sábado, 31 de diciembre de 2022
viernes, 30 de diciembre de 2022
Björn Ulvaeus at Today BBC Radio 4
jueves, 29 de diciembre de 2022
Benny Andersson "Äntligen!”
La pandilla de Lorry se reúne para la gran aventura de Navidad de SVT ”Äntligen!”-- una historia donde el Premio Nobel es el foco.
ABBA’s successful avatar show in London offers a glimpse at a daring new direction for live music
ABBA's successful avatar show in London offers a glimpse at a daring new direction for live music
Jenni Reid
ABBA’s successful avatar show in London offers a glimpse at a daring new direction for live music
ABBA Voyage, which sees digital avatars of the four-piece Swedish band ‘perform’ a 90-minute concert created from motion capture, has proven a hit with critics and fans since launching in May.
Its producers want to take the show around the world and believe it will be replicated in big venues in places like Las Vegas, something industry professionals told CNBC they agreed with.
Questions remain over whether its success could be recreated with another band, and the ethical implications of using it for performances with deceased artists.
LONDON — Before the launch of “ABBA Voyage,” the London concert performed by 3D digital avatars of the iconic Swedish band, member Björn Ulvaeus said they hoped audiences would “feel that they’ve gone through something that they’ve never seen before.”
Following its May 27 debut, much of the reaction from domestic and international critics, fans and industry professionals has been rapturous.
“Other than the team involved, no one really knew how they would integrate an avatar-based performance,” Sarah Cox, director of live event technical consultancy Neutral Human, told CNBC. “That blew me away as someone working on real-time graphics. My jaw hit the floor. You look around and people are really buying into the idea that ABBA are there.”
Demand has been strong — the show’s run has been extended to November 2023 and could well go beyond that.
And the team has confirmed it aims to take the show around the world.
“Our ambition is to do another ABBA Voyage, let’s say in North America, Australasia, we could do another one in Europe. We can duplicate the arena and the show,” producer Svana Gisla told a U.K. government committee session in November.
It also expects other shows to begin following the same model.
“The tech itself isn’t new but the way in which we’ve used it and scale and barriers we’ve broken down are new. I’m sure others will follow and are planning to follow,” Gisla said.
That could “absolutely” be the case somewhere like Las Vegas, where some shows run round the clock with rotating crews, she added.
“We have live musicians, so we keep our band and do seven shows over five days a week. But you could roll round the clock. Vegas will quickly adopt this style of entertainment and do Elvis or the Beatles.”
Money, money, money
Voyage’s venue, dubbed the ABBA Arena, was built specifically for the show on a site in Stratford in east London, with its 3,000 capacity comprising a standing pit, tiered seats along three sides with no restricted view, and higher-priced private “dance booths,″ as well as space for the extensive kit positioned in the roof and what creators White Void say is the largest permanent kinetic lighting installation in the world.
It was also designed for flexibility. It was constructed on a one meter raised platform without breaking ground, and could be disassembled and reconstructed elsewhere — or stay in place and host another show in future.
But emulating Voyage’s model — which sees digital replicas of the four band members perform classic hits and newer numbers for 90 minutes, while also interacting with each other and speaking to the audience between songs — will be no easy task.
The show was in the works for five years and had a £141 million ($174.9 million) budget funded by global investors. It needs to get around 3 million people through its doors to break even, according to Gisla, and the average ticket price is £75.
After choosing their set list and making other creative decisions, the ABBA members did five weeks of performance in motion capture suits. Hundreds of visual effects artists then worked on the show for two years, led by the London branch of Industrial Light & Magic, a visual effects company founded by George Lucas.
A decade ago, a Coachella performance featuring an apparent hologram of Tupac Shakur impressed audiences and hinted at alternative reality’s potential in live shows, with the artist’s likeness digitally recreated without using archive footage.
While not meeting the technical definition of a hologram, which uses laser beams to construct an object with depth, the visual effects team projected a 2D image onto an angled piece of glass, which was itself projected onto a Mylar screen, creating a 3D effect. Shakur then “performed” two songs with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, 16 years after his death.
The Voyage team is tight-lipped about exactly how their show works, but previously confirmed it is not a laser-based hologram either. It involves 65-million pixel screens which give the impression of the band performing life-size on stage in 3D in real time, with traditional-style concert screens showing close-ups and different views on either side.
