Though he explicitly says he’s “not trying to reinvent the wheel,” after catching the trailer for Montreal-based Brazilian DJ and producer Amon Tobin‘s live performance setup for his brand new album ISAM, we couldn’t help but think the beautifully well-conceived canvas would change the way live music is experienced. What we didn’t know off-hand was that Tobin has always looked for ways to enhance his music visually, giving sounds an environment and using collaborations to establish deeper narratives.
For his eighth studio album, ISAM, Tobin teamed up with Tessa Farmer, a visual artist who choreographs dainty, taxidermic scenographic installations made from insects, animals and bones and asked her to fabricate scenes for each of his songs. By allowing each song to exist in physical space within a gallery setting, he reached a whole other group of people who might not have heard his music. (If you’re still hung up on Farmer’s creepy obsession with insects, read more on Viceland.)
Videos by VICE
In yet another effort to experience Tobin’s music visually, he called on V Squared Labs for their projection mapping expertise, Heather Shaw from Vita Motus Design to conceive a set for live performance and Alex Lazarus Blasthaus for production design and creative direction. See how they came up with “some weird adolescent fantasy of being in a spaceship,” in the video above.
