music

From tearing up stages across the world to being drenched in champagne post-gig, the ebullient energy of Grammy-nominated, New York indie-dance legends LCD Soundsystem is distilled in photographer, fan and long-term friend Ruvan Wijesooriya’s intimate series. After meeting LCD frontman James Murphy in a New York bar in 2004, Wijesooriya started documenting the group’s electric stage performances, hazy drunken moments and close-knit camaraderie right through to their epic farewell performance last year at Madison Square Garden. “Ruvan has been getting in my face for years,” jokes Murphy. “In other circumstances, this is basically illegal. It’s stalking. But it’s my friend, and I’m caught.” Over 400 of Wijesooriya’s images of the party starters are collected together in a new book forthcoming from Powerhouse, simply titled LCD, and bundled with next week's DVD release of Shut Up and Play the Hits that documents the band's final performance. Combining behind the scenes portraits with on-stage revelries from Coachella, Hyde Park and Art Basel Miami, the book also features an introduction from Murphy and interview with band members Nancy Whang, Patrick Mahoney and manager Keith Wood. “We like the same music and were at the same places often enough, eventually they allowed me to take pictures wherever and whenever,” says the photographer, who shoots regularly for DFA Records, The New Yorker and British Vogue. “The intimacy in the pictures has a lot to do with trust.”

Celebrated choreographer Benjamin Millepied, neo-classical composer Nico Muhly and Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy converged backstage at Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall last week to put the finishing touches to Moving Parts, their collaboration for the LA Dance Project. Millepied's 27-minute modern ballet is part of a program inaugurating the city’s first major resident dance company in 25 years, which the French-born choreographer set up after relocating from Paris with his wife, Natalie Portman. “The inspiration for the piece came from Christopher Wool's process as a painter, the layering and the way these layers interact in surprising ways,” says Millepied. The show includes a monumental re-staging of Merce Cunningham’s Winterbranch and William Forsythe’s Quintett. “We started with the number of bodies,” LADP co-founder Muhly explains of the inception of Moving Parts. “Six dancers, three musicians.” For the score, Muhly devised a fresh, spare take on Bach to complement the oversized calligraphic printed canvases framing the stage created by New York artist Christopher Wool and the Mulleavy sisters’ sci-fi–leaning, color-coded costumes. “The idea is simple,” Muhly concludes. “A beautiful form with a twist.”