by Andrew Sacher A Winged Victory for the Sullen (aka Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O'Halloran), who we profiled last year when they released their great self titled debut LP, are returning to North America this summer for a few shows....

Highlights: Sharon Van Etten, Floating Points & Eglo records showcase, Eleanor Friedburger (left), Popicalia #15 (right), Laura Sheeran, Tim Hecker,The Jezebels, Michael Kiwanuka, Johann Johannsson, Hauscha, Dustin O’Halloran… This is the weekly list of recommended gigs taking place over the … Read More... →

Festival season is now so close you can nearly touch it, and The Great Escape is not only one of the first, but is also guaranteed to be one of the best. This year's event is taking place from Thursday 10th May and culminates on the Saturday 12th of May. Across the three days three hundred plus bands will be providing Brighton rock, indie, electronica and more in 30 venues on the south coast. Listing all the great acts playing may break the internet but some names we’re excited about include: Perfume Genius, Niki & The Dove, Alt-J, Shabazz Palaces, Grimes, Friends, Zulu Winter and Django Django. There will be shows in the Brighton Dome, in churches and pubs around the city. Add to that an array of fringe events, club nights and a daytime conference - plus a bar on the famous Brighton pier - and you have all the ingredients for a very special time indeed. Amazingly tickets are still available and you can get them here . For a full of who’s playing and for more info visit escapegreat.com . See you there, yeah? Listen to our Great Escape playlist by clicking here . ***** Editors Picks: James Canham (Live Editor): Retro Stefson Possibly the most interesting and entertaining live act I've ever personally witnessed, Retro Stefson would need no introduction in their homeland of Iceland. Renowned on the Reykjavík circuit for their unique mix of pop ethics and peculiar, yet stunning, execution they're definitely one to catch. [ Listen ] Performances: 10th May - Latest Music Bar - 23:15 11th May - Above Audio - 14:30 11th May - Green Door Store - 19:30 Fever Fever Art punk isn't dead, and with bands like Fever Fever it never will die. On top of their fantastically literate lyrics their layers of dissonant yet raw guitar and pounding drums give the festival one of the best and most interesting performances. [ Listen ] Performance: 10th May - The Hope - 20:30 AlunaGeorge With an EP coming soon on the illustrious Tri-Angle records, and with an arsenal of future pop hits to hand, now is the time to see AlunaGeorge before they make it huge. Every song they've released so far is dredged in a fantastic drape of smooth and sexy vocals with rich synthy backing, and their near-midnight show at Coalition on the Friday is shaping up to be one of the best of the festival. [ Listen ] Performance: 11th May - Coalition - 23:30 Seams While Seams will be playing the sounds at his Corn exchange, the real reason anyone will be going is to see his fringe jumping excitedly on stage. We've loved him from the word go (especially his remarkable Tourist EP, a piece of work focused and composed from sounds heard in Berlin, the city he's now based in) and by all reports his live show is just as great as his recordings (mainly because of his fringe...). [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - Corn Exchange - 21:30 Micachu & The Shapes Along with many others we've eagerly awaited the next move from Micachu and The Shapes . After a few interesting diversions (most notably their chopped and screwed mixtape performance piece with the London Sinfonietta Orchestra) they've finally got a sequel to 2009's Jewellery in the pipeline and, with any luck, we'll hear something new from the makers of one of the last decade's most fascinating albums. [ Listen ] Performance: 12th May - The Haunt - 21:45 ***** Alt-J Editors Picks: Wil Cook (Music Editor): As they prepare to drop one of the albums of the year, Alt-J are the band to be excited about. Engaging, melodic songs full of depth, songs that linger on longer than you expect. Remnants appear in your head for days after and they are welcome. I cannot wait to see this band play live. [ Listen ] Blind Tiger Friday 21:15 Jonquil I have been screaming from the rooftops about Jonquil since 2006 when I caught them playing in a horrible little bar in Ipswich. It's been fascinating to watch them evolve from a folk band who evidently had a bit of a crush on Boards of Canada into this massive summery behemoth of a band. I love this band more than I could ever put into words for you, which says a lot, because I love to talk. [ Listen ] Prince Albert Thursday 22:15 Green Door Store Friday 14:00 Cloud Nothings Since releasing the wonderfully nihilistic Attack on Memory earlier in the year Cloud Nothings have been on my "must see" list. It's a crunching punk rock pop fix that simultaneously restores my faith in my ability to feel alive and reverts me back to a mindset where I wanted to die. Basically, they are the hipster Nirvana. I just hope they are as ramshackle and urgent in the flesh as they are on this record. [ Listen ] Above Audio Thursday 21:45 Perfume Genius I'm not who St. Mary is, but she doesn't half know how to book a gig, last year she hosted Dustin O Halloran and Richter">Max Richter for one of the shows of the festival. This year it's the turn of Perfume Genius who plays after Loney, Dear making one of the sexiest double bills of the three days. The chance to see songs like Hood and Dirge performed in the beautifully intimate surroundings of the church is not something that you should pass up. [ Listen ] St. Mary's Church 21:15 Tall Ships One of my favourite memories from last year was the mass sing-along during Vessels, mid afternoon in the Pav Tav, it placed in my mind an idea that has been reaffirmed several times since, Tall Ships have it. They have whatever it is that every band is trying to achieve when they write songs, that feeling. Y'know that feeling when your hairs prickle up with your skin bumps as you realise that you are lucky to be alive and in a world full of potential. Yes, that is quite a bold statement, but have you seen Tall Ships play? If you haven't, then you really need to catch them soon, this years Great escape is the place. [ Listen ] Pav Tav Friday 1am The Hope Saturday 22:15 ***** Editors Picks: Tim Boddy (Photography Editor): Gang Colours The 405 have been following Will Ozanne's Gang Colours closely since the release of the violently monikered EP, In Your Gut Like A Knife , last summer. Recently the chap from Southampton released full-length debut album The Keychain Collection on Brownswood Recordings, to positive appraise. It's the kind of album that rewards enormously on repeated listens, the reflective soundscapes burying deep into the skin, and cut-up homages to garage swirl smoothy through the bloodstream. The result is rather Beautiful stuff, like if Mount Kimbie went into ballad territory - but with a very definite Gang Colours personal grace to proceedings. [ Listen ] Swords">Forest Swords Oh Swords">Forest Swords , where have you been? The solo project from Liverpool-based Matthew Barnes has been quiet of recent, following the release of 2010's gorgeous and beguiling LP Dagger Paths . Beguiling in that a myriad of differing styles are sewn into each other; Barnes' passion and knowledge ...

