Massive Attack have teamed up with the cult filmmaker Adam Curtis for the visuals to their forthcoming tour.
A tour, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Mezzanine, is due to begin later this month. While it’s previously been announced that the tour will feature Cocteau Twins singer Liz Fraser and Horace Andy, it’s now been confirmed that Curtis has been tapped for the visuals.
In a statement, Curtis explains, “The show tells the story of the strange journey we have all been on over the past 20 years since Mezzanine was released: How we have moved into a strange backward-looking world, enclosed by machines that read our data and predict our every move, haunted by ghosts from the past.”
“A pleasure dome that makes us feel safe from the endless wars outside, and plays back stories both of dreams of glory and the fear of others. But in that safe world suspicion and distrust is spreading — like a virus. The air is growing stale. Everyone sees conspiracies everywhere. But maybe suspicion is control?”
It’s not the first time that the trip-hop pioneers have worked with the documentary filmmaker. In 2013, they created a “new type of gig” in a Manchester railway depot – an experiment that combined live music with cinema and journalism from both Massive Attack and Curtis.
Curtis’ last work was the 2016 documentary Hypernormalisation. He’s also known for the series The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear and Pandora’s Box.
