He’s had six albums chart in the Top 10 and sold out Germany’s leading concert venues. Last year, in September, he became the first German rapper to reach over seven million Spotify listeners. But through it all, musical phenom Luciano hasn’t lost touch with the creative forces rising from the streets of the Schöneberg district of Berlin; they continue to drive his music today, just as they did when he burst upon the scene in 2012.
“I come from the street. I have characteristics from the street, and the streets can teach positive lessons as well,” Luciano once told an interviewer. However, as his career has flourished, the irrepressible rapper has enlarged his musical footprint and stage charisma, creating a uniquely powerful style. His impressive presence was on full display on his recent Majestic Tour of Germany and Austria.
Reflecting the spirit of Luciano’s impassioned performance visually was a bold and ambitious light/video show that was programmed by Stefan Gunkel on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium and run by lighting operator Norbert Wolf using two MagicQ MQ250M units supplied by Robin Masters Veranstaltungstechnik (Björn Dietsch), who recently invested in the consoles.
“The show captivated audiences, not only through its music, but also with a lighting and stage design that were majestic too,” Gunkel explained. “The central element in the show was made up of two 10m high LED blocks, which were covered with content as well as live camera images.”
Playing off against the transformative images on these large, vertically oriented video walls, was light from over 100 high-output fixtures, which crisscrossed the stage and reached out to the crowd with engaging audience lighting. Monochromatic color palettes and evocative silhouettes from these lights also added to the dramatic impact of the show.
The task of programming this video and light show was made much easier by several performance features on the MagicQ MQ500M, including its encoder playbacks and fully motorized faders, which collectively provided 42 playbacks. Also aiding in the programming was the console’s inbuilt MagicVis Visualizer.
Outontheroad,thepairofMagicQMQ250MconsolesmadelifeeasierforWolfwhohasbeenoperatinglightshowsforLucianoforquitesometime.DuringtherehearsaldaysatBBMClairinBerlin,heandGunkeladaptedtheprogrammedshowtothelivesetup.
“Thanks to structured programming and the clear workflow of the ChamSys MagicQ software on the consoles, I was able to quickly familiarize myself with the new MQ250M,” said Wolf, who noted that the intuitive layout of these consoles saved him “valuable time” during each tour date. That was time he spent very well doing something else, namely running a light and video show that could best be described as “majestic!”
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