Musician and composer Dustin O'Halloran has been moving slowly into film scoring in the past few years after popping up on the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" in 2006. Since then, O'Halloran has scored films like 2009's "An American Affair" and last year's "Like Crazy," which became one of our favorite scores of the year. Therefore, it is our great delight to discover that O'Halloran will score the next film for "Like Crazy" director Drake Doremus as well. Presently lacking a title, Doremus' next project will again tackle affairs of the heart, in ...

As if there weren’t enough gigs to miss in a month, May also brings over 100 bands playing three multi-venue city festivals in Manchester and Salford. Starting with Sounds From The Other City this weekend and finishing with the Chorlton Arts Festival Weekender at the end with Future Everything in between. If all goes well I may even get to more than one of these. This month’s mixtape leans more to many of the other gigs across the month including tomorrow night’s highly recommended Richard James gig at The Castle (see yesterday’s post on his latest ...

God bless indie music. Bands and artists with a DIY aesthetic, struggling against The Man to create beautiful innovative music which John Peel would be proud of. And the fans, hip outsiders who name check the right bands and are quirkily cool. Yeah right. The biggest selling indie artist is bloody Adele and this week's top 20 indie chart contains The Osmonds and Gilbert O'sodding Sullivan. The corporate whore majors, however, have the most vital and exciting album this year, Death Grips' The Money Store out on Sony. Its stream is the most essential preview of an album ...

