Eric Prydz stands alone in his ability to mix commercial success with underground notoriety. With his labels, Pryda and Mouseville he has been acknowledged by Beatport as one of their biggest selling artists of all time. Both are held in the highest regard by an adoring underground scene and have allowed Prydz to remain something of an enigma while being a household name. Musically, they’ve become genre-defining stables in their own right, and are two of the most successful and influential dance labels in the world.
Since his arrival, Eric Prydz has inadvertently broken into uncharted territory for dance music and his DJ sets are in high demand around the world. Festivals, events, and venues across the planet have rocked to his performances, safe in the knowledge that they’re witnessing something special. In 2011 Eric launched his innovative new show concept , ‘EPIC’, at London’s O2 Academy Brixton to a sell out audience. This special show is a ground breaking audio and 3D visual feast, sitting at the meeting point between cutting edge music and technology.
Eric’s Pryda releases and forward thinking live shows have allowed him to achieve worldwide recognition with his integrity intact. Now signed to Virgin Records , his first release for the label will be a compilation album of his key productions under his Pryda guise, ‘Eric Prydz presents Pryda’. On Pryda, he explores his house influences with a plethora of tracks that have become huge club anthems around the globe. This will be released on May 21stth. More information/track listing to be released soon.
To celebrate its release Eric Prydz will be holding a Pryda album launch party:
‘Eric Prydz presents Pryda’ Album launch Ministry of Sound Saturday 14th April - £15.00
Plus a further 30 acts to be announced across 4 stages!
On Saturday 26th November Together presents EPIC (Eric Prydz in Concert) at the legendaryAlexandraPalace inLondon. Featuring a further thirty headline acts across four massive stages, this major indoor festival will be the biggest all-night party taking place in theUK this year!
The world premiere of EPIC at a sold out O2 Academy Brixton created a whole new environment for showcasing electronic music. 3D animation, film and holograms combined brilliantly with moving and static structures to blow the senses. Eric’s EPIC performance at Global Gathering recently took things to an even higher level as EPIC continues to push boundaries and stamp its authority on a new generation of dance music production.
At Alexandra Palace EPIC will combine the best elements of the indoor anarchy of O2 Academy Brixton and the size and scale of Global Gathering. Boasting the biggest all standing, all night licence in theUK,AlexandraPalace is THE venue EPIC was built for. A night where electronic music looks to the future and a night where EPIC returns to the capital bigger, better and louder, making this one of the most anticipated nights of 2011.
“This show is going to be a mixture of the two, combining the best parts of a massive indoor show and that unique festival vibe, with extra arenas, other live acts and DJs, lots of new exclusive music from me... and not forgetting that we’ll be going until 6am! I hope to see you all there!” Eric Prydz
★ CLICK HERE TO VIEW EPIC PROMO VIDEO:
Open from 9.00pm – 6.00am Limited Early Bird Tickets priced £20 + bf
With just a few hours to go until the launch of one of dance music most ambitious DJ shows, we caught up with Marc Calvert, one of the directors at Immersive, the company who designed, built, and installed the EPIC show to find out more about the spectacle they’ve been working on for 18 months.
What was the biggest challenge you faced with the EPIC show?
The biggest challenge was to try and do something groundbreaking, because the show includes so many different disciplines. There’s not just one groundbreaking technology at play.
We’ve got rotational mapping - a system that we custom built - which allows us to move objects whilst continually mapping them with visuals.
There’s an incredibly high resolution rear screen that runs on six HD projectors, and then of course, the hologram screen which runs on one HD projector.
Plus trying to get such a huge production into a one day load in is a big challenge. In fact that was probably one the hardest things about EPIC. Of course, we’ve been here since 2AM!
Company wise, is this the most ambitious or biggest show Immersive have done?
The thing that is most exciting for us as a company is that it involved all four directors for the first time. EPIC has the entire attention of the company - we created the content, built the rig, produced the show, and are doing the production. That’s a first for us.
By the time the music starts, it would have taken you 18 hours to install the EPIC stage. How long will it take to bring down?
Well, we’re hoping to have it done in about four hours. Usually putting a show up takes a lot longer than taking it down.
