My friend Diane and I went to see Scott Cortez at Burlington. I think it was late spring or something. It was on a Monday. It was her idea and I didn't say no. It was a lazy Monday. Expectations are low and so I feel...lazy. Along calls Diane.....why not. This can be like a training exercise on being on time since now I have another person to consider.....and its Diane. I pick her up from work. We both go on and bemoan whatever bullshit happens to us. We both have nieces from hell and so forth. Scott Cortez is spoken about a lot among the friends I share a thread of common musical taste. I know his work from his band Star. I wrote about them long ago. Once inside Burlington, there was Rebecca and Brian from Panda Riot. This turned out to be my first time seeing the local solo, ambient Lykanthea. Turns out she was about to release her EP Migration. I was fascinated first by her arranging of her instruments on the floor where she will kneel or sit. This intimacy draws you in. I mean who fucking does that? She has enough gear and instruments that would make other people by instinct naturally play standing up, like her guitar. So sitting on the floor is a deliberate and interesting act. Telos in moments reminded me of being introduced to Eno by my cousin years ago. Music For Airports.....We got stoned and...anyway I better like Telos at 8 minutes to Enos at 28. I had to cue it up to that part. I don't got 28 minutes like that! So Lykanthea show....Burlington...oh and no camera. Monday night hanging with Diane. The lighting is candlelight minimal. This kind of performance invites, requires silence from the audience and there were two girls yammering away in the back. Diane would turn and stare them down. If they were flies she would have swat them. The sound guy eventually asked them to leave I think. So she is who I thank for introducing me to Lykanthea. I don't recall which songs I heard and which songs are impacting later when you hear it at home. It was real nice and unexpected to catch this on a Monday night. Not having a camera to record flashes of the moment had me absorb and recall as much as possible. I were to see her once more before moving of to Rome.
Saturday August....don't fucking ask. On this night I caught two shows and this was the second. Researching Lakshmi Ramgopal's Lykanthea, later is to enter a labyrinth of other topics to research. To better and more fully appreciate Migration I shall research the goddess Inanna for example. First, I saw an amazing haunting one time performance of Lykanthea at Hideout with a chorus local performers from other bands behind her. An ideal ambient audience is tense silent and respectful as was Hideout. My Sisters is crazy intense, dark and fragile! I'm so happy I did not miss it. That song and Telos are inspired by Lakshmi living for a week in the Greek island of Delos with no internet, isolated from the few people the island had and the roar of the ocean the only other constant. Sisters was written as a funeral song. For the Hideout gig it was dark and they were hooded. If ritual it was, no commoners performed.
Clergy only, and for only one night, after this Lykanthea moves to Rome, and this moment is never to be again. This was not going to be on the list of fabulous shit I missed. I recognized most of the chorus. Sophie from Videotape, Melissa from architecture. Looked and sounded like I was witnessing an ancient ritual that I was not supposed to witness. Lakshmi is on the floor where she arranges her instruments. This gives texture to that ritual feel, intimate as only Hideout does. The performance space was cold in relation to outside. It was probably 89 that August Saturday night and inside you can almost see your breath. You didn't go inside to get cool, you got outside to where its nice and warm. I keep in mind and stress that impressions I write down here
Zig
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