Dustin O’Halloran’s ‘Opus 28’ from his 2010 limited edition CD ‘Vorleben’. Pure bliss.

Formed almost by chance, everything A Winged Victory For The Sullen put their name to has a great sense of deliberation. The band's brooding, slowly evolving music sits somewhere between avant garde classical and drone. Part of the Erased Tapes family, Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O' Halloran draft songs which to gently push back boundaries in an unstoppable wellspring of emotional weight. Releasing their debut album last year, A Winged Victory For The Sullen organised their first full tour in January. Handing Adam Wiltzie a pen and a piece of paper, the musician jotted down some notes from those ...

Dave Michuda aka Low Light   creates mixes that are usually ambient in nature. Each mix usually has a theme, ‘sleep music’, ‘autumn’, ‘piano’, ‘stargazing’, ‘the sea’, ‘sci-fi’, etc. The sounds include modern classical, field recordings, electro-acoustic, drone, glitch, idm, electronic, instrumental, space, experimental and of course ambient. Dave runs his  own mix blog for more than five years. You can download all of his Mixcloud mixes there. Here’s an excellent one featuring music by The Notwist, Field Rotation, Philip Glass, David Darling, Dustin O’Halloran, and my more. Dim the lights and enjoy.

Each week we invite a reader to tell us about the songs they've been listening to recently Each week we'll be inviting a reader to share with us a playlist of songs they've been listening to recently. This week it's Thomas Doyle. If you like the cut of his jib and want to know more about him, Thomas blogs at tomjdoyle.wordpress.com and you can follow him on Twitter . Genesis – Grimes Subtle synths morph with techno beats and ethereal nursery school vocals to create a warm, unsettling track equally at home on a sticky dancefloor ...

Highlights: War Cry">Hush War Cry and more at the above Delphi vs Bluestack gig, a free Girl Band & more gig on Wednesday, A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Stars Of The Lid / Dustin O’Halloran) , Lanterns on the Lake … Read More... →

Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie bring their sensitive, cinematic side project to old London town. Burak Cingi sends us these photos of the evening.

"The beginning is over. The end hasn't come yet. All I care about is now." - Nucky Thompson - Wise words from Mr. Thompson, erstwhile bootlegger and burgeoning mafia man incarnate of Boardwalk Empire. But to fully concern ourselves with the now we also have to look back, take a little pilfer through the banks of what has come before in order to concern ourselves with the pressing matters of today.  2011 was another great year for music, the old vanguard was in full force with stellar records coming from the amazing PJ Harvey, a reformed The Feelies, Mogwai, Radiohead, Tom ...

The scarcely illumined signpost cowering slenderly in January gloom before Cecil Sharp House reads: 'The English Folk Dance And Song Society'. And while the lavish compositional work of Adam Wiltzie's latest (and questionably greatest) project, A Winged Victory For The Sullen shan't provide any such sort of frivolous gaiety, there's a fair amount of aerobic exercise taking place down in the basement. Rigorous folk dancing betides below to the soundtrack of the excessively jaunty violins that emanate from within, the sort of scene typically set in dubiously sinister TV-only period drama and from the outside looking in ...

There’s a video on You Tube of A Winged Victory For The Sullen playing at Unsound Festival in Krakow. The venue is uncredited but it appears to be a 18th century church, candlelit with rich burnt-orange colours. A hallowed and serene setting for the post-classical soundscapes of the musical collaboration between the composer Dustin O’Halloran and ex- Stars of the Lid man Adam Wiltzie. What to make then of the first calling station for A Winged Victory For The Sullen’s debut UK tour being Manchester Academy 3: a typically characterless and scuzzy student union venue with black ...