Can you tell us more about the visuals of the show?
They were all custom designed and created just for EPIC. John Munroe, our Creative Director, worked on the show’s conceptwith Eric himself. John’s a bit of a mad genius!
Eric originally came to us with the concept of ’The Man Made In Nature’, which we decided to juxtapose with ’How Nature Influences The Man Made’. That theme runs throughout the show.
Just a moment ago, one of the hardest parts of the EPIC build was finished. About 20 men picked up and carried the huge holographic film screen to the stage where it was winched in to place carefully.
Because the plastic film is so fragile, it took some real team work to make sure that the film didn’t catch any of the metal barriers on the O2 Academy floor, or rip during the move. Not an easy task, considering the weight of the screen.
EPIC will be the first dance event in the world to feature 3D holograms, a concept that sounds like something straight out of a Star Wars movie.
However the holographic display method being used today actually comes from an 1860’s illusion technique known as Pepper’s Ghost (so named after the man who invented it, John Henry Pepper).
How does it work exactly? At EPIC, a projector will be suspended above the stage and will point directly downwards. Its projections will hit a ‘bounce screen’ that is laid flat on the stage floor, out of view of the audience.
The bounce screen acts like a mirror (the original Pepper’s Ghost technique actually used a mirror), and will ‘bounce’ the projections onto a plastic film screen located above at a 45° angle. That will make the videos seem as if they are floating in mid air and the result is something pretty extraordinary.
For the past two hours a two-man crew from a company known as Musion, has been building the holographic film screen. To ensure the images are as perfect as possible the plastic film has to be completely taut with no slack whatsoever. However despite being very strong the film is also very fragile so it’s a delicate process.
It has been seven hours since the team began building the stage for EPIC. Slowly, the structure is taking shape.
The back walls of the visually mapped surface are now in place, and a few key visual pieces have also arrived on stage, including this giant obelisk-shaped tower.
The structure itself is ingenious. Designed to be flat packed so that Eric Prydz can take the EPIC show on tour with him, the structure can be broken down into pieces like LEGO, and is incredibly lightweight for its size.
Foamex material on the front covers an aluminum frame behind, and it is grey because that is the colour that is supposedly best for absorbing projections.
As the structure has been going up some technicians have been busily checking every inch of the surface like spiders combing a giant web. “To ensure that the visuals are impeccable, we have to make the surface completely immaculate,” explained one technician. “Any scratches or dinks can impede the visuals.”
So as well as being the largest DJ show ever conceived, it seems that EPIC is also the most meticulous.
The members-only Eric Prydz digital dog tags that will be on sale at the world premiere of EPIC today will also include a private chat feature.
Eric Prydz fans will be able to purchase 2GB USB dog tags tonight at London’s O2 Academy for £20, giving them exclusive access to a members-only digital dashboard full of Eric Prydz content.
As well as behind the scenes footage of EPIC, interviews with Eric, live recordings of every DJ set from EPIC, streams of the entire back catalogs of Prydz’ Mouseville and Pryda Recordings labels, and desktop wallpapers, fans will now be able to chat directly to Eric Prydz during specially organised dog tag chat sessions.
Only those who have an Eric Prydz dog tag will be able to take part, as it is not possible to gain access to the digital dashboard without plugging a dog tag into your computer’s USB port.
Eric Prydz plans to speak exclusively with his dog tag members on a regular basis, and will take part in Q&A sessions, as well as share his tech tips and music knowledge with the private community.
The USB dog tags will also act as an ongoing digital connection to Eric, as the dashboard will be continually updated with new music, videos, and content.
You can also purchase the USB dog tags online from Eric Prydz’ official merchandise store: ericprydzstore.tv
There is little in Brixton’s O2 Academy at 5AM this morning to suggest that it is on the brink of witnessing one of the biggest spectacles in dance music (other than the massive stage being built!).
The corridors are quiet, the stairwells are sleepy, and forgotten drinks lie abandoned on empty bars and cold radiators. In a little over 15 hours, the venue will be rammed with 4000 clubbers dancing to the sounds and sights of Eric Prydz’ EPIC show.
