Midlake Join Pixies, Giorgio Moroder, Ms. Lauryn Hill and more at Vivid LIVE 2014

Midlake join Pixies, Giorgio Moroder, Ms. Lauryn Hill and more at Vivid LIVE 2014

Sydney Opera House yesterday announced psych-folk six-piece Midlake will perform on the opening night of Vivid LIVE 2014, as part of Vivid Sydney, the 18 day festival of light, music and ideas.

The critically acclaimed Texan outfit will join already announced Vivid LIVE artists Pixies, Giorgio Moroder, Australian Chamber Orchestra featuring The Presets, Ms. Lauryn Hill, St Vincent, James Vincent McMorrow, Anna Calvi and more at Sydney Opera House, from Friday 23 May – Sunday 1 June.

Touring in support of their latest LP, last year’s Antiphon, Eric Pulido (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Paul Alexander (bass, keyboards, bassoon, guitars, backing vocals), McKenzie Smith (drums, percussion), Eric Nichelson (guitars, autoharp), Jesse Chandler (keyboards, piano, flute, backing vocals) and Joey McClellan’s (guitars, backing vocals) fourth album is proving a watershed moment in their 15-year journey, with The Guardian praising the release as “another impeccably realised meld of bucolic 70s folk and radio-friendly soft rock, as warm and assured as it is adventurous”.

Founded in 1999 the then jazz students at the University of North Texas College of Music – Midlake started as a Herbie Hancock inspired funk and jazz outfit, worlds apart from the band’s lo-fi indie rock sound of today. Dropping the sax and starting to write songs inspired by Jethro Tull and Radiohead, the then five-piece self-released their debut EP Milkmaid Grand Army, a seven track EP which chronicled the band’s formative years.

Capturing the attention of Bella Union founder, Simon Raymonde, Midlake signed to the iconic label in 2004 and released their first LP Bamnan and Slivercork that same year. Lauded for its fresh approach to psychedelia, critics hailed the album as “a perfect record of late-summer Sunday-afternoon psych-pop combining the static blippiness of early Depeche Mode, the faux-childlike obliquity of Syd Barrett, and the feeling and tone of Nick Drake,” (Paste Magazine).

They followed in 2006 with sophomore LP, The Trials of Van Occupanther which opened at #14 on the UK indie charts, embracing the folk rock revivalism with breakout singles ‘Roscoe’ and ‘Head Home’. 2010 saw the critically acclaimed outfit collaborate with label mate John Grant (The Czars), on his award-winning debut record Queen of Denmark.

Having recently performed at London’s first BBC 6 Music Festival, and armed with their most symphonic album yet of rural Americana, Midlake return in adventurous form rewiring fan favourites and their cult hits for a startling new chapter – a band re-born for a heart-rending opening to Vivid LIVE.

From 23 May – 1 June, Sydney Opera House will welcome some of the most ambitious and innovative local and international artists for Vivid LIVE – a ten-day celebration of music on the nation’s most famous stages – as part of Vivid Sydney, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest festival of light, music and ideas.

Now in its sixth year, and owned and managed by Destination NSW, the NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency, Vivid Sydney, over 18 days, features large scale light installations and projections (Vivid Light); music performances and collaborations (Vivid Music including Vivid LIVE at the Sydney Opera House); and creative ideas, discussion and debate (Vivid Ideas), celebrating Sydney as the creative hub of the Asia-Pacific.

Vivid LIVE invites the world’s leading artists, creative collectives, promoters and digital animators to raise the roof of Sydney Opera House’s theatres, rehearsal spaces, recording studios and most famously, its iconic sails, which are transformed into a unique canvass each year for Vivid Sydney.

Vivid Sydney, 23 May to 9 June:
For more information visit www.vividsydney.com

Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House, 23 May – 1 June:
For more information visit www.sydneyoperahouse.com/vividlive

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