ABBA Voyage, digital performance

[N i g e l]

ABBA have been digitised to enable virtual concerts in a custom built venue.

Motion capture, laser scanning wearing ping pong balls, that kind of thing.
Objective is for computer synthesized performance in a custom venue [in London, UK.]

uTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJBGk9Hed8o

twitter
https://twitter.com/ABBAVoyage/status/1 ... gr%5Etweet

[Wonks]

Mamma mia!

[Folderol]

That's quite something! The clips they showed are stunning.
Oh, and listening to the songs, they've definitely still got it after all these years

[BJG145]

Oh no.

[N i g e l]

uTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJBGk9Hed8o

if you want to skip the hype, the digital ABBA render starts after 18:30 and behind the scenes after 23:00.

apparently the 1st show is targeted at next May.

It will be interesting technically to see how the digital ABBA holograms are rendered into the physical world. Ive only seen [on youtube] a clip of a Japanese concert where a synthetic manga cartoon songstress was projected onto a sloping glass sceen on the stage. Synthetic vocals but the backing band was real & live.

somthing like this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X11CTE7CmnI

Mamma mia!

if you like the Mamma mia experience this might be a step up ? or is it the low carbon futeristic end to world touring ?

[resistorman]

If I were being scanned I'd probably be doing some editing

[resistorman]

It will be interesting technically to see how the digital ABBA holograms are rendered into the physical world. Ive only seen [on youtube] a clip of a Japanese concert where a synthetic manga cartoon songstress was projected onto a sloping glass sceen on the stage. Synthetic vocals but the backing band was real & live.

Wow. William Gibson predicted this in the mid-nineties in his novel Idoru. Good band...I always loved the bass lines in Jpop.

[resistorman]

Oh, we don't have anyplace for the concert, darn it. Well, let's build an arena in London. OK then...

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'm certain it will be hugely successful, although it will need a lot of ticket sales to cover the production costs. The excerpts of the new album sound great and I look forward to that.

From what I've seen so far the 'stage show' looks and feels too much like a computer game for me. Impressive light show, but it's not what I look for on a night out. I don't want to watch CGI renders. If you don't want to tour IRL, that's fine. I'll just play the album.

But I look forward to hearing the experiences and impressions of those that see it.

[AlecSp]

From what I've seen so far the 'stage show' looks and feels too much like a computer game for me. Impressive light show, but it's not what I look for on a night out. I don't want to watch CGI renders. If you don't want to tour IRL, that's fine. I'll just play the album.

Indeed, my views entirely!

The clips shown are an intriguing "fantasy view" of a perfect ABBA from the 70's, but all that work has just created what are still obviously animated characters.

To me, the shows would lack any of the jeopardy and uniqueness that has kept me craving for live music over the decades. It's nothing more than a tarted up trip to the cinema.

That said, it's the ultimate accountants tour - predictable, repeatable, and can be operated in parallel.

And, if it proves a hit, I bet I'll get sucked in and give it a try.

Most of all, this week, it's a relief that after all these years, the new music does actually sound good.

[Martin Walker]

Wow. William Gibson predicted this in the mid-nineties in his novel Idoru.

Indeed he did - a wonderful book (and trilogy). Long live Lo/Rez and Rei Toei!

Martin

[N i g e l]

s. It's nothing more than a tarted up trip to the cinema.

indeed, its a show rather than a concert. There are films you see once like ABBA the movie and others like Mamma Mia I/II which are repeat gosee event s, perhaps like going to see
an interactive film like rocky horror or young frankenstein.

other use cases include people who want to tick the ABBA in concert box or tourists who prefer it to seeing the Mouse Trap.

The amount of data they have collected suggets it can be upgraded as technology improves.

I had a day out in London for UCI track cycling at the olympic park and can say the venue is very easy to get to.

[DunningUpThatHill]

Kind of depressing to see where CGI is at in 2021. Sure, there have been many advancements in lighting, textures, conveying a real sense of weight etc. And many parts of this ILM/ABBA stuff are damn near perfect, such as hair/clothing/bodies. There are medium shots of Frida’s arms and hands that look 101% human.

