Arcade Fire's violinist to play in Hamrun

Born in 1979, Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto, Ontario. He started his solo career under the name Final Fantasy, and soon gained a strong reputation for his eclectic live performances which sometimes include cover versions ranging from Bloc Party to Mariah Carey. 

In 2006 his second solo album He Poos Cloud went on to win the first edition of the Polaris Music Prize (Canada’s equivalent to the UK’s Mercury Awards).

For his third album Heartland, Pallett enlisted the services of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The record oscillates between 19th century military music, ‘70s analog synth-pop, Russian futurism and American pointillism, often in the space of a few bars.

Heartland – released last January – is a fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice.

Pallett explains: “The songs themselves form a narrative concerning a farmer named Lewis and the fictional world of Spectrum.  The songs are one-sided dialogues with Lewis, a young, ultra-violent farmer, speaking to his creator.

“The album is about the beginning, middle and end of a relationship.  But it’s sung from the point of view of the object of my affection. This record encapsulates a whole year of work for me, and was difficult to see through but immensely proud of the results.

“The album was compositionally modeled upon the principles of electronic music. The principles of analog synthesis informing symphonic writing, like an inversion of a Tomita record. These songs, too, were designed to be as dense with polyphony as the Final Fantasy live shows can become. While writing it, I kept an image in my head of putting so many notes on the page that the paper turned black.

“The string section can function as a white noise generator, the winds clatter like an eight-step sequencer, and the brass rises and falls like an enormous oscillating filter.”

This process echoes the live shows where Pallett layers parts over and over one another to produce a dense set of orchestral flourishes, something approaching a one man orchestra playing the Rite of Spring with a wholly pop heart.

Running in counterpoint to this composition method is Pallet’s incredible sense of melody and his resonant voice. His singing on Heartland infuses the songs with empathy and drama, weaving itself among the strings and percussion, soaring at times on Lewis Takes Off his Shirt and Tryst With Mephistopholes through the drama of the narrative. 

Pallett is also well know for collaborating with such artists as Beirut, The Last Shadow Puppets, Grizzly Bear, Pet Shop Boys and Mika. He especially shares a special bond with Arcade Fire, contributing orchestral and string  arrangements on all three of their albums, including 2010’s Grammy-award winning The Suburbs, as well as forming part of their touring line-up.

Ticket hotlines: 99242815 and 99459555. Tickets cost €15, or €18 at the door.

The concert begins at 19:00.

For more information log on to www.kinemastik.org and http://www.stagedivemalta.com.