OSLO, Norway — On site at a
Norwegian rental company in autumn 2014, Lighting Designer Daniel Sørensen was
introduced to HARMAN’s Martin Professional’s Espen Bechmann (Key Account
Manager, Norway), who offered him the chance to test Martin’s M6 lighting
console. Sørensen jumped at the chance, immediately fell in love with the M6
and brought his newfound love on tour with him and Silya & The Sailors.
Norwegian artist Silje Haugum Nymoen, a.k.a. Silya, was known back in
the day for her feature appearances with pop group Multicyde. She moved to New
York and did a few solo projects under the artist name SiLyA and wrote songs
for other artists. In the autumn of 2013 she had a comeback in her native
Norway when she won the Norwegian version of Star Fight (Stjernekamp) and
earned the title ‘Norway's Ultimate Entertainer.’ In the wake of this victory,
Silya wanted to do a show in Oslo, Norway with her band, The Rapscallions, and
called in Daniel Sørensen to be in charge of scenography and lighting. What was
supposed to be a couple of shows turned into three tours in 2014, and band
members from Silya’s American band, The Sailors, were flown in to join the most
recent tour.
Sørensen works freelance as a Lighting Designer and Tour Manager for
several acts within the pop, rock and electro genres. While studying fashion
design in Bournemouth, UK he was offered a part-time position as Production Manager
at a student venue where he got to operate the lights for different shows. Upon
his return to Norway he was offered a position at Rockefeller Music hall while
also working at setting up his own fashion business. He was quickly offered the
chance to tour with a band and has been busy touring and designing ever since.
Sørensen likes to work very closely with each artist to include his or
her thoughts and ideas in his designs. He tries to capture the artist as he sees
him or her. “Silya is so
multi-faceted—her music blends the best of modern pop, soul, rock and cabaret,”
said Sørensen. “She is a true
entertainer, a master at captivating audiences, and she’s the most confident
artist I’ve ever worked with. All this I try to take into the equation.”
Because of his background in design, Sørensen is often involved with the
entire visual process in connection with concerts and tours, including
scenography, costumes, lighting and even PR. He tries to incorporate elements
from stage design into album covers and PR material and vice versa, to create a
coherent image for the artist.
“’Silya and her band have a fascination with
everything related to marine life - hence the band name - and they wanted to
create a set to resemble something in between a sailors’ club and a cabaret
nightclub,” said Sørensen. “So I included marine elements in the stage design, costumes and
lighting design.”
As part of his design process, Sørensen always creates mood boards
for the artist with pictures and thoughts. This usually goes over very well
with artists as it then becomes easy to relate to Sørensen’s ideas. He recently
started using Pinterest to create boards with various inspirational material
such as fashion, lighting, films, textures etc. and then uses these to recreate
specific atmospheres in his designs.
After getting up close and personal with the M6 console on the tour,
Sørensen feels the M6 is a strong competitor to the other desks on the market. “I found the M6 is one of the most intuitive
and easy to learn desks I’ve laid my hands on,” said Sørensen. “It has several features which makes it
really versatile, and the user interface makes it quick and easy to customize
according to your personal preferences. I would highly recommend it to anyone
who needs a reliable console as a touring companion.”
A feature request from Sørensen for future versions of Martin consoles
would be an option to rearrange playback banks in a specific order to match
bands’ ever-changing set lists. “There
are ways to work around this, but I'm hoping it will be as simple as "copy-paste"
in the future,” said Sørensen.
Sørensen also used Martin’s M2GO portable controller when the crew was
required to fly to venues on the tour. “Because
of its compact design and low weight, you can take the M2GO onboard flights in
carry-on luggage,” said Sørensen.
“You are quickly up and running as you can easily load shows from the M6 via an
external touchscreen. Being a big fan of the M6, I would wish for future
versions to include M6-like faders.”
“At Martin Professional we’re committed to
delivering innovative consoles developed on the basis of market demands and
feedback,” said Paul Pelletier, Product Manager for
Controllers, Martin Professional. “Letting
our customers field test our consoles provides us with valuable feedback from
the users in real-life applications and all this information is accumulated and
used for future product development.”
Now keen to take on other Martin products, Sørensen will soon be joined on tour by the MAC Quantum Wash and the MAC Viper AirFX and will also experiment with VC-Dots.
Read more about Silya
For more information, please visit: www.martin.com
As a world leader in the creation of dynamic lighting solutions for the
entertainment, architectural, and commercial sectors, Martin lighting and video
systems are renowned the world over. Martin also offers a range of advanced
lighting controllers and media servers, as well as a complete line of smoke
machines as a complement to intelligent lighting. Martin operates the
industry’s most complete and capable distributor network with local partners in
nearly 100 countries. Founded in 1987 and based in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin is
the lighting division of global infotainment and audio company HARMAN
International Industries. For more information please visit: www.martin.com.
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