But… no matter what they do, there’s still the DEAD EYES. Tarkin, Luke Skywalker, ABBA… still the Polar Express vibe so many years later. Some poor exhausted schmuck at ILM probably sculpted ABBA’s eyes in 500 layers and used half the render farm to make them, but they still come out dead like they’re painted on closed eyelids.

As some animator said in a docu I saw recently, ”our problem with faces is, while only a select few are experts on CGI, every single human on earth is an expert on human faces.”

Having said that I was pretty impressed with Frida’s lead vocals on I Still Have Faith In You (it’s Frida aka Anni-frid, not Agneta as some media coverage erroneously claims). I mean this isn’t one of those ”wow, she still rocks at 60!” type things. She’s 75.

[Albatross]

Should have left it here imo ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6T6Yj5u4k

[Hugh Robjohns]

Superb!

[The Elf]

Happy there's new music. The 'virtual' gig seems like a bit of an insult to me, but I suspect I'm in the minority.

[Drew Stephenson]

I think you might need to expand on that a bit?

[OneWorld]

Mamma mia!

Seeing as it is a digitized virtual performance, shouldn't that be 'RAM'a mia?

[resistorman]

Should have left it here imo ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6T6Yj5u4k

Ha! That's great!

[BJG145]

Brilliant.

Without the boilerplate -

https://youtu.be/8L6T6Yj5u4k?t=69

[N i g e l]

Classic

The scene - young ABBA in the lift - has been lifted from ABBA the movie. A nifty piece of editing !

[Guest]

It will be interesting technically to see how the digital ABBA holograms are rendered into the physical world. Ive only seen [on youtube] a clip of a Japanese concert where a synthetic manga cartoon songstress was projected onto a sloping glass sceen on the stage. Synthetic vocals but the backing band was real & live.

Wow. William Gibson predicted this in the mid-nineties in his novel Idoru. Good band...I always loved the bass lines in Jpop.

Gibson was a visionary in so many ways, nearly everything he wrote really.

Concerning ABBA: Will be a great success.

[Forum Admin]

Happy there's new music.

+1 (closet ABBA fan since watching them win Eurovision with 'Waterloo'; relied on my sisters playing it to death and me pretending to moan about it, just to be 'cool' -- ABBA and prog rock back in the schooldays of the '70s were not easy bedfellows to admit to.

Thankfully, youngsters of today have a more open, less tribal mindset and play and enjoy listening to any music they consider to be "worthy" -- be that Sinatra, Kanye, Billy Eilish, ABBA, Yes (they all love 'Roundabout') or Thin Lizzy/Sabbath...

The 'virtual' gig seems like a bit of an insult to me, but I suspect I'm in the minority.

It's not an insult and I think you will definitely be in the minority. Those folks who packed out the theatre night after night to hear/watch 'Mamma Mia' will be thrilled with the motion capture avatars -- personally, I thought they were innovative, fun and truly superbly done. It will be copied by all ageing artists to extend their careers, for sure.

Looking forward to watching the virtual concert on Netflix in due course.

[N i g e l]

Apparently it's quite good !

£approx - £250 for a seat, double that for standing

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/ ... -be-copied

https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/abba-v ... st-3235227

[forumuser773581]

Although quite sceptical , I went with my wife who reeeally wanted to see this. I was, to be honest, blown away by the whole event. Admittedly the venue could have benefited from some real acoustic treatment to help the clarity of sound, but the overall event was quite stunning. Also, contrary to the above comment the ticket for a quite decent seat was in the mid-£40's. The £100+ seat relate to the "dance" areas whatever they are.

For much of the time I was wrapped up "in" the show. It was easy to forget you were watching a digitised Abba, and the perspective introduced into the show really helped with this. I came out feeling I had actually been to see them, it was like a trip back in time from start to finish... a Voyage (sorry).

I'm not sure how many other groups or performers from the past would benefit from this treatment, or could be done, but I would certainly take the chance to see it again.