A very personal bodily experience

Gazelle Twin’s live performance in Triskel promises to be one of the compelling events of the film festival, writes Ed Power.

Elizabeth Bernholz isn’t what I expected. While I’m a fan of the two albums the Englishwoman has released as Gazelle Twin her music can be challenging and frankly rather disturbing. That’s particularly true of her most recent LP Unflesh, a “body horror” electronic concept record inspired by the depression and self-loathing Bernholz suffered through adolescence (culminating in a suicide attempt).

As a work of art it is relentless and compelling. But you wouldn’t slap it on at a dinner party unless you wanted to clear the room in about 15 seconds.

In person, though, Bernholz doesn’t at all live up to the angsty waif persona established by her recorded output. She speaks softly and thoughtfully, her patter sprinkled with laughter.

Asked whether she had any misgivings about putting together a fairly conventional (ie quite slurpy) cover of Brian Wilson’s Love And Mercy for the soundtrack to zombie drama The Walking Dead she says that, as a fan of the series, she leaped at the opportunity. The tortured artist I had assumed I would encounter is conspicuously absent.

Bernholz this week brings Unflesh to Cork Film Festival in the form of a multimedia collaboration with visual artist Carla MacKinnon entitled Out of Body.

The piece is billed as a “ live performance based on puberty, mental health and shifting states of consciousness” and, as Bernholz is first to point out, probably isn’t for everyone.

A graphic reflection on the physical and emotional trauma she went through as a teenager, in both its video and sonic components nothing is held back.

“I can imagine it is quite divisive,” nods Bernholz . “Not everyone is used to seeing things that are quite gory, and in such detail. There is also a deep emotional aspect — a very feminine aspect. Some people are shocked by the footage. But generally they seem to get the message. It’s difficult, going back to your childhood. But that’s the experience isn’t it? It is supposed to linger.”

Bernholz isn’t the sort of artist who simply saunters on stage and bashes out a few tunes. Touring Unflesh, she performed dressed like a character from an avant-garde Japanese horror movie, with bright white running shoes and a blue hoodie that concealed her features.

“With every one of my releases, there’s a specific theme that carries through to the live show. I love the idea of losing myself in a costume.

The effect it has on an audience is very different than if it was me just talking. In some ways, I am performing as myself. It’s a caricature of my teenage self with a few added elements. There’s a part of me in there, that’s for sure.

While a challenging listen, Unflesh was acclaimed on release last year (it was ranked as one of the Irish Examiner’s top albums of 2015). The breadth of its popularity was confirmed when, as referenced already, the producers of The Walking Dead got in touch, wondering if she might like to contribute to the score.

“I was absolutely over the moon. I love that show,” she says. “I was so excited, incredibly flattered. It wasn’t a worldwide success sort of thing. I think the series is bigger than one tiny bit of a song. But I had the best time ever,” she says.

Bernholz seems a picture of equilibrium. Has she conquered the anxieties that plagued her growing up?

“I reached the point when I turned 30 when I was in the ‘safe zone’. Working through [her emotional issues] in a creative way really helped. I’m alright at the moment.”

She wonders whether her relatively unusual upbringing may have contributed to later traumas. Though largely raised in Brighton, she moved around a great deal as a child and early on lived on a rather creepy farm, where her father, a keen hunter, would stock-pile freshly slaughtered animals.

“Most of the memories I have of that house are pretty frightening. I had a lot of dreams, a lot of nightmare. You tend to remember those experiences because it’s the first house you lived in, don’t you? The atmosphere stays with you.”

Out Of Body is at Triskel Christchurch, Cork tomorrow at 9.30pm as part of Cork Film Festival