Irène Drésel live interactive performance, Paris

Irène Drésel offers an unprecedented immersive live performance with the Modulo Kinetic media server

On November 24, 2022, Irène Drésel took over the Petit Palais for an exceptional live performance during an event by FIP radio. The artist and producer of electronic music delivered an outstanding show based on an immersive and interactive setup. On that occasion, the Modulo Kinetic media server from Modulo Pi made it possible to synchronize the video mapping with the electronic composition, and to produce real time interactive animations.

At the end of November, the Petit Palais was transformed into a sound and visual garden for a unique live performance by Irène Drésel. The artist and producer of electronic music – who recently won a César for her first composition for the cinema – took over the Petit Palais with her music and her graphic world for an event by FIP radio.

To prepare this live, Irène Drésel collaborated with Hervé Déjardin, Audio Innovation Project Manager at Radio France. In order to offer a total immersive experience, the sound and video components have been fully worked on, and even synchronized.

Prior to the event, the sound spatialization of the concert was carried out using the L-ISA immersive sound technology from L-Acoustics. The distribution of sounds and their movements in space were reproduced during the concert through 12 x Syva loudspeakers from L-Acoustics, and 12 x 21-inch subwoofers distributed around the audience.

The digital creation projected on two walls of the Petit Palais’ main gallery was created by Paula Guastella of the Blow Factory agency. Conceived as a marvelous garden, the visual show enveloped the artist installed in the center of the gallery, surrounded by her public. Video mapping was based on 6 x Epson EB-L1755U projectors, powered by Modulo Pi‘s Modulo Kinetic media server.

Throughout the performance, the visual journey unfolded over 35 meters long and +10 meters high on each of the two walls. Within this framework, Modulo Kinetic was used to handle the soft edge and warping so that the projected media perfectly fit the architecture of the Petit Palais.

In addition to the playback of the media created for the mapping, Modulo Kinetic also generated interactive visuals synced with the live electronic composition. Hervé Déjardin explains:

“I was interested in having a tool that could produce generative content and that would allow us to animate the images in a 360° space, with 360° sounds. Modulo Kinetic is the only tool that allows to do generative content with a truly reliable solution, and that also easily interconnects with industrialized audio tools.”

The interactive design was entrusted to AC3 Studio. The installation and rehearsal time on site being very short, AC3 Studio relied on Modulo Kinetic‘s projection and simulation study tools to optimize the preparation of the interactive show. “Modeling the Petit Palais, integrating the video-projectors, and simulating the show beforehand allowed us to move forward efficiently and to have a clear idea of what was going to happen once in the place” comments Rémi Grosson, Creative Technologist at AC3 Studio.

Prior to the concert, the studio created real-time generative effects, notably based on particles, thanks to Modulo Kinetic and its embedded 3D engine.
The nodal programming editor was used to design a series of audio-reactive visual effects based on the soundtracks of Irène Drésel‘s compositions. Rémi Grosson adds:

“This allowed us to manipulate video material and use sound to modulate effects. I found it very pleasant to have all these features in one software, and that we didn’t have to make bridges. We could do video processing as well as 3D generation using the same software.”

On the evening of the concert, the Modulo Kinetic Designer workstation was equipped with a sound card. The interactive visual effects were triggered according to the performance of the artists on stage: Irène Drésel, Hervé Déjardin on spatialization, and Sizo del Givry on percussion. “We had a sequencing and something written, but also a space of freedom that left room for improvisation both for me and for Irène, and that was the whole point” notes Hervé Déjardin.

Modulo Kinetic received OSC commands sent by Irène Drésel on Ableton to trigger the video sequences, and MADI channels from Hervé Déjardin‘s QL1 console for the effects reacting to live sound. The audio-reactive visual effects were then generated in real time by Modulo Kinetic, thus mixing with the pre-calculated mapping.

Thanks to the support of the protocol used by L-ISA, Modulo Kinetic received sound spatialization information in real time. From this data, the generative effects appeared, came to life and evolved according to the location and movement of sounds in space.

During one hour, the public could live a total immersion in the universe of Irène Drésel through 7 unreleased titles extended by an interactive mapping. The tracks presented during the immersive live show will appear on the artist’s 3rd album to be released in 2023.

A video recording of the event is available on the france.tv website until December 20, 2024. For a direct access to the video of the show, CLIK HERE.

Credits:
Broadcasters: France TV / Culturebox – Radio France FIP
Audiovisual producer: La Générale de Productions / Jérémy Pouilloux – Alexandre Hallier
Co-producers: Radio France
Artist and music producer: Irène Drésel
Percussion: Sizo del Givry
Audio spatialization: Hervé Déjardin
Visual design: Paula Guastella – Blow Factory
Mapping and interactivity: Rémi Grosson – AC3 Studio, and Louis Sinnaeve
AV provider: Magnum