Its servers are being pushed to the “absolute extreme” to render the images without lag, Gisla said, such that they are shaking through some transitions. She also acknowledged that the 10-meter high side screens are “very unforgiving” on detail and there are improvements that could be made.
But, she added, with real-time render speeds becoming quicker, “Benny and Bjorn could be sitting in a chair at home connected to their avatar, updating them to talk about last night’s football result to the audience. That will come.”
Next steps
Consultant Sarah Cox said the kind of processing and motion capture technology used by Voyage is still prohibitively expensive for most productions, but believes it is a “brand-new format that will be replicated time and time again,” particularly somewhere like Las Vegas.
“An immersive venue could host multiple shows. And then the cost comes down, because you have the technology stack, the venue, and all the money goes into creating the avatar and virtual experience and tweaking the programing.”
Many will remain skeptical of digital avatar-based gigs, particularly if they are wary of the general trend toward metaverse-based virtual experiences.
Bjorn Ulvaeus himself previously told CNBC he has concerns about the misuse of the technology to create nefarious “deep fakes” which will be “indistinguishable from the real thing going forward.”
There is also the question of finding suitable artists for shows. ABBA is a rare proposition as a band with a large catalogue of hits, a multi-generational worldwide fanbase, and a full set of members who are on-board with the show — but who have not toured together for 40 years.
“Posthumously you can put artists back on stage, ethically you may or may not have a view on that,” said Gisla. “Having ABBA partake in this is I can say this is an ABBA concert. ABBA made the decisions, chose what to wear, chose their set list, ABBA made this show.”
For an artist like Elvis with an extensive visual and audio archive you could create an accurate replica, but without the input that makes this show feel so tangible, she said.
For Cox, live shows that provide a “shared experience” like ABBA Voyage hold a greater appeal than headset-based virtual experiences, though there will certainly be more of those available in future.
And both AR and VR are spreading in the worlds of gaming, events, sports, theater and beyond.
Digital avatar experiments have included musician Travis Scott premiering a song within the wildly popular game Fortnite in 2020, with his avatar looming over players who were still moving around within the world of the game. It got a reported 45.8 million viewers across five shows. Lil Nas X performed the same year in the game Roblox.
A 15 year-old plays Fortnite and Travis Scott Present: Astronomical on April 23, 2020, in Los Angeles, United States.
Frazer Harrison | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Jo Twist, chief executive of trade body UK Interactive Entertainment, said she was noticing growing opportunities in the intersections between games, music and entertainment experiences.
“While these kind of experiences have mostly been the preserve of the biggest artists so far, we believe that growth in both the number of people who play, and online game worlds that enable user generated content, could open games up to all kinds of performers, allowing them to successfully tap into its enormous player base to raise their profile.” she said.
Giulia De Paoli, founder and general manager of show design and AR studio Ombra, has worked on projects bringing “extended reality” — spanning AR and VR — to live sports.
“AR has permitted us to create a full show for broadcast events that would be impossible with traditional projection and LED setups, like creating huge 10-meter flying numbers and flames around the arena,” she said.
“We see this developing into a full experience for people to watch live and, as the word says, augmenting the reality around us, gamifying, interacting and seeing impossible things happen.”
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photo 25 may 2022
miércoles, 28 de diciembre de 2022
ABBA Voyage Programme
ABBA VOYAGE PROGRAMME
MERCHANDISE / EDITORIAL DESIGN
ABBA Voyage a show like no other and a show programme like no other too...
I worked closely with the ABBA Voyage team on this monumental project of trying to incorporate all aspects of the show in only 36 pages before the show had even begun. After discussing with the producers we decided on a scrapbook style for this project to try and include as many images of the build up to the show as possible.
To make the programme as authentic and tangible as possible I decided that the best way to achieve this was to physically make these pages and photograph them individually in a similar way to how the show was created, starting with the originals and then digitising them. The process of this was not the easiest as everything had to be hand cut, put in the correct place and photographed before making edits digitally which meant if something needed to change then that process had to start at the beginning. However at the end of many long days (and nights) I think that I managed to achieve the desired outcome
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Aidan Gooding Donoghue a.k.a. MadeYouLook is a graphic designer based in London, UK. MadeYouLook specialises in bright colours and bold drawings to create typographic designs which also tend to include illusional twists challenging the way the design is seen.
https://madeyoulk.com/copy-of-abba-voyage
seen about ABBA Voyage programme on abba newsflash on facebookmartes, 27 de diciembre de 2022
Sweden: Government wants a “cultural canon” – culture doesn’t
Sweden: Government wants a “cultural canon” – culture doesn’t
The new center-right government in Sweden wants to create a “cultural canon” – under pressure from the far-right Sweden Democrats. The cultural scene has something against the project. One fears too much influence.
