Live Review: A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Sometimes while watching a band, you start to imagine other venues in which you’d like to see them perform. Ambient sound duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen evoke visions of forest-hideaway amphitheatres, tiny intimate rooms cloaked in darkness or a dimly-lit church at midnight, though The Basement came close in delivering the atmosphere of reverence and silent appreciation these soundscapes deserved.

Composer Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie (also of drone-band Stars Of The Lid) seem to have a symbiotic relationship, key changes and musical movements acknowledged with gentle head nods in the other’s direction. The duo had brought along a string quartet from Melbourne, which formed an integral part of the performance. The live strings not only gave the music texture and feeling, but made the viewing experience far more dynamic. When you’re watching two men on an array of instruments – piano, guitar, synths – it makes for a welcome change to watch the vigorous work of violinists and cellists. The men and the quartet worked magnificently together to create immaculate, haunting pieces of work.

Predominantly drawing from their recent Atomos LP, there was languidness to their approach, a cautious sinking in that left the audience in total immersion. Were it not for the precarious bass rattle coming from one of the speakers, it would’ve been a near perfect ocean of noise. O’Halloran and Wiltzie have truly mastered the rules of live performance with this genre of music, working towards a heaving final crescendo that would startle the audience out of their soothing daze.

A Winged Victory For The Sullen are formidable musicians, immensely talented composers and have the innate ability to dazzle their audiences with barely a word uttered between their arrival and departure.