The 14th Samarbeta residency was a collaboration between synth-driven psych band Moon Duo (Portland OR) and Emmanuel Biard, a Manchester based live visual projection artist. The project entitled Stardust Highway: Experiments in Stoner Disco, used live music and video art to explore ideas about time, ritual, and the human desire to transcend material reality.

 

Moon Duo explored the conceptual commonalities between performance and ritual, with a focus on sonic repetition and the merging of particular human energies in the physical space shared by artist and audience. The live show was an experience that felt, in a sense, out of time, as it played with idioms of psych rock and dance music in a perception-shifting visual environment inspired by 70’s discotheques and the psychedelic experiences.

 

“When we make an album we tend to approach the process with a specific conceptual underpinning in mind - the residency offers the chance to apply this approach to our live show as well. While we have always sought to have some kind of transformative visual component to our live performances, to change the space of the room we’re in, we have not in the past attempted to tie the components of the stage show to a specific album or concept. When we started working with Emmanuel he brought new depth and breadth to that aspect of our show; through the residency we’re hoping to deepen that artistic relationship by collaborating on a specific conceptual framework for a live show to reflect and interact with the ideas at work on our upcoming album.”  MOON DUO 

 

The residency took place between the NIAMOS Radical Arts Centre and Islington Mill.

 

The premiere performance was at NIAMOS on Friday 26th April 2019 and has since been toured all over the world.