Australian tour reviews of Eve performing Nicole Lizée

Nicole Lizée’s David Lynch Etudes

David Lynch Etudes… incorporated the most successful marriage of music and image I have encountered. Ever. Neither was subservient to the other, and neither had a reason for existing without the other. The mood, meanwhile, flitted between reverence, gentle mockery and nostalgia … performed by Canadian pianist Eve Egoyan (with Lizee’s electronics), slices of Lynch’s works were extrapolated and manipulated to function much as choreography does against a ballet score, while sometimes also augmenting the sonic palette. The film elements were mashed, mangled and repeated to become as much a part of the score as a musician in the act of playing. The effect was both breathtakingly inventive and extremely witty. – The Sydney Morning Herald, January 20, 2017

Lizée ‘s David Lynch Etudes are played by Egoyan to projected and radically edited clips from David Lynch films. The outcome is funny, alarming and aesthetically satisfying in the fusion of playing that yields rippling waves, dark intoning, astonishing stuttering and grand romantic pianism with revealing investigations of very short film moments… At one point, Egoyan leans to the side and plays slide guitar as well as piano as a guitar is played in Twin Peaks onscreen… What is impressive is not only the dynamic between live piano and edited visual imagery but the cut-up sound of the film made musical in itself and in tandem with the keyboard .. the challenging melding of music and media reached a deeply satisfying apotheosis. – Real Time Arts Magazine, Issue 137 Feb. – March 2017

These manipulations are underscored by the expressive and exacting reading of a scored part for acoustic grand piano, provided by Canadian Eve Egoyan. The work was commissioned by Egoyan and the keyboard variety required makes it befitting of the piano étude style and legacy of disguised technical skill set used traditionally in this genre. There is a curious but satisfying symbiosis to experience between image and musical motif. – Sydney Arts Guide, January 20, 2017

Lizée’s David Lynch Études open with a scene from the director’s 1990 film Wild at Heart playing on a screen above the stage. “Peanut, I’m thinking of breaking parole and taking you out to sunny California,” says Sailor, before Lula’s frenzied dancing on the bed provides a driving, thundering beat and the camera pans in again and again. The footage repeats in uneven loops as the piano soloist – Canadian Eve Egoyan – couples precisely with the film material…  Against all this, Egoyan fills out writhing piano motifs and repeating musical fragments that sync – thanks to her virtuosic reflexes, a click-track, and Lizée’s careful design – perfectly with the film excerpts, pianist and video becoming equal partners in a disorienting duet. – Limelight Magazine, January 20, 2017