“...beneath the plushness of her terrific second album there are drolleries, black humor, a cosmopolitan's jaundiced take on romance... It's gorgeous and arresting...” – Rolling Stone magazine (on the album Actor)

Beneath the Orphan Annie mop of curls, large, elfin doe eyes peer into the depths of an entranced audience as the husky voice half-sings a dark, delicious tale over lushly orchestrated music. Melding meticulous finger-picked guitar, tinkly keys, angel choruses, synth-pop beats, the occasional woodwinds and strings, lots of echo, fuzz and jagged blasts of what she calls “gnarly” guitar, all is fey and atmospheric, elegant and dark in the music of St. Vincent.

St. Vincent is 28-year-old Annie Erin Clark. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now based in Brooklyn, Clark began playing guitar at age 12 and early on developed a love for electric guitar, classic rock and jazz, nurtured in part by her uncle, fingerstyle guitar virtuoso Tuck Andress, who got a 15-year-old Clark to work as a tour manager for his and his wife’s jazz duo Tuck & Patti during the summer holidays. Later, she attended the Berklee College of Music for three years before dropping out, joined sunshine-pop band The Polyphonic Spree as a guitarist and then Sufjan Stevens’ touring band in 2006, all the while putting her own music together.

Since then, Clark a.k.a. St. Vincent has been showered with critical acclaim and fan love for cult hit albums Marry Me (2007) and Actor (2009) (she’s also released two EPs, four singles and a track on the Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack) and performed with backing musicians to packed crowds which almost always have some lonely guy yelling “Marry me!”

But Clark is an elusive one. Her beguiling voice croons, not her feelings, but a series of guises. Slow-burning torch ballads burst into fuzztone guitar blasts. Vaguely discernible southern influences of rock, blues, country and jazz rise and disappear in chamber melodies written as if for a film noir film score. The occasional acoustic tune draws you in with confessional tones then gives you the slip by abruptly ending or going dark. Organic and artificial sounds merge in ornate arrangements. One moment, it is a chorus of angels, the next a growling surge of inner demons. It is fey and earthy, it is fanciful and grim. St. Vincent’s music is the sort that beckons to you from shadows in the night.

For Mosaic Music Festival 2010, Clark will perform with a backing musician in a duo as St. Vincent.

7.30 & 9.30pm
(60mins, no intermission)

$30*
(Limited concessions for students, NSF and senior citizens at $20*)

Exclusive savings for Mosaic Friends and other packages available.