Even if you don’t know the name Dave Longstreth or his musical nom de guerre, Dirty Projectors, you certainly know his collaborators. Among them are Bjork, Solange, Paul McCartney, and Kanye West (don’t worry, it was 2015 Ye, prior to most of his more polarizing antics). Before he was on the radar of such industry juggernauts, Longstreth became an indie darling thanks to his idiosyncratic art pop.
For his 10th album, released last year, Longstreth undertook his most ambitious project to date. The songwriter has toyed with chamber pop plenty in the past, but Song of the Earth is a full-on orchestral composition that incorporates strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and adventurous vocal harmonies. Named after (and partly inspired by) Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, the work may borrow some of the musical and conceptual themes from the revered Austrian composer, but Longstreth’s creation is far more modern and frenetic.
The great news for fans of Dirty Projectors—or immersive orchestral works in general—is that Austin is getting a special performance of the composition at the Long Center as part of Fusebox Festival this week. The show will be performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and it’s one of only a handful of occasions that the work has been performed live, including at Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Barbican Hall in London, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with the LA Philharmonic. While the recorded songs are no doubt worth your time and attention, Song of the Earth was written for live performance, and Austinites will get the rare opportunity to see and hear it as it was first imagined…