* O R C H E S T R E . V I D E
H O M E M A D E . K A R A O K E

(french here)

"Orchestre Vide" (empty orchestra) is the translation of the japanese word "Karaoke".

It works like a regular japanese karaoke (but with subverted contents):
songs are available (playlist), the audience choose and sing, the voices are mixed
with a cover version of the song,
the lyrics are projected on a screen, with videos.

Orchestre Vide is created by Erik Minkkinen (sound and programming)+ Sylvie Astié (video and typography);
The performance is made by 3 persons:
- 1 stage operator (live mixing voices and files + videos & lyrics),
- 1 MC on stage, giving mikes, calling people...
- 1 "audience operator", explaining during and before the show how it works, giving playlists and papers to subscribe,
and collecting the songs list for the operator... like the waitress in a chinese karaoke.


PLAYLIST
- hits, of course;
- hits or historical tracks that a lot of people may know in our musical scene,
may love and want to listen again; but to listen it, you have to select it for singing! like:
--- • rock (sonic youth, devo, ramones...) punk, pop...
--- • oldies electronics (kraftwerk, daf..)
--- • songs by actual musicians, interested by the project,
and sometimes they made by themselves the karaoke cover versions we wanted
(dmx krew, exchpoptrue, dragibus, chicks on speed, philippe katerine, tujiko noriko...).

About the musical scene where we could attach the Orchestre Vide, lets talk with pleasure about:
alexei shulgin(386DX), V/VM, micromusic etc, those who subvert both digital tools and pop culture itself.

VIDEOS
The videos, as in a classical karaoke, have a decorative value, they are abstract,
experimental poetic, expressing generic moods.
They are randomly chosen, creating a parodic video clip for every song.
They can also be chosen in a semi-random mode where they are chosen for their rythm,
theme or artistic quality.. to avoid some of the misinterpretations that can occur with some lyrics.
According to the songs, the random choice of the video is done in preselections of the video bank.

TYPOGRAPHY
For every song the lyrics are projected on the screen. The text changes color following the original lyrics,
making it easy to follow the song. The typography is the main element of the projection,
takes most of the screen, sometimes overlapses the videos. It is simple, contrasted, luminous.
Some of the texts have added lyrics, playing with the rythm, lyricless solos,
repetitions guides the performer, warning the next coming moment,
sometimes becomes abstract, a game of colored punctuations.

SINGERS
One or more people, in front of their friends, for what is maybe their first contact with a micro phone.
Quite far from professional karaokemen! The voices of the singers, is not just a superposition
over the instrumental music, but one of the elements of a live mix: filters and effects are included
& mix the voice in real time: for example a vocoder (for kraftwerk or madonna), heavy reverbs, echo.
These effects are not random, they are part of the live musical work of the operator.



SHOWS

2003
#1 january 20th /galerie Eof, Paris (dokidoki party)
#2 march 28th /le W., Bordeaux (club)
#3 may 22nd /le Magasin, Grenoble (festival Bug'n'mix)
#4 june 19th /le Prado, Paris (bar)
#5 june 26th /La Johnson, Jardin d'acclimatation, Paris (party)
#6 june 29th /le Placard, Bordeaux (headphone festival)
#7 july 5th /"happy birthday Astérides", la Friche de la belle de mai, Marseille
#8 july 25-29 non-stop /le Placard#6 (headphone festival), la Gaité Lyrique, Paris
#9 august 24th /la Guinguette Pirate, festival Métallomix
#10 august 29th /galerie Quarantine, Amsterdam (exhibition Alain Declercq)
#11 august 30th /le Stubnitz, Hamburg (festival Stora/boat pop sux!)
#12 september 19th /Project 101, Paris

2004
#13 june /le Rex Club, Paris
#15 october /Fiac, Paris (Art fair); non-stop installation, first "karaoke room".