Cercle, the Paris-based production company known for putting on livestream DJ sets in far-flung locations, will take a touring show on the road in 2025.
Called Cercle Odyssey, the show will be built as a 360-degree panorama projection designed to create an immersive experience. The set-up will features a number of massive screens meant to envelope the audience, with these screens measuring roughly 40-feet high and 180-feet long, with high definition footage synchronized with the music.
Hitting the road in 2015, the show will feature music and artists of all genres, with artists, dates and cities to be announced in the coming months. Cercle Odyssey videos will be overseen by Paris-based director Neels Castillon, the co-founder of Motion Palace, a creative studio that produces original content for brands, culture, and the arts. Focused on humanity, nature and beauty, the videos will be based on the story of Homer’s Odyssey and focus on the theme of returning home.
Cercle Odyssey is also designed to be a sustainable operation, with all of the sound, light and projection equipment used in each performance rented locally in each respective performance city. The company notes that by using 29 state-of-the-art projectors instead of traditional LED screens to illuminate the scenography, the show doesn’t necessitate the transport of a huge number of LED screens, thereby reducing the carbon emissions of transporting the show.
Phones will be banned inside the performances, and guests will instead be given filmed content from the performance they attend.
“Cercle’s mission is and will always be to create unique stages for unique artists,” Cercle’s creative director Derek Barbolla tells Billboard. “We have just reached one billion views on our videos, we realized that many people want to experience Cercle, but traveling to Egypt or to the top of a mountain isn’t easy or feasible for everyone. With Cercle Odyssey, we’re bringing the experience closer to people’s homes, whilst continuing with our heritage site events”
Since launching in 2016, Cercle has produced 240 events in locations around the world including a Bolivian salt flat, the Eiffel Tower, a peak in the Alps and other locales including roughly 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Participating artists have included Disclosure, Peggy Gou, Above & Beyond, Carlita, Amelie Lens, Hot Since 82 and many more.
