southern records

The Spitz was all dressed up for a Monday night, and it was easy to pinpoint who was coming directly from work, still a bit wound up from the day. Belgian transplant Adam Wiltzie, and video artist Christina Vantzos form The Dead Texan, they've been making audio-visuals as a band for quite a while and this shows by their level of symbiosis they create between their respective media.

The two enter the crowded room without being noticed, quietly setting up their instruments on both sides of the stage to leave maximum visibility for the projection. It seems as if the images should be protagonists over the sounds but when the screen turns on the distracted audience almost doesn't realize it. When the first clear notes are played, everyone in the room starts to focus closely. It maybe interpreted as a desired effect, almost a way to introduce the two parts of the show before making an entrance together. Those gently played keyboard lines and lap steel strums start to embrace the images that rhythmically overlap, succeed and follow one another; slowly gather only to disband, dissolve and reunite again.

Pink is the first thematic color, it's a filler more than a background as downtempo chords melt into the projected light of the screen. It all stops suddenly as Adam pulls his hands from the keyboard, although a vast majority snaps out of the spell only a couple of seconds later, when a warm applause triggers off. The Dead Texan wait for the minds to clear then start off again, this time contemporaneously. Sunlight reflecting on water surface fills the screen and the chromatic blend creates a blinding effect, underlined by modulated sounds on Adam's synths. The symmetrical bars that take the show to its end suggest the effect of being behind a window with metal blinds, and the contrast of wide field, accelerated cloudy sunsets images are like a chorus to the duo's final keyboard ping-pongs. At the end of the show the initial buzz of the crowd chatting began again, and the screen went black leaving a pleasurable audio-visual fasten on everyone's remembrance of the night.

'The Dead Texan' 2xCD avaliable on Kranky Records . Watch the video for Aegina Airlines .

Listen to a song from 'The Dead Texan'.

Buy The Dead Texan from the Southern web shop.