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Photo: WENN
David Byrne has announced a special series of concerts set to feature St Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, Kelis and a host of others.
Calling the project 'Contemporary Color', Byrne aims to pair musicians with Color Guard teams from across North America, who will then perform together at two huge shows in Toronto and New York.
St Vincent, tUnE-yArDs, Kelis, Dev Hynes, Nelly Furtado, How to Dress Well and Byrne himself are the acts confirmed so far, with more names expected to be announced before the concerts take place in June 2015.
In a statement about the project, Byrne explained he discovered the flag-twirling high school sport after a team wrote to him and asked to use his music for a routine, and since fell in love with it, knowing he could combine it with music in some way.
Watch the promotional video for the concerts below:
Contemporary Color will take place on 22/23 June at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, and on 27/28 June at Brooklyn's Barclays Centre, read Byrne's full statement on the project below.
"Some years ago, a Colorguard team wanted to use some music I’d written (from a theater piece I did with Robert Wilson, called The Forest) for one of their routines. I said, “Fine, no charge… you are a high school team after all.” But I asked that they send me documentation out of curiosity and for my archives. I eventually got a DVD of the whole World Championship competition. I watched, and was amazed and delighted to find myself in a new world that I didn’t know existed.
What I was viewing is more properly referred to in that world as winterguard—as it takes place in the winter and spring—after fall football season, when the colorguard teams are more closely associated with drum lines and marching bands. Off season they do their own thing—still employing flags, rifles and sabers—but their routines are less about formation than about themes, emotion, concepts and visual spectacle. Over recent decades, the teams have evolved into something strange and wonderful; they’ve created a vibrant, innovative and original vernacular artform that is wildly popular across the whole North American continent, but is all but unknown in many of the big urban centers—like New York, where I live.
Contemporary Color aims to remedy that situation. I was stunned at what I was seeing, and being a musician I naturally wondered to myself, “What if these performances had live music? Really great live music! Wouldn’t that be amazing? And wouldn’t that lift it to another level?” (Besides being fun for the musicians too!). The competitions these teams engage in already fill arenas with their fans and supporters, so I thought to myself, “Let’s take it from there!”
I approached BAM and Luminato Festival in Toronto about presenting this idea: 10 colorguard teams paired with 10 musical artists. Somewhat surprisingly, they said yes! So this summer, on two successive weekends in June, we’re going to bring all of this together in live shows at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The musicians will be backed by an all-star band that will include a brass and string section.
Here they are (in no particular order):
Nelly Furtado
Kelis
St Vincent
How To Dress Well
Devonté Hynes
Nico Mulhy and Ira Glass
David Byrne
tUnE-yArDs + MORE!
This is sort of a crazy idea. We’re all slightly out of our comfort zone, but very excited—it’s an idea that seems natural and obvious too, so why not!? Please join us!"
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