Spirit Project aims at more organic dance music
Spirit Project aims at more organic dance music
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Last Wednesday night, Taman Ria Senayan in Central Jakarta, was
emanated with strong musical vibes.
At the parking lot of state-owned television station TVRI,
which is adjacent to Taman Ria, the weekly dangdut (popular local
music with strong Arab/Indian influence) live concert was held.
As usual, the event attracted a large crowd, with most of them
from the nearby Palmerah area.
At Taman Ria itself, a smaller and a different kind of crowd
(young, club-goers, those who did not have to worry about getting
up early the next morning) swarmed the park, ready to party at an
event called Liquid Flux.
Liquid music, is reportedly a popular new stream of dance
music, especially in Europe.
"It's a blend of different things: live performance, singing
and dancing. Liquid is supposed to be something that blends
easily. Just flows smoothly and softly," said Martin Denev
in an interview, the night before the show. Martin is the
keyboard player in the group, Spirit Project.
The group is the sole performer at Liquid Flux. The group
comprises of 16 people -- two DJs, a saxophonist, a flutist, a
drummer/percussionist, two singers, a keyboard player and eight
dancers coming from different places all over Europe.
Spirit Project was established two years ago, as DJ Deniz
Alpay decided to experiment with live music and expand his range
of music.
He grabbed percussionist Kalin Veliov and Denev, then soon got
together the rest of the band.
"The idea was to bring live music to the clubs. For a long
time, it had always only been the DJ. It's a pity that the
younger audience don't know much about musical instruments. We
want to bring more lives to the show," said Denev, who is
Bulgarian.
DJ Philip Powel added they want to create more organic dance
music.
"What we basically miss when we listen to house music is that
the essence of the creator has gone. There's only an empty beat
left. We take it back to the essence, layer by layer, with live
music and dancing.
"Yes, we take samples from other records but that's just the
fundament. We build chords and we add some lyrics to them," said
Powel, who is Dutch.
The music produced is an amalgamation of tribal, soul,
afrobeats and acid jazz.
"We mix and explore different kinds of music. We want to make
bridges between islands," Denev said.
The music is then combined with psychedelic visual through
projectors and a laser show, like the show at Taman Ria on that
night.
The performance started with Alpay playing a number on the
main stage. The background had three screens which showed
animated pictures of each group member alternately.
The music stopped and we heard the famous "I have a dream"
speech from Martin Luther King Jr. When the speech ended, the
beat started again and one by one, the rest of the group appeared
on stage. The sexy dancers moved on the catwalk stage, and danced
freely to the beat.
Within five hours, Spirit Project bought the audience to taste
a unique clubbing experience like the group has done in the big
clubs all over the world.
Sax player Ulrich Schroeder, nicknamed Praful, said the group
does not have a traditional way of playing the repertoire.
"We don't have certain repertoire that we practice regularly
and play the same every stage. We use DJs but they use records
that leave enough space for musicians to do something.
"Now, there's a lot of space left on the 12 inch records. So,
we don't use the same songs in the same order every night. That's
what makes us very interesting and fascinating."
The dancers attract attention from their different style of
dancing.
"That's the thing for the dancers because we all come from
different backgrounds and have different experiences: from
performing art to gogo dancing.
"That what makes it really works. The audience always see that
we're having such a good time. For us, every performance is a new
performance. We never get bored, we never know what is going to
happen. And we're having a good time," said dancer Elisa Joanna
Acton, from Sweden.
And that is what Spirit Project is all about.
"Spirit is about freestyling, freedom, and bravery. It's like
going back to the basics. About loving what you do, the joy of
music, the joy of dancing and the joy of playing," Acton added.