VIVID LIVE 2016 SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE MEDIA RELEASE NEW ORDER (SYDNEY ONLY) BON IVER PRESENTS CERCLE (SYDNEY ONLY) ANOHNI: ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS + ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER PRESENT HOPELESSNESS (SYDNEY ONLY) ESPERANZA SPALDING PRESENTS: EMILY’S D+EVOLUTION FUTURE CLASSIC PRESENTS TA-KU LIVE FEAT. WAFIA (SYDNEY ONLY) HIATUS KAIYOTE WITH SAMPA THE GREAT MAX RICHTER SLEEP (SYDNEY ONLY) ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER DEAFHEAVEN WAYNE SHORTER QUARTET GOODGOD SUPER CLUB POLIÇA TINY RUINS DRESS UP ATTACK! FEAT. WALTER MARTIN WITH SPECIAL GUESTS SALLY SELTMANN & HOLLY THROSBY LIGHTING THE SAILS ‘SONGLINES’ CURATED BY RHODA ROBERTS + NEW ORDER EXHIBITIONS | FREE TALKS SESSIONS | DEEP PURPLE POOL HALL Tickets on sale to the general public 9.00am Wednesday 23 March New Order, Bon Iver, Max Richter (featuring Grace Davidson) and Ta-ku (featuring Wafia), generations of powerful, boundary-pushing artists join Anohni in Sydney Opera House exclusives as part of its Vivid LIVE 2016 program of transformative contemporary music, announced today for Vivid Sydney the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas. Taking over all six stages and spaces across the Opera House, Vivid LIVE 2016 features more than 25 international and Australian performances from a genre-hopping line-up that spans jazz genius Esperanza Spalding, future-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote, metal-benders Deafheaven, Goodgod club nights, a night- long performance, dress-up kids’ shows and much more (full details below). All within the soaring Songlines, an immersive indigenous artwork that will transform the sails of the Opera House into an animated canvas, curated by the Opera House’s Head of Indigenous Programming, Rhoda Roberts. A bold evolution of Vivid LIVE’s annual Lighting the Sails during Vivid Sydney, Roberts’s Songlines conflates time and space, weaving history lines and trade routes into a pattern of sharing systems. Roberts has selected six key Indigenous artists from different clans, national estates and territories – Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu – to create this new and timeless work.. For the first time, the Opera House Forecourt will become part of the citywide Vivid Light Walk, with a very special installation, Flurry. This interactive space deploys LED lighting to make the public the performer, their presence triggering light effects within a structure they can walk through to a view of the harbour. Now in its eighth year, Vivid LIVE celebrates the world’s boldest and most ambitious contemporary music at Australia’s boldest and most ambitious building, the World Heritage-listed Sydney Opera House. Showcasing newly commissioned works, world-premiere performances and exclusive appearances, Vivid LIVE has included performances by The Cure, Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O, Kraftwerk, Lauryn Hill, St. Vincent and Morrissey. Destination NSW Chief Executive Officer and Executive Producer Vivid Sydney Sandra Chipchase said, “Vivid Sydney returns in 2016 with an incredible program featuring a series of exciting firsts. From the spectacular illumination of the iconic sails in celebration of Australia’s Indigenous artists through the story of Songlines, to the expansion of the Vivid Light Walk through the Forecourt with Flurry, this year’s Vivid Sydney festival is set to be our biggest yet.” Ben Marshall, curator of Vivid LIVE and the Opera House’s Head of Contemporary Music, says, “It's an honour to present the 2016 Vivid LIVE program, the second I've had the privilege of putting together. Vivid LIVE celebrates ambition and excellence in contemporary music - marrying artists interested in stretching the concept of performance with a building that symbolises the liberating power of art. It's a unique time to take in the Opera House, when it's being taken over by contemporary music performances, the Deep Purple Pool Hall, free artist talks & exhibitions plus the brilliant madness of Dress Up Attack!'s music festival for kids & adults, Max Richter's overnight concerts and more. I hope you enjoy the city and the Opera House at this unique time of year – have fun trying on for size the musical worlds that are brought here.” This year’s Vivid LIVE is the second curated by the Sydney Opera House’s Head of Contemporary Music, Ben Marshall, who follows an illustrious line of Vivid LIVE curators that began with the legendary Brian Eno and has included the late Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Modular Recordings founder Stephen Pavlovic and Fergus Linehan. Vivid LIVE is the centrepiece of the Sydney Opera House’s burgeoning, year-round music program. Vivid LIVE 2016 Line-up New Order, the synth-pop superstars who created the blueprint for the likes of Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem, will celebrate a 35-year, 10-album career that includes 2015’s Music Complete, their first album in a decade, featuring collaborations with La Roux, Iggy Pop, Stuart Price and Tom Rowlands from the