![]() In spite of the spare sounds of their score, there are plenty of strange textures heard over the project’s distilled 45 minutes. With Invisible Cities, though, we’re finally gifted with a visual component to the duo’s evocative compositions, pairing their postmodern murmurs with strikingly apt visual spaces brought to life by dance. ![]() Dating back to his work with The Dead Texan and Stars of the Lid, Adam Wiltzie’s been constructing ominous, near-apocalyptic soundscapes pitting menacing drone against a more approachable ambient sound, which took a modern classical turn when he teamed up with pianist Dustin O’Halloran in the tail end of the 2000s to launch AWVFTS. If the visuals are as compelling as the music, we’re in for a treat.The duo behind A Winged Victory for the Sullen have always been primed to soundtrack the type of bizarre stage production that is the industrial-set dance-and-visual-arts adaptation of the Italo Calvino novel Invisible Cities. We’re eager to see if this one can compete. “Total Perspective Vortex” flings the door wide open to density and volume before crashing back down to earth, just as Marco Polo does in the book, admitting that every time he describes another city, he is describing his own.Īn earlier stage production was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. In the next piece, the drone continues to lurk in the background, biding its time until the finale. When hearing such surges, one can hardly wait to see their visual reflections. So much for relaxation! But that’s okay, because theatre is about engagement. As a sweet serenade of strings is engulfed by distorted tension, one wonders how much the framework can bear. In “There Is One Of Which You Never Speak,” it explodes. In “Only Strings And Their Supports Remain,” it surges. In “Thirteenth Century Travelogue,” the sonic field flutters, pushing the edges before making a beautiful retreat. This tug of the imagination lasts through the organ and harp timbres of “Nothing Of The City Touches The Earth.” As that piece rises in volume, building on the electronics of the prior piece, one suspects something new is on its way. The brass of “The Celestial City” sounds like a call to a higher plane. The opening track is so humble and restrained that one expects to be able to relax over its course but Wiltzie and O’Halloran challenge the listener in the same way that Calvino challenges the reader. Piano chords and soft swirling ambience lead the listener into the experience, the orchestra slowly thawing behind a dusty curtain. The early public tracks ~ the choral “Desires Are Already Memories” and album opener “So That The City Can Begin To Exist” ~ sound like classic AWVFTS, the album hiding its left turns. The show is 90 minutes in length, the album half that, with no selection topping five minutes, underlining the power of the succinct. (For a completely different turn on the same work, see Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis‘ project of the same name, released three years ago this winter.) ![]() Invisible Cities is a different beast, rife with drama and drone, with surprising twists and turns: perhaps no surprise to fans of Italo Calvino’s novel, on which this project is based. One brings certain expectations to a new AWVFTS album, but it’s best to leave them at the door. Sadly, COVID restrictions cut the tour after a short initial run there’s hope for a return in 2021. Invisible Cities is a multi-media project spanning theatre, dance and video, helmed by Leo Warner, who was the video designer for the London Olympics. The duo has alternated between studio albums and film productions, sprinkling in some amazing videos along the way. The musical careers of Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O’Halloran span back to the 90s with their former groups, but A Winged Victory for the Sullen has already been around for a decade, establishing its own niche. ![]()
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