A Winged Victory For The Sullen

2012-01-10

Netherlands - Amsterdam
Paradiso - Kleine Zaal

Version: 2 x DPA 4060 mics -> DPA MMA6000 -> Edirol R-09HR

01. [banter]
02. Nyman: String Quartet No. 2 - III
03. We Played Some Open Chords And Rejoiced,
For The Earth Had Circled The Sun Yet Another Year
04. Requiem For The Static King, Part One
05. Requiem For The Static King, Part Two
06. A Symphony Pathétique
07. [banter]
08. Steep Hills Of Vicodin Tears
09. Fratres

Length: 55:00 min
Source: FLAC
Sourcenotes: Type: Audience (master), recorded front of house, 3 metres back from the left,
ceiling-mounted PA stack.
Source: 2 x matched DPA 4060 mics ->
DPA MMA6000 amplifier (100 Hz low-cut filter) ->
Edirol R-09HR recorder (44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 1.3.13-beta (tracks split, fades added) ->
FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]
Recording Type: Audience
File Size: 257mb

Taper: Ian Macdonald (ianmacd)

My first gig of 2012 and my first in a month is the pleasantly low key debut
of A Winged Victory For The Sullen, the new collaboration between Stars Of The
Lid founder, Adam Wiltzie, and composer/pianist, Dustin O'Halloran.

After the day I'd had (our boiler leaked and flooded a bedroom, if you must
know), this was just what the doctor ordered: soothing, late night music. OK,
the band came on just after 20:30, which isn't exactly late, but that's a
minor detail.

Support came from Sleepingdog. On the strength of what I'd heard earlier in
the day on Spotify, I decided to record them, too, but it turned out that I'd
been listening to Sleeping Dog, not Sleepingdog. One byte of punctuation can
make all the difference.

Anyway, this led to the pleasant surprise of Sleepingdog being better than
expected, with Adam Wiltzie providing his own support as one half of the band,
in addition to being one half of the A Winged Victory For The Sullen project.

For the live performance, Adam and Dustin were joined by a cellist and two
violinists. Whilst the album features the bow work of Icelandic cellist,
Hildur Guðnadóttir, I'm virtually certain that wasn't her on stage tonight.

Five of the album's seven tracks were performed this evening, flanked by two
modern classical pieces of different origin: the set's opener, the third
movement of Michael Nyman's 'String Quartet No. 2', and the final piece of the
evening, an excerpt from Arvo Pärt's 'Fratres'.

The sound in the Kleine Zaal was up to its usually high standard and the
recording reflects this. The wide dynamic range of the performance has
resulted in some unfortunate clipping during the loudest moments, but it isn't
severe enough to spoil what is otherwise an excellent recording.

The crowd were respectful, apart from a few amateur photographers who didn't
seem to realise (or simply didn't care) just how fucking annoying the sound of
their shutter can be during quiet passages. They also appeared unaware of or
at least unmoved by the professional protocol of taking photos during the
first three songs only. The just kept snapping away, all the way through the
set. In spite of this, the shutter sounds aren't too much of a distraction
when listening to the recording.

I haven't performed any post-processing apart from tracking and the addition
of fades, so you will hear what I heard on the night.