Chemical Brothers. Inspired again by new possibilities of performing, New Order present a four-night residency in the Opera House Concert Hall, the band’s only Australian performances. In a world premiere for Vivid LIVE, New Order will play two nights (1,5 June) in classic five-piece configuration and two with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, arranged and conducted by celebrated British composer Joe Duddell (2,4 June). One of the great indie rock breakout stars of the last decade, Grammy Award winner Bon Iver, will open Vivid LIVE 2016 with a new show created for the occasion, Cercle, over four Sydney-only nights in the Concert Hall (27-30 May). No stranger to the Opera House stage, Justin Vernon’s three 2012 shows sold. Vernon also led a new collective of modern singer-songwriters and folk luminaries celebrating American folklorist Alan Lomax exclusively for 2013’s Vivid LIVE. Multi Grammy-winning jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding will make her Sydney Opera House debut in the Joan Sutherland Theatre 4 June, presenting her fifth studio album, Emily’s D+Evolution. A series of vignettes conceived in collaboration with director Will Weigler (Arcade Fire, Spike Jonze), Spalding fuses pop melodies, funk-rock grooves and jazz improvisation. Each song builds its own world, complete with characters, video and physical movement. Future Classic’s rising star, Perth producer Ta-ku, will take centre stage (3 June) in his first Australian headline performance, supported by Brisbane vocalist Wafia. One of Australia’s most in­demand beatmakers, Ta-ku (real name Regan Matthews) is curator of an ever-expanding, multi•disciplinary creative empire founded on storytelling. Beyond the producer’s forthcoming EP Songs To Make Up To - companion piece to last year’s Songs To Break Up To EP - a debut album is now in the works. After a phenomenal rise internationally, Melbourne future-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote will receive the Australian platform – and spotlight – they deserve on the Opera House Concert Hall stage on 31 May. In a whirlwind five years, the band has amassed two Grammy nominations, multiple world tours, nods from Erykah Badu, Questlove and Prince. Inspiring female artist Sampa The Great will be supporting. Max Richter will perform his record-breaking 31-track, eight-hour album Sleep the way he always intended - hibernating - at the Opera House (3,4 June). A special environment will be created in the Joan Sutherland Theatre Northern Foyer for the occasion. Hailed as one of the most influential composers of his generation, the German-British composer only made his Australian debut in 2014 – a dozen years after his breakthrough album Memoryhouse. This is an exciting moment in the Vivid LIVE program and the only place to experience this remarkable piece live. The performance also features the musicians who recorded the album, New York’s American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), and rising-star British soprano, Grace Davidson. Brooklyn-based experimental electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never will present his seventh album Garden of Delete in his own show (29 May), alongside his four performances in the Joan Sutherland Theatre with Anohni. Exploring the detritus of technology and lowbrow culture, Daniel Lopatin has skirted the borders of pop culture since signing with the illustrious Warp Records in 2013. Crossover American black-metal band Deafheaven will make their way back to Australia to introduce their new album New Bermuda, the darkly cinematic follow up to the critically acclaimed Sunbather. Treading the tightrope between harrowing metal screams and celestial beauty Deafheaven promise to be one of the heaviest bands yet to take the stage at Vivid LIVE – a fittingly epic performance on the Joan Sutherland Theatre (2 June). Ten-time Grammy Award winner and legend of jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter will draw Vivid LIVE to a euphoric close in a rare Australian performance with the Wayne Shorter Quartet (13 June). One of the most charismatic figures in the long history of jazz, Shorter has played with Miles Davis, Weather Report and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Studio Club Nights are back at the Opera House for Vivid LIVE 2016, and this time Jimmy Sing is reviving the imitable brand Goodgod to curate all four nights across two weekends (27-28 May, 3-4 June). Recognising the cultural importance of the club in Sydney, Goodgod Super Club is a salute to the fundamental elements of sound, lighting and good music. Inspired to rebel against the way women are portrayed in pop music across three albums, Poliça follow their sold out Sydney debut with a fiery performance in the Joan Sutherland Theatre (3 June). In one of the most unique back stories of the past decade, folk singer Channy Leaneagh ended a band and relationship, began collaborating with producer Ryan Olson (Gayngs, Bon Iver), and formed a breakthrough ensemble that Justin Vernon described as 'the best band I've ever heard', comprising autotune vocals, bass and drums.