Gearing up for the release of his new album Unfollow the Rules, Rufus Wainwright will perform the record in its entirety at a livestream concert on Saturday.
The performance will take place in the ballroom at Paramour Mansion in Los Angeles, previously owned by the silent film star Antonio Moreno. Wainwright will perform on acoustic guitar — similar to his recent In My Room segment — accompanied by piano, guitar and a string section.
The livestream will premiere in Germany and France here, later to be available on demand for 90 days. A stream will be available in the U.S. on All Arts‘ Facebook page, premiering at 2 pm E.T.
“The Paramour Session will show a completely different side of Unfollow the Rules,” Wainwright said in a statement. “Acoustic, stripped back, sparser, but in a Rufus Wainwrightian sense of course. Good songs can survive in many different environments. I want my fans to have an opportunity to hear the music live when the album comes out. The only way we can do this responsibly during these times is with acoustic instruments, and fewer musicians in a large space, where everyone can be six feet or more apart, with a super small crew.”
“Rather than attempting to imitate the sound of the album, I think it’s both more responsible and more creatively interesting to try something new,” he added. “There are no drums, no effects, no bass, no horns, no flutes, no back-up vocals — only strings that are bowed, picked, hammered, or strummed, and my voice. Let’s hope less is more. Of course, it helps that we are filming and livestreaming this from the gorgeous ballroom of the Paramour Estate, a Twenties Hollywood silent film star’s mansion.”
Wainwright will officially release Unfollow the Rules on July 10th. The singer-songwriter has released several singles off the album, including “Trouble in Paradise,” “Damsel in Distress,” “Alone Time” and “You Ain’t Big.“
