This hybrid audiovisual concert is based on a reinterpretation of the original soundtrack to the film “Space is the Place”, incorporating music, dialogue and sound. This new soundtrack, at the crossroads of ambient electronic music, space jazz and cosmic techno/house, forms the central theme of the show, complemented by additional music that fits seamlessly into the cosmology of the Sun Ra Arkestra!
In the story, Renaud Vercey and Constellationn create a cosmic and electronic jazz musical cosmogony based on the enigmatic Sun Ra, who was a pioneer in this genre. They summon up the odyssey of the Voyager 1 and 2 space sondes, which were contemporaries of the film, having been launched by NASA in 1977, thus offering a striking continuation between reality and fiction.
Sun Ra said to Jim Newman, director of the film “Space is the Place” : “It’s an unfinished film that could be improved and remade endlessly.” These words, led to a response to this invitation to reinterpret this work musically and visually; a work composed of concert excerpts, low-tech science fiction and blaxploitation-style fiction, whose socio-political, cultural and aesthetic issues resonate with the present day.
Original compositions featuring tracks from the film’s soundtrack and additional music : Flying Lotus, Build An Ark, Anthony Naples, Space Afrika
An intense, immersive patchwork of absolute freedom, “Space is the Place” is so much more than a simply tribute to the pioneer of Free Jazz. It is an artistic statement that presents a creation within a creation: unconventional, timeless and therefore inevitably contemporary, and essentially JAZZ in every sense.
Olivier CORCHIA Music Programme Director / Concert Venue Director – Le SOLAR
“This UFO (in every sense of the word) is a psychedelic visual and musical creation, built around Sun Ra’s film, offering a fresh take through video editing and an Afro-futurist electro groove DJ set.
This is an unclassifiable work from the 1970s, re-edited into video form by Renaud with historical and documentary additions (excerpts from films and photos of the Voyager probe’s launch), and enhanced by Constellationn’s mixes. Through their meticulous work, the two artists have successfully integrated their own worlds into Sun Ra’s. The result is stunning. You never know whether the sounds and images are the originals or not.”
Renaud Vercey - Images & Vjing
Constellationn - Platines, sampler & effets
