This was truly an amazing concert. I've been listening to Nico's music for a while now but was completely unfamiliar with Son Lux (that second word is actually pronounced "lucks" but, to anyone with even a passing familiarity with Latin, the reference is obvious). I'm really glad I had an excuse to dig a little deeper because his debut album, At War With Walls and Mazes, is absolutely fantastic. It completely defies any sort of genre and it vacillates from trip hop to solo piano music (sometimes within a single song) with astonishing depth and has a synergy between styles that's hard to find. It's totally fearless and completely honest music. Here's a fantastic video for the song "Break":
Son Lux's part of the concert also included visuals by artist Joshua Ott and some of the most visceral choreography I've ever seen by Jennifer Lott and a troupe of 3 dancers. It was such a cool and moving way to spend 60 minutes.
Then there's Nico. He appeared with violist Nadia Sirota and, not being a fan of that particular instrument, I'm now a total convert. There was no program to tell you what they were doing (although he started off with my favorite, favorite piece of his ever, the virtuostic "Skip Town") so Nico "called the plays" from the piano bench. It's no stretch to understand why, at the age of 27, he's currently writing an opera for the Met. Newsweek just did a feature on him as well.
I thought about constructing a play-by-play review of this entire concert but decided that it just wasn't worth it in the end because the music spoke for itself. These two guys (Son Lux is the nom de plume of composer Ryan Lott) are a finger snap away from being mega stars within their respective fields and to see them in such an intimate setting was truly a gift. I can't wait to see and hear more.
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