Soundcheck: Musicians invading new genres

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There was a time when indie bands knew their place: number 38 in the charts, maybe a 3am appearance on Channel 4.

Now, just as the term "indie" - which once stood for fierce independence and diehard avoidance of the corporate shilling - has become all but meaningless, so the bands are discovering that expectations around them are higher.

There is a new ambition among musicians who once would have been content with minor cultdom. But it's not merely a hunger for improved sales figures.

Sufjan Stevens (left) is one of the musicians branching out into new fields

Bands are infiltrating the wider world of the arts, cross-pollinating their talents with other fields of creativity to produce unique experiences.

In London, groups with a recognition factor lower than a Lib-Dem politician are collaborating with noted orchestras at a major cultural institution.

Next week at the Barbican, Danish post-rockers Efterklang's performance with the chamber orchestra the Britten Sinfonia on 28 October is swiftly followed by a hook-up between the London Symphony Orchestra and the psychedelic folk of Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear on 31 October.

But the most bizarre extra-curricular project is the indie poster boy Sufjan Stevens and his "BQE".

First performed in New York's Howard Gilman Opera House in 2007 and released as CD, DVD, comic book and poster this week, it's pitched as "a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the hula-hoop".

It was performed by band and chamber orchestra while Stevens-shot images of the Expressway, an ugly elevated highway similar to our Westway, flashed past, and hula-hoopers hula-hooped around the stage.

Just as ambitious are the secretive Swedish electronic duo The Knife, who wear masks for public appearances and rarely perform live or give interviews and have now written an opera.

A "Darwin electro-opera", to be precise, called Tomorrow, In a Year, which premiered in Copenhagen last month and is soon to move on to Aarhus and Stockholm.

A collaboration with experimental Danish theatre company Hotel Pro Forma, it attempts to show the world through the eyes of Charles Darwin - not that you'd know it from the lasers, digital projections and clanking, bleeping music on the stage.

The Knife's Olof Dreijer travelled to the Amazonian jungle to record animal noises for the production, though the band's familiar ghostly electronica dominates and strangely suits the high drama of the operatic vocals.

Meanwhile, this week in New York's arts centre Performance Space 122, the modern dance choreographer Morgan Thorson is showing a new piece created in collaboration with the Minnesota trio Low, another cult band on a small label.

Heaven is an attempt to be "in pursuit of ecstatic and corporeal perfection in a real-time performance ritual", accompanied by the band's abstract, wordless drone. We Will Rock You this ain't.

In the world of contemporary dance, the involvement of a band like Low probably constitutes a reach towards the mainstream, while for the musicians, it shows they're capable of something potentially more significant than releasing a dozen catchy songs simultaneously.

Now that downloading culture has significantly decreased the perceived value of recorded music, it's in singular performances like these that real worth lies.

Other bands enjoy their music being just one part of a broader artwork, finding it puts less pressure on their individual abilities.

Win Butler of Arcade Fire has explained the appeal of composing a score for The Box, the forthcoming thriller from Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly: "It was a very ego-less project. The goal was to bang some music out and not be slitting our wrists if the tambourine is too loud. That was a good experiment," he said.

Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs also withheld her music for the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack from advance reviewers, preferring it to be heard as part of the film.

For Sufjan Stevens, who, like the others mentioned here, is working hard to transcend the conventions of pop, the most significant claim appears in his promotional material.

His BQE, he says, is "everything but a song". After all, you can't download a hula-hoop.

NEW ON THE NET

Brief clips of pop videos are all very well but the folks at YouTube clearly think the future is in long-form broadcasting.

After streaming a few full movies in the US, the site will show a live U2 concert from California's Pasadena Rose Bowl this Sunday night. British viewers will have to stay up until 3.30am to see this piece of web history.

Atlanta rap duo Outkast have been silent for so long that rumours persist they have split. In the meantime, a solo album by the group's Big Boi has been “imminent” for such a long time that it's equally easy to doubt its existence.

At least it has a tremendous title — Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty — and now a genuine new song is all over the blogs. Shine Blockas is a smooth soul gem that can be heard at
www.myspace.com/bigboi

In a bid to remind you downloaders that music could once be bought in a physical “shop”, the next Vinyl Saturday is coming on 7 November, during which there'll be exclusive items to purchase at your local indie record store.

Most tempting is LCD Soundsystem's moody cover of the Suicide track Bye Bye Bayou, which will be sold as a 12in single on the day but can be heard in advance now at The Hype Machine (http://hypem.com).

At 8pm tonight, jazz pianist Jamie Cullum will reward the 20,000 people who've subscribed to his Twitter ramblings by performing a short gig in his kitchen.

It's not big enough to hold 20,000 even if they spill into the lounge, so we can all watch it live on the web at www.ustream.tv/channel/twitter-show1.

 

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