This December sees the debut live tour of British electronic artist and producer James Holden here in Australia.
An astonishing seven years has now elapsed since the release of James Holden’s milestone debut album The Idiots Are Winning in 2006, rightfully acclaimed in such quarters as The Guardian as“The most astonishing debut in electronic music since Boards of Canada’s Music Has The Right To Children”.
But June 2013 saw Holden finally return in a big way, with a brand new artist album of suitably epic proportions: 75 minute long English pagan saga The Inheritors. A bold, psychedelic journey, striking a delicate balance between weighty tome and transformative trip, and with a production aesthetic that is all his own: Holden is certain that this is the album that he always wanted to make.
Holden took his first tentative steps into the live arena at the behest of Caribou’s Dan Snaith, who gave Holden’s previously studio-bound modular synthesizers a live outing as part of their extendedCaribou Vibration Ensemble line-up for a series of ATP shows at the end of 2011. And eager for another taste of that collective live performance magic, Holden also seized upon the opportunity to contribute the soundtrack (complete with trance inducing live modular collaboration with saxophonist and Inheritors guest performer Etienne Jaumet, drummer Tom Page of Rocketnumbernine and percussionist Camilo Tirado) to Oxford mathematician and TV presenterMarcus Du Sautoy’s multimedia lecture on ‘Consciousness’ and the brain, performed at London’s Barbican arts centre and the Latitude festival.
Now for the first time Australia will get the chance to experience the live show that saw Thom Yorke invite the artist to be the official support on the Atoms for Peace 2013 US tour. Playing tracks from The Inheritors alongside his unique back catalogue, James Holden live is a mind boggling experience. Nobody is making electronic music as explorative as this…
Before you catch him in Australia, check out his live performance at La Machine du Moulin Rouge in Paris.
Australia Tour Dates
Saturday 6th December: Subsonic Music Festival – NSW
Wednesday 10th December: HiFi Bar – Melbourne
Friday 12th December: Meredith Music Festival – VIC
Saturday 13th December: Oxford Art Factory – Sydney
