Combining various musical styles such as jazz, house, folk and soul with African, Asian, and Middle Eastern influences, it’s clear to see why Bonobo has been described by Electronic Beats magazine as one of the most prolific “genre shunning” producers. Fittingly, the light show on this iconoclastic star’s world tour was given an expansive boundary-defying look by Will Thomas with help from a collection of multifaceted Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
Thomas relied on 19 of the Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures, supplied by Colour Sound Experiment, to complement the impressive video walls in his design for the tour, which supported Bonobo’s UK Top 5 album Migration. Given the central role that video played in his overall stage design, it was of great importance to Thomas that his lighting coordinate with the video playback, while also reflecting elements of the darker, edgier and more evocative musical sections of Migration.
To accomplish this, Thomas positioned his Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures strategically between the 4.5M high video walls on stage. Thanks to infinite rotation of both pan and tilt for each fixture’s five individually controllable 15W RGBW LEDs, he was able to accent the video images with a seemingly endless array of crisp beams, rocket quick movements and colour blanket effects.
“The Rogue R1 FX-Bs created all sorts of different lighting effects – ideal to create more energetic visuals within the up tempo parts of Bonobo’s show,” commented Thomas. “The pan-and-tilt feature was particularly unique and contributed towards the creation of a ‘club-like’ atmosphere.”
Wanting to play with the concepts of darkness and light, contrast, space and emotion, which run through the recent album, Thomas also positioned Rogue R2 Wash fixtures around the stage trussing and video walls. From this vantage point, the moving washes provided a backdrop of saturated colours. In doing so, they contrasted dramatically with the sharp scissor-like looks of the Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures.
“The Rogue R2 Wash fixtures provided brilliant saturated colours to provide all -compassing wash lighting on stage,” commented Thomas. “I was able to utilise the excellent dimming curve of the fixtures to match lighting and color output of the video content.”
Thanks to Thomas’ light show –programmed and controlled from his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium– and the work of his techs James Hind and Alex Aulson, audiences throughout the world were able to enjoy a visual interpretation of Bonobo’s genre-defying sounds.
“The sharp movements of the R1 FX-B and intense colours of the Rogue R2 Wash are providing the ultimate backdrop for the performances,” said Thomas. “What’s more, we were able to achieve varied looks, while not detracting from the visuals played on the video walls.”
