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JazzMutant Lemur Control takes centre stage with BjorkThe award-winning and revolutionary Lemur control surfaces have been wowing crowds around the world on their highest profile outing yet…No one knows more about innovative performance than Björk, so it is perhaps inevitable that she is the first high profile artist to embrace the power and performance capabilities of the groundbreaking Jazzmutant Lemur for her latest tour, including the recent amazing performance at Glastonbury. On stage, alongside two Lemurs, Björk sings with a 10-piece brass section that doubles as a backing band, laptop and electronics ‘players’ plus keyboard and percussion virtuosos. It’s about as unusual a set-up as you’d expect from the world’s most innovative and unusual performer, and it all combines to produce one of the most talked about live shows that’s playing to stunned crowds across the globe. Jazzmutant’s Lemur control surfaces have bought the performance back into music making. No longer do computer musicians feel the need to hide behind their desktop and laptop machines on stage. With these futuristic controllers they have the ultimate playing surface to perform their music and can give their fans an opportunity to witness a real live spectacle. Alan Pollard is the man responsible for much of the technology on the tour, while Damian Taylor is actually at the controls of one of the Lemurs on stage. Together they provide a valuable insight into how the machines enhance the experience for both players and audience alike. “We were mixing Björk's album in London with Spike Stent last November,” recalls Damian, “and Mark Bell [production, live laptops and controllers] pulled out the online [Lemur] demos that were posted on YouTube, just to say, ‘aren't these cool?’ At the time Björk was just beginning to think about touring the album and she really liked how strongly they represented elements of electronic music in a visual way. We wanted to see if they translated from looking cool into being a cool thing to use musically. Luckily the answer has been a resounding ‘yes!’” Damian and Mark now have two Lemurs installed as their main controllers on the tour and use them extensively with Ableton Live on pretty much every song. Of course other controllers could have been used, but few can match the power and the sheer beauty of the Lemurs, and those looks have also helped add a striking visual edge to the show… “Absolutely!” agrees Alan. “The visual thing is important. There are specific cameras just on the Lemurs and we’ve put large plasma screens in front of Mark and Damian to show what is going on with them. That was originally Björk’s idea, she’s into anything that has got an interesting interface – she wanted people to see that this stuff is actually happening live. The electronics are very obvious and visual. In fact, we’re using the Lemurs so much in the show now that we actually need a back up!” The band are now so into using the Lemurs that they have even created several custom controller sets for the tour. Damian: “We have 42 songs in the band's repertoire from which Björk will choose around 17 for each gig – but only a few hours before we go onstage. The fact that I could create controller sets for each song that let me perform completely intuitively was what really made the Lemur indispensable for me.” “Now that I’ve gotten used to the feel of the Lemur,” he continues, “I actually really like the way the tactile interface encourages me to play live. I'm now fully rocking out during gigs and my body can interface with the Lemur in a totally visceral way.”
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