XYLOURIS WHITE and CIRCUIT DES YEUX at the Drake Underground, Wednesday (July 8), doors 8:30 pm. $14. thedrakehotel.ca.
It’s taken a long time for Xylouris White – the collaboration between masterful drummer Jim White and noted Greek lute player George Xylouris – to materialize.
“George and his wife always invited me to Crete,” White says over Skype from Baltimore. “I always wanted to go, but I was busy or lazy or whatever.”
White, who’s in Dirty Three and has worked with a host of others (Will Oldham, PJ Harvey and Nick Cave), recalls how the partnership came to be.
The two think they may have first met in White’s native Australia some 25 years ago. Xylouris had the rare honour of sitting in on occasion with Dirty Three when they played live.
After years of friendship and meaningful get-togethers, White finally accepted an invitation to visit Xylouris’s family in 2012, and the two started making music right away.
“The first day Jim arrived in Crete, we went into the studio,” Xylouris remembers. “We had lunch first – goat.”
“It was delicious,” White says, possibly hungry.
“And we saw many goats on the way to the studio,” Xylouris adds.
“That’s right: the studio was up on a hill,” White says and then pauses. “I think we are goats. Even though we eat them, I feel like I’m a goat.”
They’re riffing on the name of their debut album, Goats, produced by Fugazi singer/guitarist Guy Picciotto and released in the fall of 2014 via Other Music.
The record, simply lute and percussion, represents uncharted territory. The pairing of a Cretan folk legend, unusually playing lute as a lead instrument, and a brilliant drummer steeped in post-punk freedom could go anywhere. Within their instrumental dynamic, the two hit upon various musical and cultural touchstones to conjure something stirring.
They credit Picciotto with focusing their energy.
“Heart things,” Xylouris says quietly when asked what Picciotto brought to the proceedings. “Y’know, feelings? He listens, and the way he talks about the music we play helps us to put more into the music and go deeper. He’s got character.”
It must have been intense, these three famously passionate men working together to capture such a stormy sound. Each is known for questioning things, pushing boundaries and breaking rules. Xylouris White is a unique manifestation of giving no fucks. Traditionless, their music feels at least a little illegal.
music@nowtoronto.com | @vishkhanna
