Joseph E, WH Lung’s angular singer, is a man who likes to throw a shape. In front of a backdrop of dazzling lights at the Sea Change Festival in Totnes, where WH Lung are playing a storming aternoon set, it’s something encapsulated by the moment where, even as his bandmates create a cacophonous noise behind him, he stops dancing. Instead, he stretches out to balance on one leg, a move that looks as though it belongs in the yoga room rather than on the stage.
One wobble and it could all so easily go horribly wrong. hen again, the idea of things potentially going awry seems central to why he does this. It’s a way to open himself up to the audience, to be in the moment.
“Have you heard of Hofesh Shechter?” Joseph asks when he speaks to LLV ater the show, namechecking the Israeli choreographer and, in particular, Shechter’s dystopian Grand Finale, a work that tackles political and ecological disaster. “I’m just watching that, taking notes on the moves, stealing all the moves,” he adds. “here’s this feral vulnerability with all the dances, and I think that’s what we can achieve now we’ve played a certain amount of gigs.”