This is the very first song we put together for my new solo performance project with Ableton Live, and WOW the learning curve is steep! My brain is stretched to the max trying to remember all the little moves and button presses; truly, it’s a brand new way of thinking about performing a song. Very modular, very precise, limited only by one’s ability to imagine and plan — and we’re just scratching the surface of what can be done with these amazing tools. In this video you’ll notice a little flub or two (like my bow falling off the string near the top of the song, probably due to rewiring my brain in the process of learning how to do this!); and we decided to keep those in, in the interest of total honesty. This project is just beginning, and it will be fun to keep track of how I progress.
In Your Eyes from Valerie Vigoda on Vimeo.
I’ve always adored Peter Gabriel, and have loved this song since it first came out in 1986, before John Cusack held up the boom box outside Ione Skye’s window in “Say Anything” and won the heart of every girl in America. Since then it’s been covered by tons of artists, from Jeffrey Gaines to Nancy Wilson, Renée Fleming to Sara Bareilles…but when I started thinking of what I’d like to play in the new solo show, it was top of my list for a bunch of reasons: for instance, I knew I could sing it endlessly while learning this difficult new program and never tire of its beauty; the instantly recognizable vocal harmonies are very well-suited to the TC Helicon box I’m using; and I don’t think anyone has ever done this song *quite* this way before.
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