Emily Wells and Lex Leto are analogous in many ways: both incredible singers, lenient on the use of sampling through their live performance, and display control over their instrument of choice. I would compare their match to PB and Jelly, toast to butter, tea and biscuits, and every other cheesy food analogy.

Lex Leto’s performance was deeply emotionally charged, as is staple from their original productions. Most of their performance was based on their Right Here album, released mid-summer. Just like the A24 movie with the similar name as the time of release, it sits in an unsettling yet comforting and beautiful spot on the musical spectrum. Leto evokes these feelings using seamless transitions, and soothing ethereal synths that are a joy to listen to. From time to time, these would be accompanied by Leto’s soft voice, as in “the dark alone it were my own”, where the use of foley-like percussion elements and vocal chops generated a clear contrast between the eerie and the beautiful. Leto’s performance complimented perfectly with what Wells was bringing to the table, using similar elements that draw inspiration from the headliner yet separating themselves as a local staple of live music.

Emily Wells stopped in as part of a three-show tour through the Midwest. Iowa City could not be more glad to have her perform within the walls of The James, described by Wells during her set as an intimate space that gave her the liberty to express freely. Wells compiles more than 20 years of her career, and the trajectory shows how intertwined she is with her instruments. Deliberate and delicate movements through out the performance displayed the emotions of her most recent release Regards to the End, which contains most of the songs in Wells’ performance. She presented the contrast of unsettledness and beauty through arrangement of synths or violin, evoking drums, and vocal mastery.

Image via Andrés Mora Mata

There is a certain aspect of vulnerability when performing a piece of music for the first time, that is hardly compared with any other vulnerable situation. During her performance, Wells prefaced a piece by setting a stage: an uncomfortable dinner where artists and friends are forced to wear a figurative mask towards a funder, and how this dynamic could either strengthen or diminish their relationship by voicing their true or constructed opinions towards a political issue. The piece, a part of an opera, takes you to an uncanny place with scarce, atonal keys layered with Wells vocals that sounded purposely frightened. Definitely one of my favorites of the show.

Wells dedicated an awesome rendition of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance to Leto, as an intimate and truthful exchange of artists sharing the same stage, and maybe the same experiences independently. That encapsulated to me what Track Zero strives for, and what it will be for the rest of the series: a curated match of local artists with their touring counterparts where barriers are basically non-existent.

The next Track Zero show is Kassa Overall, with support from Jack Lion & Tahjia Brantley at The James Theater on September 29th.

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The inaugural show to the series’ inaugural year will be performed by New York based multi-instrumentalist and composer Emily Wells. Wells, who released her album Regards to the End last year, will bring her hyper-layered style of chamber pop to The James Theater. Her one-person band performance fills the air with lush orchestral sounds of clarinet or violin flickering like shady leaves. This is accompanied by rolling, murky swells of electronic synth sounds and her shrill, reverberating voice. Her music gives the atmosphere of a dreary, cold, rainy afternoon where the reflections of streetlights streak across the pavement. Fitting for the oncoming fall months, or of beauty in industrial decay mentioned in her album.  

Image via Emily Wells

Lex Leto will open the performance, and therefore the entire series itself. The KL!NG (formally Penny Peach) collaborator and multi-instrumentalist creates minimalistic electronic music that feels on the cusp of being ambient. They have released a 7-track album Right Here, and a new single my bike / my wife in July and August respectively. Their solo project’s music is very fitting to Wells as an opener, as their music also plays as compositions arranged to eerie, enveloping moods. Leto takes a more intimate, DIY style approach to their music, recording and producing it themself. 

Emily Wells and Lex Leto open the inaugural Track Zero series this Wednesday, September 20^th at 7:30pm at The James Theater in Iowa City. Other artists coming to Iowa City for the series include Kassa Overall, Kate Bollinger, Tennis, Madison McFerrin, Sen Morimoto, and ZORA, who will all be performing in the upcoming weeks.  

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