London, UK – July 2019… A JoeCo Blackbox player has been central to the success of the recent F.U.S.E Dimensions audiovisual exhibition at London’s The Store X, 180 The Strand. The exhibition celebrated the 25th anniversary of the albums Ritchie Hawtin released under his F.U.S.E. persona and presented them for the first time alongside the original artworks by his brother, visual artist Matthew Hawtin, as a cohesive experience for a public audience.
In the early 1990s the Hawtin brothers were living at their parents’ house in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and shared an interest in electronic music and abstract minimalist art. The developing Techno scene with its eclectic crowd, dark industrial venues, electrifying sound and energy would leave a deep impression on them both, fueling their creativity. Living and working under the same roof they would constantly exchange ideas and mutually inspire each other through their works. Richie’s album titles Dimension Intrusion and the previously unreleased Computer Space were both derived from Matthew’s paintings which would then go on to be used as cover artwork for the albums.
This shared creative period was all brought together into one exhibition to celebrate the launch of a limited-edition remastered anniversary vinyl boxset from the PLUS8 record label and The Vinyl Factory of the two iconic F.U.S.E. albums, along with the previously unreleased Computer Space.
The aim of the exhibition was to create an immersive sound experience that would combine the audio and visual elements of the art. This was achieved with playback from a JoeCo Blackbox BBP1B player via four Funktion One stacks placed one in each corner of the exhibition space.
“The host venue 180 The Strand / Vinyl Factory provided the stacks, but we wanted to bring in the JoeCo player to complete the sound experience,” explains Johannes Krämer, sound engineer for Richie Hawtin. “We own two JoeCo engines, a 24-channel analogue BBP1B, and a 64-channel BBP64DANTE Dante player. They are called into action on tour, for recording or used in art projects like this. We use them because they are flexible and reliable. There is the flexibility to program the machine within the player software. Also, whenever we had any issues or questions, JoeCo reacted straight away to help us.”
Once again, the Blackbox player proved its reliability to Hawtin and Krämer at the F.U.S.E Dimensions exhibition. “There were no playback problems during the whole exhibition time, even when there were power failures or unexpected interruptions,” he reveals. “When we powered up again, we simply started the player software and the small playlist program that we’d created. We are very happy with how everything worked out and sounded.”
To find out more about Richie Hawtin, visit his website: www.richiehawtin.com. Find out more about JoeCo here: www.joeco.co.uk
