The full lineup for the 2015 edition of Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival won’t be announced until sometime next month, but in the interest of keeping our interest until that time (not that they had to try), Hopscotch has just announced this year’s (and its fourth, historically speaking) improviser-in-residence, set to take the event by storm with an atypical spontaneity of all sorts. Previous improvisers Chris Corsano, Merzbow, and Thurston Moore mostly kept to the music side of things, but there is every indication that this new individual will do all kinds of crazy, unexpected things. Did you want free pancakes thrown out to you at the shows this year? Well, just maybe…
Owen Pallett, recently known as “Owen Pallett” and previously wielding the gamer-coddling moniker “Final Fantasy,” will be doing the honors this year. He released the deceptively accessible In Conflict last summer, and his previous work has earned him both actual awards and BFF honors with Arcade Fire’s Win Butler.
Pallett skipped over the entire state of North Carolina during his North American tour last year, so expect a tour de force de violin to make up for it!
• Owen Pallett: http://www.owenpalletteternal.com
• Hopscotch: http://hopscotchmusicfest.com