The Music Presents: Pixies, Giorgio Moroder, Presets Lead 2014 Vivid LIVE Line Up

The always stunning celebration of all things wonderfully forward-thinking Vivid LIVE is to descend upon the city of Sydney once again this May and the first announcement of artists is enough to have us very excited indeed. It's not a big announcement in terms of volume, but the quality of it is pretty incredible, we think you'll agree.

Originally curated by musical legends like Brian Eno and the late Lou Reed, Vivid LIVE is the Sydney Opera House's annual celebration of modern and contemporary music - something it's embraced in the past half-a-decade. As the city lights up through the Vivid LIGHTS program, the Opera House hosts unique and exclusive musical performances, which in the past has included The Cure and Kraftwerk playing iconic albums through and Brian Eno's breathtaking, and largely improvised, Pure Scenius performances.

Now programmed in-house, largely by Vivid LIVE Festival Director Fergus Linehan, it's become one of the city's most important festival events since it began in 2009.

The first acts for Vivid Live, presented by The Music, are as follows:

Pixies, The Music Of Giorgio Moroder, Timeline: ACO Featuring The Presets, Lighting The Sails: 59 Productions

As well as the Vivid Live program, Modular and Carriageworks are teaming up for Modulation, a three=day event to be headlined by Pet Shop Boys as part of Vivid Music. Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin has also been announced as part of that program.

Pixies:

One of the most important bands in the world of modern alternative rock music, the Pixies return to Australia to headline the Vivid line up for 2014. This will be their first visit to Australia since 2010, when they came to play their 1988 LP Doolittle in full and then returned to headline Splendour In The Grass, and plenty has changed in that time. Kim Deal is no longer a part of the band, replaced by Paz Lenchantin of A Perfect Circle (after The Muffs' Kim Shattuck had a short run with the band), and they have released a couple of new EPs in EP1 and EP2. They remain one of the great bands of our time and it's always an honour to have them back. They'll play four intimate shows at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

The Music Of Giorgio Moroder:

While Giorgio Moroder has certainly undergone something of a resurgence thanks to the mad props bestowed upon him by French electro duo Daft Punk, it must be said that he has very much helped that himself with his recent adoption of Soundcloud and basically just putting himself out there again. What a career he has had – he's won Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys (to name but a few) and recorded some of the most futuristic, boundary pushing pop and electro music in history. He is one of the true boundary-pushing artists in modern music and, if Racer is anything to go by, the 74-year-old continues to make pretty stunning music to this day. He makes his way to Australia for the first time for a special exclusive DJ set as well as a Q&A, which will happen before The Heritage Orchestra play an epic electro-orchestral tribute to the maestro.

Timeline: ACO Featuring The Presets:

The Sydney formed electro favourites The Presets have a lot going on at the moment, with their appearances for Vivid with the acclaimed and renowned Australian Chamber Orchestra in amongst the duo's already announced national tour (also with the ASO) and Groovin The Moo festival run and sideshows. Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes returned to airways and our ears this past January with the lively number Goodbye Future, with more singles set to be released throughout 2014, but it looks as though their collab with ASO will take fans on a musical evolution journey more so than a Presets set. We're pretty excited to see these two very different and unique musical projects come together for what should be a spectacular show.

Lighting The Sails: 59 Productions:

This year's Lighting The Sails will be taken care of by UK and USA group 59 Productions, who were behind the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and the David Bowie Is exhibition.

Pixies and Giorgio Moroder will be only be performing in Sydney on this tour, so start looking at airfares if you live interstate and don't want to miss out. The full details of the program including all dates are in theGuide below. 

Pet Shop Boys:

With last year's Electric, their 12th studio album, British electro-pop duo Pet Shop Boys showed us that they still have an awful lot to offer over 30 years on from their formation, so it's incredibly exciting to hear that they will be back in Australia to headline the Modulation show, which will take place at Carriageworks over three days during Vivid LIVE. There is no overstating the importance of this group, their music has always pushed boundaries yet retained an alluring pop element, which has helped bring electro to the mainstream for years.