Pippi Longstocking should be on the list. Just like the children from Bullerbü. ABBA certainly too. And probably Håkan Nesser’s crime novels too.
All cultural works and cultural workers Swedenwho might end up in a “cultural canon”. The country’s new government wants to create one. This is intended to define which cultural works in the country are important – or not.
“Cultural canons” already exist in other countries. Denmark and Hungary do they have.
Expert committees are to make proposals for a “cultural canon”.
Ulf Kristerssonthe new Conservative Prime Minister, said at a government statement in October before the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm: “Culture and its practitioners are an indispensable part of civil society and keep democratic discourse alive.” The culture and “our common history form the basis of our common identity”. It creates cohesion and improves understanding for one another.
Therefore, the government – consisting of liberals, conservative moderates and Christian Democrats – wants, among other things, the Possibilities encourage everyone to experience culture. She wants to promote a living cultural heritage that is “preserved, used and further developed”. And she wants a “cultural canon.” Independent expert committees are to draw up proposals for this.
But that’s what bothers the cultural scene.
picture book
Abba – like you’ve never seen the group
The problem with the “arm’s length distance”
Anna Troberg, chairwoman of the cultural association DIK, said in an article in the daily newspaper “Svenska Dagbladet”that the government must clarify its intentions in the field of culture. “Sweden does not need a cultural canon. Sweden needs a vibrant cultural school, well-stocked school libraries and a strengthened and well-funded cultural sector.”
From their point of view, the “cultural canon” is not compatible with the long-standing principle of “arm’s length”. This provides that politics stays out of culture. In his speech, Kristersson emphasized that the “arm’s length distance” frees the “cultural sector from politicization and undue influence”.
It is good that the importance of this arm length was emphasized, said Troberg in one Message. “At the same time, they govern with the support of the Sweden Democrats, a party with an ideologically instrumental view of culture, which of course creates a certain amount of uncertainty. This also puts pressure on the new culture minister to really work for free culture and this ‘arm’s length’.”
ABBA is celebrating a comeback after a 40-year break - the planned tour will be special
Fear of the influence of the Sweden Democrats
The proposal to develop a Swedish “cultural canon” harbors “in the worst case the risk of reducing arm length and in the best case it is a shot in the dark.” Culture should be “free from the confines of a narrow path”.
With the “ideologically instrumental conception of culture” of the Sweden Democrats, Troberg refers to their cultural policy. in the policy The party, for example, has sentences like: “We do not consider cultural impulses planted in Swedish society by those in power or groups who do not see themselves as Swedish as part of Swedish culture, but rather as a form of cultural imperialism, without they are adapted to Swedish conditions.”
Or: “It is clear that some cultures uphold basic human rights, democracy and material prosperity, good health care, a high level of education and equality before the law better than others.”
Kristersson’s centre-right government needs the support of the Sweden Democrats in parliament to secure a majority. This gives the party strong influence over the government and its policies.
Criticism of “Drag Queen Story Hour” in Sweden
“The SD (Sweden Democrats) will have an impact on cultural policy, that much is clear,” says Andreas Johansson Heinö of the Timbro think tank in the union newspaper “Working World”. It is conceivable that the Sweden Democrats would approve government laws – in return for their approval of their cultural policies.
The Sweden Democrats give cultural policy a much higher priority, relatively speaking, according to Heinö. Cultural issues are an important part of the party’s vision for Swedish society. Political scientist Niklas Bolin told Arbetsvärlden that the Sweden Democrats see culture as a way of “consolidating enduring and far-reaching values that we should live up to in society”.
Politicians from the Sweden Democrats are already putting pressure on culture – albeit at a local level. This is how the LGBTQ medium reported “QX”that a local SD party politician called a “Drag Queen Story Hour” in November in the city of Kalmar “disgusting” and “perverted” designated. With these events drag queens tour libraries and read books to children.
Much unclear about “cultural canon”
After the attack, libraries in southern Sweden that had booked the storytellers were met with hatred and threats, as “QX” further reported.
