When your main instrument is a laptop, it helps to have a massive visual show to keep live audiences entertained. To combat “guy standing with his computer” lameness, experimental electronic musician Flying Lotus teamed with visual artists to create a light show inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“I have been playing shows for some time now and I’ve always just felt like, ‘Damn, it needs to be more, it has to be more, it can’t just be what it was,’” says Flying Lotus (government name: Steven Ellison) in the mini-documentary above. “And now it’s where I want it to be — it really feels magical when you see it.”
Flying Lotus worked with visual artists Strangeloop and Timeboy on the system, which they call “Layer 3.” During the show, the Los Angeles-based musician and producer performs between two transparent scrims (three layers, get it?), which are lit by front and rear projectors.
Flying Lotus makes his music from inside the trippy 3-D scenes, which undulate and pulse to the music. The projectors are controlled separately, in real time, with Strangeloop and Timeboy picking the visuals.
“I think you’re going to be totally transported to somewhere else,” Strangeloop says in the video. “At its best, it’s going to have that effect where you look at it and you’re kind of like, ‘How is this even happening in our reality?’”
Find out more about Layer 3 in the video above, produced by the Red Bull Music Academy. Flying Lotus’ latest album, Until the Quiet Comes, is out now on Warp. Flying Lotus takes his show to Europe next month.
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