and highly technical, the American duo ceded center stage to their formidable string players and projected images 'kind of' behind'. (The room was not entirely conducive to a large ensemble nor was the lighting particularly ambient.) But in the end this felt like an artistic event that only a place like MuseumLondon could house and by all measures succeeded on every front.

If you are unfamiliar with the band, their work stands as some of the most original and evocative music being produced today. Their stellar 2007 Kranky Records release, And Their Refinement of the Decline was a critical and artistic realization quite unlike any other. This is music that pushes the edge and is capable of taking listeners to another place. Singular and uncompromising, their huge swells of ambient guitar drone and impeccable string playing was ‘sonically perfect’ for the London audience. Fitting then, Stars of the Lid once described their name as referring to the private images generated between the eye and closed eyelid; the outfit’s precise blend of texture and classical minimalism captivated and transported a room full of eager Museum London listeners.

The show, sponsored in large part by LOLA (London Ontario Live Arts) was done right on all levels. Despite some minor technical limitations of the room it really felt like an event of import and as such treated the audience very well. (The food and atmosphere, most wonderful accompaniments.) Perhaps organizers will consider the band for their next LOLA outing at Victoria Park in the fall- under the stars would be near perfect.

The evening also saw terrific and lengthy opening performances from guitarist Christopher Willits and London’s own the Riderless. (I'll definitely be exploring both further. I'll be sure to share that through this blog.)

These Stars fall next in Toronto (tonight), and continue their outing through late May.

04-28 Toronto, Ontario - Music Gallery *
04-29 Montreal, Quebec - Memorial Masonic Temple *
05-01 Boston, MA - Museum of Fine Arts *
05-02 New York, NY - Good Shepherd Church (Wordless Music Series)
05-03 Philadelphia, PA - St. Mary's Episcopal Church *
05-04 Washington, DC - Iota Club & Café *
05-05 Asheville, NC - Fine Arts Theatre *
05-07 Austin, TX - Ritz Theatre *
05-08 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
05-17 Minehead, England - Butlins Holiday Ctr (ATP)
05-19 Bristol, England - Cube Microplex Cinema
05-20 London, England - St Giles-in-the-Fields Church
05-21 Birmingham, England - Hare & Hounds
05-22 Glasgow, Scotland - Stereo
05-23 Aberdeen, Scotland - The Tunnels
05-24 Newcastle, England - Church of St. Thomas the Martyr
05-25 Leeds, England - Holy Trinity Church

* with Christopher Willits

LOLA Fest This Weekend

At last it's here. Opportunities like this one are rare. Be sure to attend. Click to see the lineup and times.

London Ontario Live Arts Festival (LOLA) has its second wild and wonderful incarnation starting on Thursday. Over its four-day run, LOLA vows to transform downtown London into a massive public art gallery and concert space.

British artist Brian Eno's generative exhibition 77 Million Paintings is being unveiled Thursday at the Wolf Performance Hall. (Eno is said to be recording with Coldplay and won't be on hand.) Grizzly Bear, Constantines, Basia Bulat, Torngat, Hylozoists, the Acorn, Prefuse 73 and Akron/Family are among the free attractions at Victoria Park. There are also some admission-charging club shows.

Posters, venue and artist information here.

Brian Eno Chooses LOLA for Canadian Premiere of his Latest Art Exhibit

Multimedia artist Brian Eno, perhaps best known his for records with Roxy Music and U2, is bringing his “77 Million Paintings” art plus music exhibit to North America. The installation, which is a kaleidoscope of the world’s art accompanied by his music, will follow a successful San Francisco run with a trip to London. LOLA (London Ontario Live Art Festival 2007) runs from September 20 – 22. See the web links for full times and dates.

Eno, a pioneering musician has had a long career as a visual artist. He has worked with "generative" light compositions in the same way that he has worked with generative music for decades. His visual work has been exhibited in galleries across the world and installations of his latest generative artwork, “77 Million Paintings” will be showing for the first time at LOLA before travelling to the Biennales of both Venice and Milan this year.

Eno’s unique installation features customized software to create literally millions of visual combinations of “visual music”. The paintings are generated from handmade slides that are randomly combined by the computer. The software also processes Eno’s music that accompanies the paintings, in a similar way to the selection of elements and their duration in the piece. They are arbitrarily chosen, forming a virtually infinite number of variations. The result is that having created the seed of the work it becomes unpredictable even to the artist himself and every viewer has a singular experience of the painting.

Well worth your time this opportunity should not be missed.