Mathilde Nobel live at Cinetol

 

On April 2, the third artist of the Open Culture Tech 2.0 residency series presented their work. This time, Mathilde Nobel performed at Cinetol in Amsterdam, creating a live show where the boundaries between sound, visuals, and movement dissolved. Let’s look back on her residency, the collaboration with artist and techy Chagall, and how it all came together on stage.

 

Mathilde Nobel doesn’t just make music – she builds entire worlds you can fall into. She is a multidisciplinary artist who fuses ethereal sound, visuals, and performance into immersive experiences that feel dreamlike yet very natural at the same time. Working in a deconstructed club style, Mathilde blends angelic, shape-shifted vocals with jagged, clattering drums. Her performances at major festivals like Rewire and Dekmantel received widespread approval and praise from professional critics.

 

For her residency within Open Culture Tech, Mathilde set out to investigate how she can shape visuals and music using her own body, creating a performance where the boundaries between sound, visuals, and movement dissolve even further than in previous shows, allowing for an even more immersive experience for the audience. 

 

To this end, she teamed up with artist and techy Chagall, a musician and innovator creating immersive music experiences that move. Captivating, playful and intimate, every performance by Chagall is a spectacular audio-visual experience that inspires and connects.

 

Working with TouchDesigner amongst other things, Mathilde and Chagall aimed to turn the performer into the interface: fluid, organic, and alive. However technology driven, their goal was for the audience to be unaware of the tech – immersion without awareness.

 

 

 

 

The live performance at Cinetol

 

The immersive quality of the show captivated the audience visibly right from the start: Mathilde slowly emerged from the back of the crowd, highly focussed, taking meditative steps towards the stage. Once there, she submerged in a holistic performance in a mesmerising way. The visuals in the background created a moving halo around the artist, embedding her body, voice and sounds. 

 

The performance at Cinetol was received very positively by visitors. They described how the performance completely drew them into another world, allowing them to step into Mathilde's mind. As one visitor said: “The mix of beautiful vocals, live footage and artistic landscapes, plus dance and movement set to upbeat beats was absolutely brilliant.” In addition, the screen didn’t distract from the music. Rather, Mathilde was one with the screen which gave the whole stage a lot of depth. As for the goal of creating a technology driven experience without the tech being foregrounded, we can say it was a success.

 

 

 

 

Technical set up + future developments

 

The objectives set at the beginning of the residency were three-folded:

1. Break down the separation between performer and audience and create a stronger performer presence through a stage-screen.

2. Control digital elements in the music and visuals through natural movement rather than through a computer.

3. Make it more visible that the visuals are created by Mathilde’s hand in realtime.

 

To this end, several new techniques were developed and combined. One very important element was the Genki Wave Ring; a motion capture controller that was used to create live effects. The ring allowed Mathilde to stay centre stage during the performance instead of being behind a computer to create any effects used during the performance. Among others, the ring allowed her to:

• Create vocal effects like voice distortion;

• Create visual effects on the big screen and make these effects more audio reactive;

• Live granular sampling - with the help of innovative plug-ins like MiMU’s The Jellyfish.

 

The complete technical setup contained:

• Genki Wave Controller 

• MiMU Glover software for Genki mapping and scene structure for the complete show  

• Maschine controller (the only device on stage)  

• Live sing & backing tracks via Ableton 

• Visuals triggered and layered in Resolume (made  in Premiere Pro, Blender and After Effects)  

 

 

 

 

Credits + relevant links:

Aftermovie by Wijnand Groenen

Photography by Aryan Hamyari

https://www.instagram.com/nobelmathilde/ 

https://chagall.io/