Forest Swords (Live)

Defiant, desolate, and darkly beautiful—Forest Swords returns after a decade to bring his deep, industrial psychedelia to RISING

Forest Swords, aka composer/producer Matthew Barnes, is playing live in Australia for the first time in a decade. He’s unsheathing music that bleeds between muscular and bleak, haunting and euphoric. A set of expressive post-industrial landscapes integrated with HD imagery on ACMI’s massive cinema screen.

After spending the past few years working as an in-demand composer and sound designer—writing music for ballet, film and video games—his latest album Bolted was recorded in a warehouse space in Barnes’ home city of Liverpool. This former vehicle and munitions factory (with connections to shadowy guerilla artists The KLF) became a gateway for him to explore new sounds using a combination of hardware, software and tape machines. Stuck in a rainy winter with a broken foot, he began to see shimmers of psychedelia in the industrial gloom. The world of Bolted is taught, with a sense of urgency. Deconstructed synths, distorted mallets and marimbas bounce off clattering beats, foggy vocals and lightly dancing wind instruments.

Get immersed in the glittering smog.

Also, for those keen to venture deeper, Barnes will be hosting a talk at 3.30pm where you can hear about his creative and technical processes what inspires him and his creations.