With DJ support on the night coming from Swedish techno giant Adam Beyer, Scottish melodic techno master Funk D’Void, and Eric Prydz’ protégée Jeremy Olander, it is bound to be one of the most exhilarating club nights of the year.
And then once it’s all over, the O2 Academy will return to its natural state as a sleeping beauty. Over the years, she has played host to some of the biggest names in music including Madonna, Iron Maiden, The Prodigy, Bob Dylan, and Leftfield (who infamously brought in such a loud soundsystem that the roof of the venue actually disintegrated).
After the storm though, the O2 always returns to calm. Such serenity inspires our photographic minds. From these photos, you’d never have guessed how electrifying the venue will be soon.
Because the EPIC stage is so enormous and the O2 Academy is so cavernous, the visual artists who have to cover the 30 meter structure in viscerally stunning, moving images need some rather big equipment. Like, mind boggling bad-ass.
Meet Christie’s Roadie HD+35K, the world’s most powerful projector. Capable of projecting video at 35000 lumens, these are the brightest video projectors known to man. For EPIC, Immersive (the people who built the stage) are using two HD+35Ks to project video onto the two huge sides of the structure.
The projectors are absolutely massive and no doubt incredibly heavy too. And the 6KW bulbs inside the projectors are so special that the installer who screws the bulbs in must wear a safety mask and helmet (exactly like bomb disposal experts) in case the bulbs explodes due to really high pressure.
They’re approximate cost? £200,000! We can’t wait to see what these beauties can do.
It’s just past 2AM and London’s Stockwell Road is quiet, except for the occasional pub and pockets of Friday night drinkers heading home to bed.
In the nearby O2 Academy Brixton however, there is a hive of activity. For the gathered men and women here, today is going to be a very long day.
In a little over 20 hours dance music superstar Eric Prydz will step onto this stage for the world premiere of his EPIC show. But before the Swedish DJ and producer can play one beat, the enormous stage and visual spectacle that will surround his special DJ booth needs to be constructed.
It will be 30 meters wide, and almost as tall. It will take this group of men and women approximately 10 hours to build. And then another group of visual artists, lighting technicians, and geniuses of the moving image, will spend another eight hours mapping every inch of the giant structure’s many surfaces so that some of the world’s most powerful projectors can transform it into something completely beyond the imagination.
And when it is finally ready, 4000 or so dance music fans will witness one of the most ambitious DJ shows ever to be conceived. It will be a wild illusion, alive with light, video, and 3D holograms, all synchronised to the heart racing rhythms of one of dance music’s greatest minds.
For now though, it is all just pieces of metal, cargo boxes, and unplugged cables.
(Apologies about the late start to the blog, we’re operating under tough blogging circumstances!)
This Saturday in the run up to the world premiere of Eric Prydz’ EPIC show in London, the Eric Prydz Team will produce a live blog from 02 Academy Brixton to document the build behind one of the most ambitious DJ shows ever conceived.
The EPIC live blog begins on Saturday April 2nd 2011 at 2AM GMT right here on EricPrydz.TV, and will run throughout the morning and day as the EPIC stage begins to take shape and its team of stage designers, visual artists, and technicians get to work constructing the enormous 30 meter structure for the Swedish dance music superstar.
With over 18 months of research, planning, and experiments, the Eric Prydz In Concert show (EPIC) might just be one of the most anticipated dance music events the world has ever seen. With ground-breaking holographic and 3D technology, huge projections, moving objects and static structures, it is at the very cutting-edge of music and technology. The event has sold out.
The EPIC live blog will aim to capture some of the insane equipment, unusual behind-the-scenes stories, and technical details of the EPIC show, through a series of live posts, photos, videos and interviews in the run up to the show.
Tune in to the EPIC live blog right here on the EricPrydz.TV blog from 2AM GMT on Saturday April 2nd (that’s Friday night/Saturday morning!).
There’s a new kid on the block and he’s the first-ever disciple of one of the most celebrated dance music’s producers of all time; Eric Prydz.
