Sunday, April 18, 2010

Night Fall

The Outdoors is by definition great, as is running about and the sound of childish shouting on the grass, and  misty hills in the distance, strawberries and birdsong; it's all great, and spring is entirely here, and there is so much to do, but at the end of the day nothing beats a bit of adult entertainment, full of smooth and unhurried wonder, allowing the mind to unwind into the night. The opportunity to do so at Kolor comes only occasionally, and last night was one of those magical hours, drawn together by a performance by Kolor Fall, cypress Rosewood and Skye Galaxy.
They are genuine fans of each other, and it shows - not only in their enthusiasm for working together, but in their refreshing lack of pretentiousness. Several years ago Kolor Fall, who's a RL painter and cellist, came across a live performance by cypress Rosewood. At the time Kolor was a newbie who 'didn't even understand streaming' but he knew he'd found something good. A simple IM to cypress (Tony Gerber in RL) at the end of the concert was the beginning of a firm friendship enriched by creative collaboration which, since January, has found definition in once-monthly concerts on sim Kolor. To those who know these men's otherworldly approach to their art it will come as no surprise that the overarching theme of these performances has been The Planets, with names like  Red Lashes of Mars and the Clouds of Jupiter and Europa under ice, seen here in Stretch Mayo's wonderful machinima.

In late 2009,cypress heard Skye Galaxy and  instantly became a fan. He tries never to miss one of Skye's concerts, and they play together whenever they get the opportunity. Skye and cypress are separated by a generation and thousands of miles, but there is a synchronicity in sound, and a profound mutual admiration and respect that draws them to each other and a growing audience to both. A dual stream with a life of its own, their performances have become some of the most well attended and critically acclaimed in SL.

Imagine a quantum state, by which we mean the mathematical description of an aspect of the known behaviour between matter and energy. When the relationship between two or more such matter-energy systems - existing perhaps thousands of miles apart, or perhaps on completely different planes - is so deeply intertwined that one cannot be described without fully describing the others, you have a quantum entanglement, the property that lies at the centre of the famous thought experiment developed by Einstein, Rosen and Podolsky at Princeton just before the war.
cypress Rosewood: When Kolor mentioned to me he'd been working on an installation based on the idea of quantum entanglement, I thought the concept was perfect for this month's concert, because it captures what I feel about my and Skye's performances.
The physical distances between the three artists melt away long before the concert, as Kolor hones his new sound theory and the visual elements of the tone poem, in the myriad forms possible through scripts and effects, all working not from a preconceived formula but responding directly to his voice and movement as he speaks and draws the word of the moment. Spontaneous but far from unprepared, the creative process for the concert at Kolor is best described as 'open'; collaborators and cronies hang and chat in voice, no-one is made to feel like an outsider, as Kolor tries out his drawing scripts and tinkers with transparency levels and hues, all the time asking how they seem to everyone else. The pre-show music was Kolor playing the cello, but you wouldn't hear him crowing about it. His easygoing manner and disarming modesty are matched by  cypress' warm voice and that articulate enthusiasm which only years of rich experience can produce.
Kolor Fall: There's a lot of long stories with no point to them told here, and people just hanging out... that was the last setup ... and those two messing around while i was trying to do the build. A lot goes into the building, but the scripts and the artwork always gets recycled into other projects, although in this case, at tonight's concert we'll be using the work I've been preparing for a 2-3000 prim install which is going up at PiRats in the near future.
The concert proper, which started just after 8 pm SLT, was at Kolor Studio with midnight set for optimum awesomeness. If you plan to attend next month  be sure to show up early, with as few running scripts as possible - take stuff off before you arrive, because once the lag sets in you may find it difficult. Don't wait for an invite - these are not precious people handing out exclusive invitations to their coterie - the simplest way to be sure not to miss it is to join cypress' group inworld, and wait for the LM or put www. cypressrosewood.com in your favourites!
I got so engrossed I didn't take any good photos, this is one by Laurenza Republic, (here's her Flickr photostream!!) and check cyp's website for the machinima when it comes out, as well as checking all the usual suspects' sources.
 Plumes of light responded to the moving music, an effect something like the fountains of the Bellagio, Kolor said he was going for - along with dancing bubbles, like the dancing cubes at his famous waterfall, made for an enchanting effect. Kolor turns off scripts on the sim and runs everything from its twin, but crashes and slowness are likely to dent the experience for anyone who doesn't have a gaming graphics card - but don't let that stop you, even if your visual experience isn't state of the art, the music and the atmosphere these three men create will transport you.
What will they do next? More magic, I have no doubt.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The music reminded me of my experience as an audience member at the show, Le Rev, out in Las Vegas. I have the soundtrack to it in my car. Very relaxing, very mellow, and a tad bit spooky. I was blown away at the talent and creativity in both worlds last night. Looking forward to the next show! Thank you for using my photograph! I had fun taking them :D