Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Taking its name from a 1976 Japanese black and white documentary, Canadian collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor helped define the contemporary experimental music scene in much the same way that King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King coalesced prog into a definable, recognizable genre unto itself for the first time. The founding trio (Efrim Menuck, Mauro Pezzente, Mike Moya) spent several years distilling their cinematic soundtrack approach to composition before debuting on record in 1997, and all three multi-instrumentalists are still at the helm for a sixth studio album, Luciferian Towers, which dropped a few months back. It’s as atmospheric and fog-drenched as you’d expect from a band whose previous album titles include Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000) and Asunder, Sweet & Other Distractions (2015).
As always, tapers are invited to record their gig at Observatory North Park on May 22, where they’ll be mounting a new set of multimedia loop projections and light show flourishes for the newest leg of a headline tour that includes opener Marisa Anderson.