Live Review: Exhibitionist returns with more ardour and resilience in 'Motionless'

EXHIBITIONIST has unveiled her second single, ‘Motionless’, marking her first new release since her highly acclaimed debut earlier this year.

Multi-instrumentalist Kirsty Tickle has been entrenched in multiple facets of the music scene for several years, embarking on a compelling peregrination that has seen her evolve from a classically trained clarinetist to rocking out with indie bands - most recently uniting with musical confrère Jonathan Boulet in their incendiary idiosyncratic noise duo, Party Dozen.

As somewhat of a paradox to her solo project’s pseudonym, Kirsty’s new latent persona as Exhibitionist retains elegant poise as she continues to unfurl her captivating and inimitable neoteric sound. Following the success of her debut single, 'Hands', Exhibitionist has been paddling hard to keep up with the wave that has swept over this enchanting project and expeditiously created a repertoire of bona fide new tracks to take to the stage, which were recently showcased at Volumes and BIGSOUND. 

Six months after Exhibitionist's stellar introduction, 'Motionless' falls only on yearning ears as it exhibits subtle deviations in the sentiments and tones previously seen in 'Hands'. The inspiration behind this new offering was galvanised by a poignant encounter with a friend, Kirsty explains:

“It’s my favourite song I’ve written since starting the Exhibitionist project. It was written following a disagreement with a very dear friend. I had done or said something hurtful, and he just froze mid-argument, completely motionless. The lyrics are about finding forgiveness and the cyclic nature of friendships, but mostly the song is about love always coming out on top.”

‘Motionless’ opens with crisp and garish beats that engender a minimalistic temperament, fortified by delicate vocals and resounding plucked strings. Hazy synths soon glide into an invigorating chorus bolstered with swelling strings and additional vocal harmonies, whilst an imperceptible syncopation embosses the track and progressively expands through flourishing woodwind harmonies and reprising feints of sporadic percussion.

There were talks of Exhibitionist's forthcoming EP being released later next month, so we can hopefully expect to hear more of her ravishing creations in the not-too-distant future.

In the meantime, you can catch Exhibitonist at Red Bull Sound Select in Sydney on 27 October. For tickets and event details, see HERE. She will also be heading down for Melbourne Music Week on 25 November alongside Jacques Greene, Banoffee, Darcy Baylis + more. Tickets are HERE.

Words by FREYA DINESEN

LISTEN TO MORE NEW MUSIC HERE

SEE ALSO

GRIEF, HONESTY AND WHERE TO FROM HERE: GETTING TO KNOW EXHIBITIONIST

SHE’S ‘HANDS’ DOWN A STELLAR EXHIBITIONIST