“There’s an obsessive quality to Lynch’s aesthetic that I share,” Canadian composer and turntablist Nicole Lizée told me in an interview earlier this month. “His films are in one way very grounded in reality (the characters and scenarios could very well exist) but they steadily become twisted and distorted until you’re not sure what you’re seeing or experiencing.” It is this obsessive quality that stands out in Sex, Lynch and Video Games, a concert showcasing Lizée’s work at the Sydney Festival.

Lizée’s David Lynch Études open with a scene from the director’s 1990 film Wild at Heart playing on a screen above the stage. “Peanut, I’m thinking of breaking parole and taking you out to sunny California,” says Sailor, before Lula’s frenzied dancing on the bed provides a driving, thundering beat and the camera pans in again and again. The footage repeats in uneven loops as the piano soloist – Canadian Eve Egoyan – couples precisely with the film material.

Nicole Lizée and the Australian Art Orchestra perform 8-Bit Urbex, all photos by Prudence Upton

The David Lynch Études are part of an ongoing body of work Lizée...