Dennis having fun...

Check out a piece of the Dennis Ferrer performance at the NB disco.
Great sound, soulful dancer.

See video (18Mb, qt)

Thanks to uberbrands for the gig :-)

Absoluto Beach Party

Next 07.07.07 there will be a great beach party right in front of Tamariz, in Estoril. We will be doing the visuals for this event, starting with a reggae concert by One Sun Tribe, followed by several DJs.

Saturday take your "chanatas" off the closet, put them on your feet and head towards the beach. There's nothing like a beach party to start your summer time...

Azure Festival 2007

Reopening of Espiritos Club

Who would say Oliveira do Hospital would have such a place! Two friends joined forces and took over an outstanding place just outside the city. Located in an old palace house, the decor and working conditions are great.

4 plasmas and two beamers were my working showroom, and they were enough, as the two beamers had a big projection surface.


Friends from Lisboa, Porto, Aveiro and all surroundings came that night and stood dancing untill closing time, somewhere at 7am.

With a music performance by the Atomic Fingers (guitar and violin), followed by DJ Glove, the place was packed with 700 people or more. Pitty that the rain came that evening, otherwise they would have opened a great terrace. So, from now on, if you're near Viseu, just drop by at Oliveira Hospital and shake your ass...

Performing with Dennis Ferrer

Two weeks ago I had the chance to perform with Dennis Ferrer, a great DJ and a very cool guy.
The event took place at the NB disco, in Viseu, with a packed room that didn't leave the dancefloor until 7 am. The disco was completely restyled and really looks great. It has definetly one of the best DJ/VJ working spaces I've ever worked on (4x1m).
Ferrer took over at about 2 am, after a well deserved sleep at the hotel, and came up with full energy. Balancing between 70's disco beats and modern electronic grooves, the mix was great.
Thanks to uberbrands for the gig :-)

Serralves welcomed 80.000 people

The Serralves Foundation achieved an international landmark in receiving 80 thousand people in its 40 h non-stop free entrance weekend.

More than 70 events took place, among which "Aquarium Materialis, Aquarium Spiritualis", a piece for lake harp, marimba, vibraphone, acrux, sounds of nature and video. Victor Gama stretched its 50m long strings from one end to the other of the lake achieving an unprecedent amplified sound, exploring the surface of the lake as an unique acoustic soundboard. During the daytime people could also touch the instrument and play on its strings. Pangeia also organised workshops for children on how to make instruments wit basic materials.

The piece, written in partnership with Pedro Carneiro, one of the world leading marimba players, was played twice a day, one time early in the afternoon and early at night, this time with video projection.
Tiago Cerqueira, sound technician and musician, completed the team with it's laptop sounds of nature and special efx modulations.

For the projection we mounted a 8.000 Lumen projector on a 8m high structure with brightness/contrast pushed to the limit.
Another beamer was placed at my side aimed at the three tops. Alltogether the projection surface on the water had some 50sqm and the same for the three tops.
We first thought of spreading a giant thulle over the water, but then we realised that the suspension mud on the lake water was enough to get an image, as long as the colors were pushed to the limit and very contrastful loops were used.
The result wasn't brilliant, but one could perfectly see the imagery on the lake surface from any surrounding standing point of the lake (these photos were taken from the top of the structure. Because of the lens angle, the tree tops projection is missing).

Negative remarks:
my Canon photo camera had a sudden "system failure" (» no photos)
the guy suposed to video the whole stuff didn'd get to go to Porto (» shity video footage)
the other guy supposed to audio tape the concert didn't appear and the audio mixing table didn't any spare outputs (» no decent audio recording).
the Joakim & his Ectoplasmic Band was baaaad

Positive Remarks:
our team was great company and we had some good laughs
the weather, the drinks and the girls staff
the festival ambience, with lots of artists and different activities
John Butcher concert
Panda Bear concert
New Circus (chinese mast) with João Santos
Lá e Cá - theatre/performance
the new porto bar - Plano B
Gigi Party at Triplex

Space Moods on the BBC - end of season!

Last Friday the Space Mood parties on the BBC went on holidays.

