Either playing solo or with a mutable group of collaborators, Ben Vida spent 2005 establishing Bird Show as a standalone, ongoing musical entity. Vida devoted a good part of 2005 to live performance: touring Italy and going coast to coast in N. America alongside Greg Davis and Keith Fullerton Whitman. Live, Bird Show becomes a group ceremony, Ben at the center surrounded by percussionists with songs morphing and looping, stretching out and becoming charged rhythmic meditations. Lightning Ghost is the product of that extensive performance experience. Besides Lightning Ghost, 2006 will see Bird Show contributions to compilations on Audio Dregs and Amish Records as well as a Bird Show/Lichens collaboration for Rebis Records. More touring is planned for 2006 beginning with shows out west in January and in Japan in March.
"...a primal drone that unites Vida's obsessions - electronic hum, acoustic ambience and woodsy buzz - into one massive sound." —Marc Masters, The Wire
"...he seems focused on capturing the mysticism and mystery of those remote locations with haunting blurs of sound and ambient chatter. When he builds up layer upon layer of violin scrapes, it feels like a tranced-out version of Kronos Quartet creating a jarring, yet seductive fever dream." —Steve Ciabatonni, CMJ Monthly
