Strangeloop

[Jeff Wexler]

I am so proud of my son David, aka strangeloop, who has been working with Flying Lotus even before Steve Ellison was Flying Lotus. David is now touring with Steve all over the world, doing these amazing visuals.

- excerpt of interview video with Steve, David and John

When your main instrument is a laptop, it helps to have a massive visual show to keep live audiences entertained. To combat “guy standing with his computer” lameness, experimental electronic musician Flying Lotus teamed with visual artists to create a light show inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“I have been playing shows for some time now and I’ve always just felt like, ‘Damn, it needs to be more, it has to be more, it can’t just be what it was,’” says Flying Lotus (government name: Steven Ellison) in the mini-documentary above. “And now it’s where I want it to be — it really feels magical when you see it.”

Flying Lotus worked with visual artists Strangeloop and Timeboy on the system, which they call “Layer 3.” During the show, the Los Angeles-based musician and producer performs between two transparent scrims (three layers, get it?), which are lit by front and rear projectors.

Flying Lotus makes his music from inside the trippy 3-D scenes, which undulate and pulse to the music. The projectors are controlled separately, in real time, with Strangeloop and Timeboy picking the visuals.

“I think you’re going to be totally transported to somewhere else,” Strangeloop says in the video. “At its best, it’s going to have that effect where you look at it and you’re kind of like, ‘How is this even happening in our reality?’”

[atheisticmystic]

It's fascinating to see such an incarnation of "band", with the "playing" of modern "instruments".

Way outside my genre, but also cool to see the performance play like a sound mix, with the first screen providing more narrow, Lotus-based visuals, and the rear screen doing wider "backgrounds"...very sweet.

Congrats Jeff that your son is creating and expressing at such a proficient, and (what appears to be) satisfying level.

As a new parent, I can only imagine that it must be an existentially profound feeling to be able to watch your child do that.

Best

PS Very sweet sound and mix on the video too.

[old school]

David is a good kid. I mean young man. While it is not my taste in music, the visuals are world class and would fit into my beloved psychedelic music perfectly. Congratulations to all.

CrewC

[Philip Perkins]

If guys like my heros of abstract film imagery, incl. Jordan Belson, Pat O'Neill and the Whitneys were working today this is what they'd be doing. They would be utterly cranked at the idea of doing that kind of work LIVE. Good for Dr. Strangeloop and his buds.

philp

[smiley]

I had the esteemed pleasure to meet David "strangeloop" at the 121212 show in Atlanta.

What a talented and friendly dude!