After eight months of crazy nights and several glasses of vodka with strawberry pulp, my VJ work is now terminated. Thank you all for the warm working mood and respect.

WE WILL BE BACK...SOMETIME!

Water Projection on Serralves Foundation

Next saturday and sunday, at 22h, there will be a unique presentation of the new project from the musician Victor Gama "Aquarium Materialis, Aquarium Spiritualis", in a co-produced artwork with world renown marimba percussionist Pedro Carneiro and Tiago Cerqueira on the laptop.

Videomorphose will be projecting on the surrounding water surface of a pound-lake with a 8m high placed 8.000 Lumen beamer. To transform the lake into a giant projection screen, we will spread on the surface white thulle. Two more beamers will also be projecting over the tree bushes around the concert area for flying imaginary animals and fairytales.

Victor Gama will be playing a water harp, with five 50m steel strings from one end to the other of the lake and a 15,000 W sound equipment to enhance all sound details. I will be posting some photos real soon...

DJ Dennis Ferrer & Videomorphose

Ferrer doesn't mince his words, but unlike many egotistical producers he can back it up with the real deal or at least six of house music's and the global dance floor's biggest records of the last four years: Sandcastles, Son Of Raw, Timbuktu, Church Lady, Most Precious Love, and The Cure & The Cause.

He makes music with a vibe, and as long it meets the criteria of 4/4, bumping, club and not sleepy’ he's a happy man. The last thing he is concerned with is fitting a genre or scene which is useful for a visionary such as Ferrer, as barriers between dance music genres currently seem as relevant as the Berlin Wall.

Ironically enough, Ferrer provided the catalyst that began breaking down dance music's Iron Curtains: Ferrer’s absolutely monstrous collaboration with Jerome Sydenham, Sandcastles (2003) got the ball rolling and straddled the tech-soulful divide.

This was the one record that joined the tech crowd and the soulful crowd - you would hear it in both a tech club and a soulful club.

He is without doubt one of the most well rounded producer/song-writers in dance music, let alone house. He's produced myriad styles (ambient, acid techno, tech, gospel, Afro, soulful), and has learnt from masters including Damon Wild, Kerri Chandler and Jerome Sydenham. It's an apprenticeship that many aspiring producers would trade their right arm for, and by combining this with strong ideas and passion, his consistency and quality over the last five years has been peerless.

And the logical step for a producer at the top of his game, is an artist album: The World As I See It. Ferrer’s debut LP for King Street / Defected is an amalgamation of myriad, global sounds, expertly honed into soul-stirring house music and each track is a journey, with subtle detail: the soul from the belly gospel-tech flavored Church Lady, takes an unexpected twist four minutes in; the nourishing love song Touch The Sky is underpinned by off kilter, fuzzy electronic melodies and bongo percussion; the largely instrumental P 2 Da J is full of sharp and punchy chords and melodies, mesmerizing chanting and underpinned by a relentless, thumping bassline; similarly Son Of Raw's fuzzy electronic feel is bumping, with stabs of pads and pianos; Transitions' grooves undulate, tumbling, then pumping and steadied tribal drums; How Do I Let Go is a heartbreak elegy, recalling that desolate moment of realization that a relationship is over and will never be the same again; while Destination is pure dance floor drama which sees the Balkans on an aural collision course with Brazil and of course, underground New York house.

When he’s not producing his own music, Ferrer’s passion is developing the careers of others not only in the form of his remixes. His label Objektivity is home base for teenage DJ / producer sensations, The Martinez Brothers with whom he works closely. Filsonik, an emerging producer from the NYC underground also benefits from Ferrer’s ears and will release his first single for the label in the spring.

In the meantime, Objektivity will release the highly anticipated Ferrer / Abicah Soul co-remix of “Love Can Damage Your Health” by Telepopmusik. Thereafter, expect nothing but ground-breaking productions from the man who refuses to be painted into a stylistic box. These include a collaboration with Grammy Award winning Norwegian folk singer Ane Brun, Angela McLuskey (from Telepopmusik) and a revisit of Kevin Saunderson’s Inner City project, all culminating in a second, even more ambitious full length album.

Pes - 5 star stop motion

A beautiful example of a shoe-branding ad using stop-motion technique.