Humming Owen Pallett is the man behind the one-man-project Final Fantasy. The violin-trained Canadian – he studied composition at the University of Toronto – kept singing by himself before and after our shooting to try out his acoustic potential. On stage his approach to pop melodies through classical compositions are punctuated by unexpected swerves. In concert Pallett uses a loop & rewind technique that he operates with his foot while plucking and sawing his violin to protract and superimpose the tones. When doing the acoustic gig without this special layering technique Final Fantasy’s pop appeal still stays varicolored and fragmented. Pallett’s soulful play and haunting vocals are accentuated by his sporadicly interruptive a cappella-shouts and yells. When it comes to the diversified and playful arrangement of the songs, even in their acoustic version Pallett can not deny the academy he went through. He told us that he started practicing acoustic numbers after his flatfooted shooting for La Blogothèque, just in case he was spontaneously invited to play acoustic again. As intuitive the performance may occur, the master of composition never leaves it totally to chance.

finalfantasyeternal.com