Glass Animals: The Concert 2.0. A breathtaking performance

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Glass Animals succeeded this Thursday, October 15, the challenge of creating a visual, musical bubble extra-temporal. After a strong start to the year in the United Kingdom, with the rave reception reserved for the first track 'Your Love (Déjà Vu)', supported by BBC Radio1, Spotify and Apple Music, the group also met success in the United States, where it was ranked in the top 20 of the alternative radio chart. 

Concert – 2.0: new age music, retrogaming visual of the 90s

The show goes far beyond a regular classical concert. From the outset, the show immerses us in the dreamlike world of Dave Bayley, the lead singer of the group. 4 talented multi-instrumentalists perform as if they were playing in front of a full house. And this, with the same energy, while they are alone, behind the screen. Drew MacFarlane switches from keyboard to guitar, Ed Irwin-Singer from bass to keyboard, and Joe Seaward combines classical drums and electronic pads. While Dave Bayley hypnotizes all the attention, the singer has fun filming close-ups of his acolytes. It seems to be an invitation to go on stage and experience the concert from the inside. Surrounded by a tropical setting, the scenography consists of projected images in the background. Childhood memories, views of Tokyo at night, geometric lines, video game figures, seabed… scroll on the floor, ceiling and sides…Dave Bayley sings a duet with other guest artists via screen. The purple and pink lights create an intimate acid pop atmosphere. The visual is completely in line with psychedelic pop music Credit POONEH GHANAGLASS ANIMALS

Dreamland, an album inspired by doubt and chaos

In the first place, anxiety is at the origin of this third album. Indeed, it refers to the bicycle accident, which plunged the band's drummer, Joe Seaward, between life and death, for several weeks, in 2018. An electroshock, for the group, all friends since childhood. Thus, Dave Baylay tells us that Dreamland represents a nostalgic foray into his life. "The idea for the album came during moments of chaos and doubt. My best friend was in the hospital. I didn't know if he was going to make it. The future seemed quite dark and uncertain. I had a hard time thinking about the future. (…) I found myself contemplating the past. I scanned my brain, rehashing old memories, these thoughts suited me at that time even if they were unpleasant in themselves. When you're not willing to create new memories… You dive back into the old ones. I hear it in conversations . I see it when I see what people are watching on TV. In what we listen to, eat, dream."  Photo GLASS ANIMALS

Dreamland is also about love, nostalgia and wisdom

In addition, the album is also about love, sexuality, hatred and childhood. Dave Bayley is keen to stress that "thisis (…) to realize that there is nothing wrong with not having answers or not knowing what to feel. It is totally acceptable to feel or appear vulnerable. In fact, this is what makes the path more exciting. Even if life often seems binary, asking to answer yes or no, toconform and to be integrated, the world is actually much more interesting,  nuanced and brilliant than  that…Much more fluid and uncertain."   These words resonate in these particular times of the Covid 19 pandemic. We will have to deal with the online concert. Covid 19 is changing our approach to the world, life, music and live performance.