This content is brought to you by Audiocourses dot com
The award-winning and revolutionary Lemur control surfaces have been
wowing crowds around the world on their highest profile outing yet…
No one knows more about innovative performance than Björk, so it is
perhaps inevitable that she is the first high profile artist to
embrace the power and performance capabilities of the groundbreaking
Jazzmutant Lemur for her latest tour, including the recent amazing
performance at Glastonbury.
On stage, alongside two Lemurs, Björk sings with a 10-piece brass
section that doubles as a backing band, laptop and electronics ‘players’ plus keyboard and percussion virtuosos. It’s about as
unusual a set-up as you’d expect from the world’s most innovative
and unusual performer, and it all combines to produce one of the most
talked about live shows that’s playing to stunned crowds across the
globe.
Jazzmutant’s Lemur control surfaces have bought the performance back
into music making. No longer do computer musicians feel the need to
hide behind their desktop and laptop machines on stage. With these
futuristic controllers they have the ultimate playing surface to
perform their music and can give their fans an opportunity to witness
a real live spectacle.
Alan Pollard is the man responsible for much of the technology on the
tour, while Damian Taylor is actually at the controls of one of the
Lemurs on stage. Together they provide a valuable insight into how
the machines enhance the experience for both players and audience alike.
“We were mixing Björk's album in London with Spike Stent last
November,” recalls Damian, “and Mark Bell [production, live
laptops and controllers] pulled out the online [Lemur] demos that
were posted on YouTube, just to say, ‘aren't these cool?’ At the
time Björk was just beginning to think about touring the album and
she really liked how strongly they represented elements of electronic
music in a visual way. We wanted to see if they translated from
looking cool into being a cool thing to use musically. Luckily the
answer has been a resounding ‘yes!’”
Damian and Mark now have two Lemurs installed as their main
controllers on the tour and use them extensively with Ableton Live on
pretty much every song. Of course other controllers could have been
used, but few can match the power and the sheer beauty of the Lemurs,
and those looks have also helped add a striking visual edge to the
show…
“Absolutely!” agrees Alan. “The visual thing is important. There
are specific cameras just on the Lemurs and we’ve put large plasma
screens in front of Mark and Damian to show what is going on with
them. That was originally Björk’s idea, she’s into anything that
has got an interesting interface – she wanted people to see that
this stuff is actually happening live. The electronics are very
obvious and visual. In fact, we’re using the Lemurs so much in the
show now that we actually need a back up!”
The band are now so into using the Lemurs that they have even created
several custom controller sets for the tour.
Damian: “We have 42 songs in the band's repertoire from which Björk
will choose around 17 for each gig – but only a few hours before we
go onstage. The fact that I could create controller sets for each
song that let me perform completely intuitively was what really made
the Lemur indispensable for me.”
“Now that I’ve gotten used to the feel of the Lemur,” he
continues, “I actually really like the way the tactile interface
encourages me to play live. I'm now fully rocking out during gigs and
my body can interface with the Lemur in a totally visceral way.”
More info
Jazzmjutant’s Lemur is distributed exclusively in the UK by DACS.
For more information, visit www.dacs-audio.com or www.jazzmutant.com
