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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
“When Lucent Found Herakut” is a primal take on the carnival – a surreal hallucination that draws you in with acrobatic dance, electronic music and trippy set pieces.
True to form, the ever-adventurous Do Lab presented a one-of-a-kind audio-visual experience this past weekend at The Palace in Los Angeles, California – this time featuring a two-night collaboration between the performing arts group Lucent Dossier Experience and the German street artist duo Herakut.
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
For the first time, Lucent Dossier joined forces with Herakut, drawing inspiration from each other to create “When Lucent Found Herakut.” We were in for something different Friday night – something that pushed the boundaries of performance art to another level.
[FIND news, downloads and show dates for The Lucent Dossier Experience on their official website.]
From the moment we approached the newly restored Palace Theater the world turned into a hallucination, albeit without the help of mind-altering substances. This historic theater is the oldest surviving vaudeville theater in America, having just celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Ornately dressed clowns and other denizens of this strange world greeted ticket holders and onlookers as they approached the unassuming venue in downtown L.A.
People as diverse as the performers on stage populated the seats, some dressed in costume and others dressed simply as themselves, all abuzz about what was to come. The bar served traditional staples as well as more interesting Lucent Dossier creations, fueling the crowd’s excitement and imagination.
Most of the music was played by a band in the top left corner of the two-level stage by a quartet of skilled musicians comprised of a violin, guitar, bass and drums with a DJ setup. Music ranged from folk to electronic, all with a distinctly international feel. Indian-flavored dubstep played by the quartet would segue into psychedelic folk or bass-heavy trip-hop as each scene progressed into the next.
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
[FOLLOW The Lucent Dossier Experience on Facebook.]
Dance styles ranged from ballet, aerial acrobatics and break dancing to a zombified form of pop-and-lock. Incredibly talented aerial performers amazed the crowd with their difficult routines, combining balance, strength and grace before our eyes, all without the benefit of a safety net. Elaborately dressed singers joined the band periodically, engaging the audience with the primitive emotion of their powerful voices.
The show was split up into two acts: “The Lonely Mind” and “Laughter Ever After.” Each act began with a short film clip projected onto a huge screen in front of the stage. Once the screen was lifted, we were treated to an intricate two-level stage with tunnels, platforms and artistic flourishes woven throughout.
The stage and costumes, designed by Herakut, created a world that “beautified the dark and forgotten spaces everywhere out there.” Performers were dressed in all sorts of strange costumes, from skeletal clowns to frog-like creatures with oversized ears and hands.
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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After the show, Lucent Dossier welcomed LowRIDERz (DJ Laura and An-ten-nae) to the stage and the late-night dance party began. With this side project, An-ten-nae stays true to his self-defined acid crunk genre, mixing bass heavy psychedelia with glitch-hop peppered by DJ Laura’s dubstep panache.
Whether or not you were aware of their music, it was a real treat to see these two fantastic producers come down for a rare visit to So. Cal, and the crowd showed their appreciation by rocking out late into the night.
No doubt inspired by the strange spectacle we all witnessed, the audience embraced the Lucent Dossier perspective as they spilled out into downtown L.A. The show might have been over but the night was just beginning as the remaining audience members partied together in the shadow of Lucent Dossier and Herakut’s dream-like world.
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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| Photo Credit: Shelly Siegel |
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Find more information, news and tour dates on The Lucent Dossier Experience on their official website.
