I was lucky enough yesterday to catch the enthralling visual/soundcsape show, DRIFT, by Sonic Youth-er Lee Ranaldo and his film making wife, Leah Singer at Super Deluxe. Lee really is a master of the art of sonic sound and feedback - he spent most of the gig doing crazy stuff with his guitar and an array of toys and CD's, including wandering around the stage waving his guitar in the air at the various amps, amongst other stuff. The sound was surprisingly beautiful. The accompanying visuals provided live by Leah Singer on 2 16 mm film projectors added an intoxicating edge to the show. He also did some spoken word prose and poetry including a tingling piece called The Box, about his personal experiences after 9/11. [am I sounding like a complete wanker? ;p]

Anyway, here's the official spiel:

DRIFT is an immersive sonic/visual environment consisting of music, sounds and texts by Ranaldo in response to two 16mm analytical film projectors performed in real time by Singer. Much as a DJ scratches a vinyl record, Singer manipulates her films in a live improvisation with Ranaldo's guitar, poetry and soundscapes.

If you get a chance to catch this show some time, check it out. It's great. (Thanks to Jane for dragging me along!)

And then I went to Shibuya for a show at the opposite end of the musical spectrum. My dear old mate Pete Murray finally played in Tokyo this week. It was great to see him play again, especially in his solo acoustic mode which is pretty much the way I remember him from the early days before super-stardom in Australia. He's off to Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima this week, but will be back at the end of the week with 4 days off. We'll get to hang out properly then. Yay. He's good people, he is. Shame this is such a crappy pic.

Technorati Tags: events, japan, music, shibuya, tokyo

frangipani wrote this on April 16, 2007 10:11 PM