Luci
Music // Performance
The basic proposition for myself in making music under the name Luci was to build a set of songs meant for a performance that could exist as a kind of ecstatic outburst. The sensibility of the project was about open and honest cultural and universal bewilderment, desire, overwhelm, tangled images of self and American filth, sexuality, aggression, outsider curiosity, and humor. The lyrics were crafted streams-of-consciousness written often for their sound and rhythmic qualities as much as their more explicit meaning. I made the music in a style that invited dance as well as built theatrical arcs within each song, and pulled from my prior work in sound design for the album’s production.
The live performance of Luci took place first at hTh National Theatre in Montpellier, France in 2017 as a commissioned performance for their series Poesie Attack, which was followed by four shows at clubs in the South of France. For the hTh show, I additionally translated the entirety of the album’s lyrics into French and they became subtitles presented in a large projected video. In December 2018, presenting material from the debut album as well as new material, I performed this project at 19 venues throughout France and Switzerland.
The music of Luci provided a stage environment in which I was able to push the masculine and feminine sensibilities in my movement and presence to their most extreme, while contained in a body that presents and reads as entirely male. It was exciting to me that the music in combination with my style of performance shifted the spaces into environments in which a decidedly queer fluidity was a natural element.
Through consistent attention and a dedication to energetic generosity in each show, I found myself constantly scanning audience for permissions and invitations to play, dance, and be in contact or not during a given performance. These shows were explorations of new ways of inhabiting a body in space with others.
The fool is an important element of my Luci performances, and I discovered a perfect balance of elements to produce and sustain this character with my French shows.