Sonique Boom

With lighting technology getting cleverer, cheaper and ever more accessible, it is clearly time for live performers to up their game. And it seems that everyone is at it: our own new recruit Kate Wax is currently readying her new light-and-sound set-up for its Mapping Festival debut in Geneva (May 7th), the ever-adventurous Caribou‘s new live show has an advanced new visual component (as previously reported here), and latest Crosstown Rebels addition Deniz Kurtel comes from a full-blown light-and-art installation background.

Our old friends We Love Art (previous hosts of the lovely We Love Border Community summer extravaganza) are predictably right behind these evolutions in technology, commiting to a pair of forward-thinking light presentations sandwiched either end of this year’s Villette Sonique festival in Paris. The main festival runs between 31st May and 6th June and features performances from Joanna Newsom, Owen Pallett, Young Marble Giants, Atlas Sound, Manuel Gottsching, Oneohtrix Point Never, Acid Mothers Temple, Wolf Eyes, Growing, Fuck Buttons, Oneida, Washed Out and Blues Control.

Proceedings are officially launched by the We Love Art crew on May 8th with the only French outing for Richie Hawtin‘s much-hyped new Plastikman multimedia live show, supported by usual suspects and Minus cohorts Magda, Troy Pierce and Marc Houle. The whole light and sound extravaganza is complemented by a special Plastikman iPhone app called SYNK, which links up with the live visuals and a camera showing what Richie can see, and probably explains why so many people are waving their phones about in this sneak preview clip from the Timewarp festival a couple of weekends ago. For a moment there we thought perhaps someone had invented a lighters-in-the-air app for the iPhone (they have, as it happens – 16 of them!).

And then on June 5th the series of events draws towards a close with homegrown hero Vitalic‘s own take on cutting edge live electronic performance, using a system of LED screens and mirrors put together by “stage design architects” 1024 to seemingly epic effect:

The bonus here is that the support team at this particular happening also comprises our own James Holden (on the promotional trail for his new DJ Kicks compilation), with Danton Eeprom and Cassius providing some extra French weight.

Claiming to present the future of the live electronic music show, both ambitious We Love Sonique events take place in the impressive Grande Halle de la Villette: get your tickets now (priced at €29,50 each, or €48,50 for a pass giving entry to both events) from Digitick.