The Weeknd’s once-reclusive Abel Tesfaye has abandoned his shroud of secrecy to indulge in a media blitz around Trilogy, his November major-label bundling of his three 2011 mixtapes. First he granted the NME an interview, then he played stellar slow-burner “Wicked Games” on Later… With Jools Holland, and now the Canadian PBR&B crooner has performed a live set for BBC Radio 1. Tesfaye unveiled tender renditions of four tracks: “Wicked Games” and “The Knowing” off the Best of 2011 album House of Balloons; “The Zone” from the similarly heralded Thursday; and Echoes of Silence cut “Montreal.” As expected, each performance is brooding but alluring, stark and yet lush, simultaneously intimate and impenetrable. Stream it below (courtesy of Consequence of Sound).
