Son Lux Changes Form With Itsnotyouitsme
by Kat
How literally should we be taking this?
Itsnotyouitsme appeared to a seated crowd of mostly older folk – some obvious professionals, tailor-made & pressed who remained from the earlier show for Alarm Will Sound, a 20-piece chamber orchestra that perform a wide range of music as avant-garde as Aphex Twin. It was unusual to notice laptops and a tables-and-chairs layout at this venue, but it somehow revealed a clearly fit purpose for LPR. (No cons this time!) The place welcomed relaxation. Just a single bouncer was spotted checking tickets. Exit signs beamed until all but red colored lights went out to appropriately rouge our faces. Caleb Burhans, violinist, and Grey McMurray, guitarist, carried out what I can only compare to meditation. Two fascinating songs in, Son Lux crept by to join the baby grand piano on stage. At this point, I realized that Lott would be playing with itsnotyouitsme! Together, these three artists simultaneously improvised – fusing into an unspoken, extraordinary energy. LIVE!!!!
The sound this trio formed illustrated a world that had nothing between the ocean and space. It imitated what it would sound like if amphibians had conversations with a rising sun, or if your nightmares were narrated by beautiful noise. It captivated the full house into a state of quiet so deep that you could hear the release of the piano pedal – even the light tapping of Lott’s boot back descending to the ground! To hear the sound of silence made shooting difficult. The camera’s shutter shot through the intimacy and pointed photography out as an intruder. I thought about my experience at a music academy – where I learned proper concert etiquette, like how to detect the true end of a song and where to clap when all that is left is intensity. Never did I imagine that would apply to new music that I’m into! Not often does anyone, especially in their 20’s, witness this sort of thing.
Son Lux’s newest EP called “Weapons” is made up of six different versions of one song. He played two other arrangements that night – one completely new and one that seemed part planned, part jammed. Itsnotyouitsme developed their songs recording piece by piece – the end result constructed by everything looped together – while Son Lux’s fingers commanded the keys as an old soul spoke through his vocals. His hand reached in within the piano to take control as Burhans strummed his unusually shaped violin like a guitar. How did they play what did not exist, so smoothly? Each note created appeared to touch invisible receptors that would contort their bodies to appear almost surgical. Son Lux engaged their first song together as a young child would, carefully examining what it took to be adult. He sat in his chair – his torso crawling like a caterpillar – growing, enchanted. “Tie the ribbons in your hair, ‘cause I’m leaving you,” sung over and over until their unison transformed into a truly unique moment in time. I thought, how do three people know when to stop a song they’ve never heard?
I get it now… You get lost. You stop thinking – enough for momentum to be your master.
Tags: Anticon, itsnotyouitsme, Son Lux
- March 8, 2010
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