The hugely talented up-and-comer, Jeremy Olander, is set to cause quite a storm in the world of dance music throughout the course of this year. Championed by Prydz as ’the next big thing’, a man with 3 top 2 records under his belt and countless underground hits, Jeremy is already booked to tour Europe supporting the label boss at every major festival and event in 2011. In addition, he is also so to appear alongside Prydz in Ibiza as well as at the ground-breaking EPIC show in London on April 2.
With his debut EP set to drop on the Pryda Friends imprint on March 2nd, Jeremy effectively joins the ranks of a star-studded roster in the likes of Felix Da Housecat, Sébastien Léger, Axwell and Paolo Mojo.
Big things are to be expected from the young Swede, whose productions range from heavy melodic progressive to darker beat oriented techno and seem to transcend all genre classifications, appealing to a broad spectrum of fans.
Predicted by enthusiasts and industry pundits to become the next big thing out of Sweden, a country synonymous with fostering the brightest in all of music, Jeremy is on his way to becoming the next shining star in the already studded sky of Swedish electronic music exports.
2011 will see the launch of a new show concept from Eric Prydz that will once again place electronic music back at the forefront of technological innovation. Utilising groundbreaking new technologies Prydz’ new ‘EPIC’ show sits neatly at the meeting point between cutting edge music and technology.
The world premiere of ‘EPIC’ will take place at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on Saturday 2 April. The show features a unique – metre installation that extends from the stage out into the crowd (with a build time of 3 days). It will also see one of the first uses of holograms in a live music show environment, in addition to 3D animation and film that is mapped onto the sets moving and static structures. All video content for the show is designed specifically for the intricate projection surfaces.
Prydz has commissioned (and funded) the show himself. He approached production company Immersive with a brief around the concept of ‘The Man Made In Nature’, juxtaposed with ‘How Nature Influences The Man Made’. The result is a multi-faceted visual show and a vehicle for Prydz’ music. ‘EPIC’ will exclusively feature Prydz’s own material (under his various guises including Prydz and Cirez D) and will be the trigger for all the show’s visual elements. Award-winning VJ, Ralph Lambert, will control the visual side of the event using the groundbreaking Addict Show Control System.
Fans who sign-up to the event before Christmas Day will receive a unique voucher to download 2 free tracks of their choice from the Pryda and Mouseville catalogues. The sign-up page can be found via ericprydz.tv
ERIC PRYDZ COMMENTED:
“When I approached Immersive I told them I wanted a new show that expressed my music in a visual context. I want to push the boundaries of a live electronic music show with technology that hasn’t been used before and to give my fans an experience that they will never forget”.
Venue: Ewer St Car Park - 29 Great Suffolk St - London SE1 0NR
The venue is now confirmed as Ewer Street Car Park. A stunning industrial space includes 2 Arches of music, indoor chill out and large outdoor terrace with a bar! Previous events include the incredible Eastern Electrics and Shake It.
In the main arch Eric Prydz is joined by Gui Boratto and Popof with support from Brick Lane’s Finale
In arch 2 we welcome special guests Lost Souls. Lost Souls have been putting some of London’s most cutting edge techno events with special guests that have included Carl Craig, A Guy Called Gerald and much more. This time round they are taking control of arch 2 with very special guest Par Grindvik from Adam Beyer’s label Drumcode.
ADDRESS: Ewer St Car Park - 29 Great Suffolk St - London SE1 0NR
ARCH 1 – PRYDA Eric Prydz Gui Boratto (Live) Popof
With support from Finale Deporto (LIVE SET), Tim Gale, KillEmillo
ARCH 2 – LOST SOULS Par Grindvik [Drumcode]
Chris Stanford Antony Difrancesco Lee Hume Rossko XI ARCH 3 – CHILL OUT
Advanced Tickets £10 –Sold Out / £15 – Sold Out / £18 Standard – On Sale Now
Once we’ve called time on proceedings at Pryda we’ll be making the short trip over to the official after party - Jaded at Cable. For special £5 entry guest list email jadedsundays@hotmail.com with ’PRYDA’ in the subject field.
A big thank you to everyone who voted Cirez D ’On Off’ the Best Techno Record, and Pryda ’Miami To Atlanta’ the Best Electro House Record in this years Beatport Awards.
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