[Special]: Gramofonowa. x NovaFuture Blog – Poland Special | Part 5: “Extended Scene”

 

 

Hello Dorota – nice to have you for a short interview about Lost in Ether and your artist rooster. You are a part/head of the project Lost in Ether. Tell us what is it and what is the concept and the artists behind the projects?

Hi, thank You for invitation to this interview. Lost In Ether is a podcast project, where you can find personal visions and expressions of alternative electronic music.

 

Rommek & Aimee Mullen – “Lost In Ether | Podcast #43”

 

Which international artists/crews have influence on your project “Lost in Ether” and your person? Which criteria are you looking for if you want to sign an arist for the mix series?

It is hard to pinpoint the impact of specific artists or teams influencing the creation of this series. I often ask artists to record what’s inside their hearts, not necessarily what they play in clubs, on a daily basis. Just check Rommek’s podcast, which he has prepared together with his girlfriend. This is a combination of quite experimental music and a live instrument – a violin.

I often choose artists according to my own taste, I invite people who are at the moment interesting to me as artists. There are some less and more famous names, for example VSK, Luigi Tozzi or Citty with his outstanding modular live act.

I also run the Origin Series, which is an attempt to promote Polish artists in country and abroad. There is, among other great things, a brilliant live act by Błażej Malinowski or a mix recorded by Gem.

Dorota, thank you very much for your words about Lost in Ether. We are looking fwd to present your Vis Maior project in the near future as a own part of our Poland special.

 

Błażej Malinowski – “Lost In Ether | Origin Series”

 

Hi. Could you please tell us who you are (who is part of the project) and what the name VFC means for you? When did you form the collective and from where did the idea rise?

Visual Family Collective was created by Michał Gwardys, Jakub Grzeszczuk and Tomasz Grzeszczuk one and a half year ago. Name of our collective illustrates the way we work – meaning for us, there are plenty of people that are co-working with us, just like a family, we help each other to achieve what we’ve planned. Creating group like this took some time. The passion for VJing started with Jakub – he was first of us to become a VJ back in 2013 (his stage name was vj Igraszka). His hobby shortly evoluated into job as multimedia and video artist . One year later his younger brother Tom started experimenting with 2D animation and became a VJ just like his brother. After few months of working together, Tom has taught his friend, from school, Michał some basic skills in animation . Finally in 2015 Michał came up with an idea to create a collective and to start doing VJ as a full time job, as it is today.

 

Visual Family Collective – “Othercult Teaser”

 

For whom did you already realise visual art and what were the intention of these projects?

Although during almost 2 years of our shows we had occasion to work with many great DJ groups and music artists, we have our favourite ones. Vis Maior – a Warsaw based DJ collective is definitely first of them. We made together many gigs with artist like Regal, Boston 168, Cleric and more. It was the first time we did such huge projection (about 50m2). Second one is a Hamburg based group called Othercult. It’s a very solid project that we really admire and are happy to take a part in. We visited cities like Hamburg or Hannover with such artists as Sam Paganini, Marcel Fengler, Par Grindvik, Keith Carnal, Nicole Moudaber and many more. Third group that we love to work with is a Polish collective Technokracja. We really enojy to make gigs with them, due to their unique vibe and a warm welcome!

 

What kind of elements do you use for the visuals? There are teams using old movie sequences or animations etc. …

Our style is based on mixing vintage movie loops with 2D shapes and 3D geometry. Most of our loops are monochromatic, but we sometimes we work in wider colour palette. To prepare our shows we use bunch of softwares such as: Adobe After Effect, Premiere for 2D animations and movie loops, Cinema 4D for 3d geometry renders, Touch Designer for generative 3d animations and Resolume Arena for live shows to mix loops together. Of course we also use hardware such as projectors, LED panels, screens, Roland video mixers and MIDI controllers.

 

What do you use for it? What’s your equipment that you used in studio & for gigs?

see answer above

 

Visual Family Collective – “My Home Is My Castle”

 

Could you please give us a description of the production process? What happens after a client asks you for visualising a track/a gig or whatever?

Each time we start to prepare the show it’s different, and that’s what we really enjoy! However first step is always the same- we try to learn what gear we schould prepare (like projectors or screens etc). Then we visit the place (if it’s impossiible we try to gather all vital information to prepare a special content suited for the place – for instance in Fabryka Porcelany we used vertical screen because it was better for this venue. Frome time to time we also upgrade our own MIDI maps to have better control in mixing loops. Then in the day of the show we come to place projectors and screens. Having done all those steps we are finally able to make some VJing. Usually shows start around 10 or 11p.m. and end about 6-8 a.m. so it’s at least an 8 hour live show. It is really hard not to be exhausted for all night long, especially if you’re performing alone.

 

What are your future plans? Any interesting projects in the pipeline you can tell us something about?

In the future, we are planning to visite some interesting events. We will be back to Audioriver Festival for sure! We really liked the vibe there! But it is not the only place we want to visit again. In less than a month we will be back to France performing for three days with our friend Monsieur Nuage. VJ battle at Interference Festival is another gig we really can’t wait for! This time we’re going to be better prepared but we heard that other VJs will also bring some more elaborate works. There are also many smaller gigs that we can’t wait for but since summer just began we are entering the typical festival mood!