“We are in a fairly unique position, in that we work simultaneously in producing music and cinema events,” says co-founder and creative director Jay Rayner. “We are always looking to expand the use of our team and specialised equipment, so creating exciting opportunities to bring it all together certainly has become a central aim of ours.”
Going down from Friday August 28 until Sunday August 30, Visions will feature specially commissioned performances from the likes of Teeth & Tongue, Rat & Co, The Bombay Royale and Juice Rap News. The series was entirely produced by the Shadow Electric team – led by Rayner and director David Chestwig.
“Having produced the outdoor cinema at Shadow Electric for four years and the band room for two years, on and off, we have all the systems and key personnel to manage and produce a wide range of projects,” Chestwig says. “We keep it in house because that’s what we do – amongst other things, we are event producers. I’m excited by the challenges Estonian House presents and also quietly confident about the results.”
The three-day event will see each of the performers premiering an audiovisual show specifically crafted for this series. Chestwig tells us what attracted them to each of the individual artists.
“We’re big fans of Rat & Co and they’ve played several times at our band room at Abbotsford Convent. They pretty much only do shows with an A/V element. Oliver Ellmers, who is their visual collaborator, is pretty much a permanent member of the band. The results of this ongoing collaboration are stunning. I’ve spoken with Oliver and the band about a lot of my ideas in the past and they share the enthusiasm we have for big exciting audiovisual shows.
“We approached Teeth and Tongue as we knew they would be excited by the opportunity to collaborate with a visual artist and would be on board with the concept overall.”
“Teeth and Tongue are working closely with Keith Deverell in creating a show-specific visual element that works with and around the music,” Rayner says.
Fittingly, The Bombay Royale were actually born in a cinema. “[They’ll] live on forever on the silver screens of eternity,” says Chestwig.
These three acts are regular live performers, but Visions marks an exclusive outing in the wild for the politically-motivated YouTube sensation Juice Rap News. “They have never played in Melbourne or any live shows outside of Woodford Festival,” Chestwig says. “They are also a hard act to explain or categorise… A/V rap comedy? Also a very hard show to produce. I’ve been speaking with Hugo [Farrant] and Giordano [Nanni] from Juice Rap News for a while now and looking at where and how we could make their shows work. When we got the green light to move ahead with Estonian House, I showed the guys the space and they were 100% on board.”
Evidently, while the performances were developed especially for Visions, it’s not a total departure for the acts. “Bombay Royale have a cinematic show as part of their touring show and Juice Rap News is more of a theatrical based show, with the visuals working very closely with the music,” Rayner says. “Musical performers, like Rat & Co, incorporating a visual artist as part of their writing process is a really exciting idea and one that we are really proud to help facilitate.”
As far as the actual set-up goes, the Shadow Electric are taking their massive film projector over to Estonian House. “As we have done with our larger outdoor shows at the Convent, the visuals will be projected behind the musicians,” Rayner says, “forming the rear wall of the stage.”
A key distinction of The Shadow Electric brand is the unique atmosphere of the Abbotsford Convent venue. The event site, and the way it’s set up, has made a big impression on audiences. When looking for a place to host Visions, it was crucial they found somewhere with similarly unique appeal.
“We’re always on the hunt for potential sites,” Chestwig says. “We’re very passionate about hosting events in exciting spaces. Jay and I check out spaces every week – [it’s] probably one of our favourite things to do. The fact that Estonian House was once a cinema made the venue even more appealing. We already had a concept that required a space that could house our screen and have the right dimensions required to project and facilitate live music.”
Looking into the future, The Shadow Electric team intend to continue presenting events of this nature. “We are looking at programming more collaborative-based shows for more dates later in the year,” says Rayner.
“We’re looking forward to more shows at Estonian House,” adds Chestwig, “and other exciting places across Melbourne and Australia.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
