Winged Victory for the Sullen at Pioneer Works
I saw A Winged Victory for the Sullen at Pioneer Works last night — their first U.S. performance in nearly a decade, and the first of two nights in Brooklyn.
AWVFTS is a compositional ambient ensemble. The group masterfully layers their gentle sound, building each song progressively with a cello, piano, guitar and a pair of violins accompany the requisite synths and sequencers. Long, patient passages accumulate almost imperceptibly: a string enters, a piano figure appears, a guitar texture emerges, a synthesizer opens up the space. Every element is deliberate. And somehow they manage to do all of this with the kind of precision you'd expect from a studio recording, while retaining the immediacy of watching musicians make something happen right in front of you.
Their song Atomos VII was the highlight for me. It's an epic piece on record, but hearing it assembled live was something else entirely. The scale of it seemed to expand around the room at Pioneer Works. What struck me wasn't volume or spectacle, but the sheer density of tiny decisions happening inside something that, on the surface, feels so still. Watching the players construct those layers made me hear the composition differently — less as a finished ambient recording and more as a living piece of music.
I love ambient music, but live performance can sometimes expose the mechanics behind the illusion — a guy standing there at his laptop. Music that sounds amazing in my headphones or spinning on vinyl at home can become a little taxing in a live space. But a neoclassic compositional ambient group like A Winged Victory for the Sullen does the opposite. Seeing the instruments, the players and the process somehow made the music feel more immersive, not less. It was a rare experience of watching something that sounds impossibly vast being built, piece by piece, by a handful of people standing a few feet away. Studio precision, human scale, enormous sound.
It was transformative.
All photos taken by Drew Kora with a Ricoh GRiii. Please do not share without permission and attribute.
The Venue: Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
They played at a newish music venue / art space called Pioneer Works. It’s one of those places that feels distinctly Brooklyn: an old industrial building turned multidisciplinary arts space in Red Hook, with an adventurous mix of music, art, science and culture. There was a pretty cool garden space where the bar was set up, too. Great vibe and I hope to go back (maybe for Son Lux in December?). It has that rare combination of feeling established enough to matter while still feeling a little off the beaten path.
