Fela! comes home with TiMax2 SoundHub – Pro Audio Central | Your online resource for Pro Audio News.

NIGERIA: The Eko Le Meridien Hotel on Victoria Island in Lagos provided the site for the homeland debut of Fela!, the groundbreaking stage musical about legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Tony Award winning sound designer Rob Kaplowitz once again opted for a TiMax2 SoundHub delay matrix as a central element of his immersive sound design to help bring out the drama and impact in this emotional story of afrobeat’s inception and the political struggles of its founder.

To meet the needs of director and choreographer Bill T Jones during the show’s London run, Mr Kaplowitz employed a TiMax2 SoundHub matrix and TiMax Tracker performer tracking system to, in his own words: ‘Create various ‘zones’ in the house which allowed us to fulfill Bill’s request to localise the voices to their sources, while simultaneously allowing me to enfold the entire audience in the events onstage.’

Mr Kaplowitz’s sound design associate Jessica Paz, already a veteran of the Broadway and London productions, accompanied the show to Lagos and combined a d&b speaker system with the TiMax SoundHub delay matrix again to help stitch together the production’s audio localisation objectives. As riots were breaking out in the north of the country and election fever was gripping the capital, Ms Paz battled with the technical and logistical elements to keep her audio side of the bargain for this momentous homecoming.

A high spot for Ms Paz arose away from the Eko Hotel’s auditorium when she got to mix a celebratory gig at Fela Kuti’s original New Africa Shrine nightclub, performed by Fela! actor Sahr Ngaujah backed by the show’s afrobeat ensemble Antibalas, and where they were joined onstage by Femi Kuti, Fela’s eldest son.

The show was produced in conjunction with the Lagos State Government and Nigerian production company, Broken Shackles, who rented the TiMax2 SoundHub matrix from UK developers Out Board. A spokesperson for Broken Shackles best summed up the passion and significance of the final outcome: ‘Fela! in Lagos will be the most talked about show in Nigeria for years to come.’

www.outboard.co.uk

via Fela! comes home with TiMax2 SoundHub – Pro Audio Central | Your online resource for Pro Audio News..

Leave a Reply