Following the cancellation of his set at Weekend One of Coachella, Anyma returned for Weekend Two to take to the Main Stage to perform ÆDEN, featuring a surprise appearance from LISA.
You might not know Anyma by name, but you will recognise his sets. After his performance at Coachella, your Instagram will have been flooded with content of his high tech digital human visuals that, very easily, take centre stage.
The Italian producer is now synonymous with his visual heavy production which combines futuristic electronic music with digital art and AI driven visuals.
Before Coachella, Anyma’s previous residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas was noted by some as a cultural milestone.
As the first electronic music artist to headline The Sphere, Anyma created a level of immersion that made the crowd experience feel like they were in a sci-fi film, rather than watching a DJ set.
Anyma created this immersion in two ways. Firstly, through the scale of the screens. The visuals covered 160,000 square feet of screen, meaning that the robot characters fans saw on their phones were now the equivalent of 15 stories tall. In combination with this, Anyma utilised the venue’s haptic seats, allowing the bass to be felt through the vibration of the seats.
In addition to mastering the use of 3D depth and scale, he also curated a lineup with special guests including John Summit, Peggy Gou and Solomun who featured as opening acts.
If The Sphere was a controlled, sterile lab for Anyma to master his craft, Coachella was the ultimate field test, bringing that same 16K immersion into the dust and wind of the open air. Anyma’s move to a new setting at Coachella shows how his performance is impressively adaptable to different environments.
While Genesys focused on robots and human AI hybridisation, the narrative of ÆDEN shifts towards a digital renaissance aesthetic, in which Anyma has incorporated Ancient Greek and mythological imagery into his visuals, such as giant statues and ethereal landscapes.
The Coachella set utilised 4K LED walls as well as augmented reality elements that were integrated specifically for the livestream, making the visuals appear to leap out of the stage for viewers at home.
Anyma has effectively ended the era of the DJ behind a booth. He has turned the performance into a cinematic event where the music is the score and the stage is a portal, forcing every other festival headliner to rethink their visual game.
Image credits: Alexander Wessely, Andy Abeyta, Afterlife and Live Nation
