Recording: Lydia Ainsworth

Artist: Lydia Ainsworth

Song: Moonstone

Recorded at Smiling Buddha (Silent Shout Festival – Night 1), December 4, 2014.

Lydia Ainsworth - Moonstone

Although they'd stepped away from presenting live music, Silent Shout returned for a two-night celebration to mark their fifth anniversary. Taking over the Smiling Buddha for two nights gave the site's designer Roxanne Ignatius a chance to re-imagine the space, with a deconstructed disco ball twirling above clouds and webby fabric tendrils. Plus, downstairs there was a gallery of her consistently-excellent show posters, going right back to the series' beginning when it had to spell out its mandate of "EVIL DISCO / GLOOMY ELECTRO / DEATHLY SYNTHPOP". And though there was a retrospective element to the whole affair, the music was decisively forward-looking, including a couple bands making their debuts.

The night's biggest draw, Lydia Ainsworth (a local artist on the Arbutus Records roster) came backed by a string trio to present the songs from last year's Right From Real album. Ainsworth's vocal presence and art imperative bring Kate Bush's progressive pop to mind — based in atmospheric electronic sounds, this was the least dancefloor-worthy set of the night, though a few songs here were accompanied by a pair of masked dancers adding to the swooning mystical undercurrent in the music.

[Lydia Ainsworth will be headlining Long Winter at The Great Hall on Saturday night (December 12th). She plays at midnight, but you'll need to arrive early (or grab an advance ticket) to get in — there's a rather stacked lineup that you oughtta be there for anyway.]