LIOR & Domini are brimming with excitement about bringing their “new collaborative” lockdown project to a live audience in Swan Hill next week for SemiArid Sounds.
“We were scoping out your area because I’ve always had a great time performing there,” Lior said. “It was just a marvellous coincidence that when we were looking into booking a place the SemiArid Sounds festival got in touch with us.”
He said that he’s always found “a warm connection” with regional audiences who “are particularly appreciative because there are a lot of towns that don’t get an inflow artists coming in”.
“Generally these shows are smaller and intimate shows and they have a more spontaneous lounge-room sort of vibe,” Lior said.
Lior, who has been working with Domini in different capacities for almost a decade, met her when he was a guest judge for a competition at her music school. Domini’s winning original song, Accolades, became both her first EP and the start of a collaboration with Lior.
“There is a magical synergy between the two of us,” he said. “Over the years of her being my back-up, we would marvel over the tonal blend that we had. It’s one of things that sometimes you can’t earn, it’s just either there or it’s not.
“We both sing so much on our own in our respective solo careers that it’s just beautiful to get together and soak in the power of our harmonies.”
In the creation of their joint EP, Animals in Hiding, lockdown was an additional hurdle for the pair, who “luckily” started the project just before stay-at-home orders were announced.
“We had enough of a body of material to chip away at it in our own respective lockdowns and touch base over Zoom,” he said. “Then when we were let out for a day or two we rushed into the studio and it was just one of those ‘do what you can’ kind of projects. This happens a lot in art where you are restricted in terms of resources and you have to find a creative way around them and it often brings out the best results creatively.”
Lior said that people who come to their performances with get the chance to hear stories and anecdotes behind some of the songs, like Gloria, a personal favourite of Lior’s.
“People have to come to the show to find out about Gloria,” he said. “I think there are a number of songs that we enjoy talking about and that people have told us knowing the background enhances their engagement with it.”
Lior and Domini will be performing their EP Animals in Hiding as part of Arts Mildura’s SemiArid Sounds festival at the Town Hall PAC on Wednesday at 7.30pm. For more information on ticketing, go to www.artsmildura.com.au/event/lior-domini
