Friday, October 28, 2011

A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid + Dustin O'Halloran) Tour Kicks Off Tomorrow

 
A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN 
TOUR KICKS OFF TOMORROW
Listen to "Steep Hills of Vicodin Tears" via Pitchfork: 

"Four Stars. Genuinely moving. Another victory for the Post-Classical scene." - Uncut

"It's an immersive, and inevitably cinematic, ambient gem." - MOJO 
 
"A celestial incantation to silence all commotion." - Drowned in Sound

LOS ANGELES, CA - October 28, 2011 - A Winged Victory for the Sullen, the collaboration of Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie of ambient drone outfit Stars of the Lid and pianist/composer Dustin O'Halloran, will begin their first-ever North American tour tomorrow, October 29 at St. Mary's Hamilton Village in PhiladelphiaThe group will perform music from their acclaimed self-titled debut album, which was released on Kranky to great critical acclaim in September. The duo will switch off between piano and guitar and be accompanied by ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble). Video projections will be provided by Christina Vantzou and support will come from fellow Kranky acts Benoit Piolard and Ken Camden.

A Winged Victory For the Sullen is the first installment of the new collaboration between Stars of the Lid founder Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie and composer Dustin O'Halloran. The duo agreed to leave their normal home studio comfort zone and develop the recordings with the help of large acoustic spaces, and to hunt down a selection of 9ft grand pianos that had the ability to deliver extreme sonic low end. Other traditional instrumentation was used including string quartet, French horn, and bassoon, but always juxtaposed is the sound of drifting guitar washed melodies. The recordings began in one late night session in the famed Grunewald Church in west Berlin on a 1950s imperial Boesendorfer piano and strings were added in the historic East Berlin DDR radio studios along the River Spree. One last final session in a private studio deep in the norther cusp of Italy on a handmade Fazioli piano, and the final mixes took place in a 17th century villa near Ferrara, Italy, with the assistance of Francesco Donadello. All songs were processed completely analogue straight to magnetic tape.

Their secret to harvesting new melodic structures from the thin air of existence was for 
the duo to push themselves to live dangerously, realizing that clear thinking at the wrong moment could stifle the compositions. The final result is seven landscapes of harmonic replicating ingemination. In "Requiem for the Static King Part 1" (created in memory of the untimely passing of Mark Linkous) they have taken the age old idea of a string quartet and then shot it out a cannon to reveal exquisite new levels of mellow bliss. Of the 13 minute track "Symphony Pathétique," Wiltzie says "after almost 20 years of struggling to create interesting ambient drone music, I feel like I have finally figured out what I am doing." Notable guest musicians include Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir, and violinist Peter Broderick. A Winged Victory for the Sullen is not a side project. This is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of. 

A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN ON TOUR
October 29 - Philadelphia, PA @ St. Mary's Hamilton Village
October 30 - New York, NY @ West Park Presbyterian Church
October 31 - Montreal, QC @ Casa del Popolo
November 1 - Toronto, ON @ Drake Hotel
November 2 - Pittsburgh, PA @ The Warhol @ Carnegie Museum of Art
November 3 - Cincinnati, OH @ Southgate House
November 5 - St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway 
November 6 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 
November 7 - Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center 
November 10 - Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door
November 12 - Portland, OR @ Holocene 
November 14 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent 
November 15 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite  
  
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