Wild Light Decade #16: Sleepwalk City Live Installation (Patreon)

Special one for you this week. In the summer of 2013, ahead of the release of Wild Light, we were lucky enough to get a space at Millenium Galleries, Sheffield to do whatever we wanted inside of, as part of Tramlines Festival.

We even got a budget, like actual artists, and spent all of it on hiring as many speakers as we could. Then, in a insult to acoustic engineers everywhere, we lined them up in two rows running the length of opposite walls, pointing at each other. PHASE WARS. Sixteen speakers in total, plus a regular concert P.A at one end. And we had individual control over each speaker, could send specific sounds to any of them.

You can watch a short documentary about it HERE if you like:

[EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS IS A THUMBNAIL FROM DOCUMENTARY, CAN'T MAKE IT A LINK TO THE VIDEO OR IT DISAPPEARS. CAN'T EMBED THE VIDEO. WOW WHATEVER PATREON DOES WITH THE PERCENTAGE IT TAKES FROM EVERY SUBSCRIPTION IT DEFINITELY DOESN'T GO TO MAKING THEIR WEBSITE ANY GOOD!]

During the day, we had a multi-speaker sound and video installation running in the space. And then, in the afternoons and evenings, we did live performances. Nine shows in just over 24hrs. HECTIC. Each performance was a unique rendition of a site-specific version of Sleepwalk City that ran for about twenty five minutes.

This week’s Wild Light Decade release is a recording of one of those performances. It is a stereo recording from the back of the room. For the first ten minutes, much of the performance is based around grabbing live loops of Joe’s guitar and spatialising them to create a 3D ambience through the various different speakers, so this recording sadly doesn’t quite capture the full effect. But have patience - once it gets to the second half it morphs into an extended version of the classic doom-banger you all know and love. Here's some random photos we took during the production/performances...

We're on tour now. Maybe we saw you already in Glasgow last night? Or maybe we’ll see you tonight in Manchester, or elsewhere in the coming couple of weeks. If not don't worry, we will meet again on the 65LABS patreon…

Take care out there, friends!

65.x