Stars of the Lid are the Texas-based duo of Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride. Since the early 1990's, they have been carving out their own take on contemporary classical music within the sometimes dingy confines of indie rock. After a six-year silence, the duo re-emerged in 2007 with the well-received two-CD package, And Their Refinement of the Decline, on their long-time label home, Kranky Records. Whole-note drones on electric guitars and strings swell up harmonically out of the ether, with occasional forays into Eno or even Vangelis-style ambience. For this tour, Wiltzie and McBride will be touring with a string quartet and 16mm film projectionist.

Opening sets will be performed by Mills College graduate and guitar/laptop artist Christopher Willits (who studied with Pauline Oliveros and Fred Frith) and Toronto-based fingerstyle classical guitar explorer, Ken Reaume.

Stars of the Lid: Biography
Although it has been since the turn of the millennium that either member of Stars of the Lid has lived in Austin, the story began as such.... In 1990, Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie drunkenly wandered into the former KTSB radio station on 21st and Speedway where Brian Edward Mcbride was rockin the airwaves with some nifty records by Rod Mckuen. He was proclaiming that his car was out of gas, and he hit a deer. It turned out that he was definitely drunk. And although there was blood on his car, Brian saw no deer. This incident was the catalyst that ignited their strange musical relationship. Originally formed in Austin, Texas on Christmas day 1992, Stars of the Lid (one of the most apropos names in all of music) have scratched out quite a niche for themselves in the amorphous world of ambient classical music. From their almost-rock beginnings to the almost-classical fugues of recent albums, Stars of the Lid have excelled at designing subtle, minimalist epics which sound like they're being played on a single multifaceted organic instrument. They offer subtle, endlessly evolving stories about the dynamics of sonic texture, at the same time seeming to offer a picture of pure, unfettered consciousness. Their music are largely beatless soundscapes composed of droning, effects-treated guitars along with piano, strings, and horns; volume swells and feedback fill the gap of rhythmic instruments, providing dynamic movement within the songs. A wise man once described SOTL as "divine classical drones without the tedious intrusion of drums, or vocals."

http://www.myspace.com/starsofthelid
http://christopherwillits.com
http://www.myspace.com/kennethreaume