Photo by Hamlet, letterbox heads-up display by Chouchou
In earlier days, Chouchou performed their songs on a floating island covered in crystal trees and eternally falling snowflakes. But the duo of Arabesque Choche and juliet Heberle wanted a still more impossible place to suit their music, and recently, relocated to a dream.
Last week, that is to say, Chouchou opened their own island. (Direct SLURL teleport at this link.) Described by wide horizons, vast expanses of water, and half-submerged mysteries, this is where they will perform from now on.
However, the experience isn't confined to the location.
At the teleport entrance to Chouchou island is a black flower, and if you touch it, you will be given a copy of their customized HUD. This is the ideal way for exploring the island, and experiencing their live music; put it on, and your display gets letterboxed. The Chouchou heads-up display also takes control of your camera position, so your avatar is now depicted in long panning shots. So to wear Chouchou's cinematic HUD is quite literally to be directed by Chouchou. It's impressive enough that juliet is a singer based in New York and Arabesque is a composer/filmmaker based in Tokyo, that they have never met in real life, and that their performances can only be fully experienced in Second Life. By implementing this cinematic interface, they have added yet another level of immersiveness to their avatar-based music, controlling not only where you will experience it, but how.
Their next live performance, juliet tells me, is tomorrow at 5am SLT/PDT. (Most of their fans are based in Japan.) With Ms. Herberle and Ms. Choche located on opposite hemispheres, they have to contend with lag, so for performances, she'll occasionally sing over pre-recorded music.
"We're particular about the sounds, so some of our songs can't be
replaced by live song because of the sound editing," juliet explains.
The last time they played, their island was filled to capacity in ten seconds. That in mind, here's the official island video; also created by Arabesque, it's a gem of machinima in itself. However, this is a rare case where the experience itself it just as cinematic.
Update, 5:15pm: Bumped up.
Comments