Said SD local politician is Jonathan Sager from Kalmar. He called for the content of Kalmar Municipality’s libraries and preschools to be reviewed. He believes that money is being spent on inappropriate and offensive content for children, he said in an interview on the radio station P4 Squid. Sager has often criticized “drag queen story hours” like his Twitter profile shows.
Whether this case is a harbinger of the influence of the Sweden Democrats on the country’s culture or just a local political dispute is difficult to say. It is also unclear when the “cultural canon” that independent expert committees are supposed to create will come. Or where it should be used.
Ideas for the cultural canon: ABBA and the Stockholm Mosque
A first cultural institution is already standing in the way. The Swedish Academy, whose job it is to promote Swedish language and literature, does not want to be involved in the canon, its permanent secretary Mats Malm told the newspaper “Dagen’s Nyheter”. The “cultural canon” is “a concept that is permeated by power and the exercise of power”.
Torbjörn Forslid from Lund University is more positive. “Since many people are not aware of the informal canon that exists in Sweden anyway, a formal list could lead to democratization,” he said “Dagen’s Nyheter”. However, he pleads for several canons. For example one for elementary schools, one for universities, one with international works.
And what could be in this “cultural canon”? The News Page “Dagen’s Arena” from Sweden has a few ideas:
“Waterloo” by ABBA
“Mozart Brothers” by Suzanne Osten
“Jerusalem” by Selma Lagerlof
The Stockholm Mosque
The Great Synagogue in Stockholm by Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander
And of course: Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Sources: Government statement Kristersson, Government of Sweden, DIK, “Svenska Dagbladet”, SVT, Sveriges Radio, “Dagens Arena”, “Dagens Nyheter”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Library Bladet”, “Gothenburg’s Post”Twitter Jonathan Sager, Drag Story HourQX, “Arbetsvärlden”, basic program of the Sweden Democrats
#Subjects
Source link
https://newsingermany.com/sweden-government-wants-a-cultural-canon-culture-doesnt/
https://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/schweden--regierung-will-einen--kulturkanon--
lunes, 26 de diciembre de 2022
Lasse Lönndahl
Lasse Lonndahl passed away
Before the Abba era, Lyngstad sang with many famous musicians. One was Lasse Lönndahl.
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A FOR ANNI-FRID (SWEDISH RADIO 1975)
Back then she was a litlle aloof from the audience. I had the feeling that she never really crossed the line into the audience. She had, and still has, a remarkable voice.
- She sew her own stage outfits and wore wery daring back then. She had already a very, very good taste when it cames to clothing.
- Yes, here we are with the 4st and last ABBA-member, Anni-Frid Lyngstad. And you, Anni-Frid started really early (just like the rest of the members of the group). Your first appararnce was at a Red Cross Soaré in Torshälla. You were ten years old when you entered the stage for the first time. What persuaded you to do that?
- I guess it was the drive in me, to show people what I could do. I thought it was fantastically fun to sing and perform, and back then there was no fear to doing it. All I had to do was to get up on that stage and deiver my song. The song was called "I believe I was 14 years old".
- But in real life you were only 10.
- Yes, that was right.
- Were there any other musical influences in you family or among your closest friends?
- Well, I heard that my grandfather played the violin, my father played some acccordion and my mother was very fond of sining and she was very good at it. So I guess I came from a good stock.
- And those are things that do get inherited?
- I'm not sure about it, but I don't rule it out. More often than not children from muscial families become muscially themselves.
- What were your dreams and aspirations at suh a young age?
- I wanted to be a singer
- Aldready back then?
- Oh yes,
- There were never any discussions in your home about what you wanted to dedicate your life to?
- No, we never discussed anything else, it's quite funny when you think about it. I really decided very early on, at 6 or 7 years old that I was going to be a singer.
- Do you remember when you made your big debút in Eskilstuna, the town closest to Torshälla, as a singer in a musical program in front of more than 50.000 - 60.000.?
- I'm sure you remember it much more vividly than I do.
- I was on assignment to write about you and you were really an accomplished singer back then. The head lines ran over several columns. Were you never, in any way, nervous to get on stage in front of all these strange people?
- Not the way it became nervwrecking years later, when I became a professional singer. That depended on the fact that you didn't feel any pressure, it was OK to make a fool of your self, and it wouldn't mean then end of the world. It was much more relaxed, a failure wouldn't mean the end of the world. Because of that it became a fun game in a way. I didn't take it too seriously myself.
1974
2022
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