Perfume’s debut performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 was incredibly cool. But I did think it was a shame that all of the info about what IOWN is, how it contributed to the performance and what went into everything was just shoved onto a website, without enough of an explanation or enough to really see. After all, is educating not part of Expo? So I was pleasantly surprised to see that NTT released a video on YouTube which expands more on IOWN, other technologies used for Perfume’s performance, just how big a deal it was and some of the creative process behind it all.
The video which was released of the performance was still cool and impressive to watch. Especially if you’re a fan of Perfume, having watched their SXSW performance of “Story”, their NTT partnered performances of “Fusion” and “Ima Ima Ima”, and already have some awareness of what is actually going into the performance. But still, this behind the scenes video shares a lot that you would not have been aware of watching the performance on YouTube and what people at the NTT Pavillion actually saw.
%20IOWN%20x%20Perfume%20Behind%20the%20Scenes%20%233.png "NTT share a behind-the-scenes look of Perfume’s IOWN powered performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 | Random J Pop") |
| IOWN×Perfume: Behind the scenes | NTT |
As you can see from the video, the performance was an immersive experience. Elements from the video spilled out onto the walls. The lights in the room pulsed in time with the music. There were vibrational actuators (i.e, Nintendo 64 rumble paks) in the floor of the space. This would explain why the performance started with a segment where Perfume were walking around and dancing without any music, with us hearing nothing but their shuffles and footsteps. I’m assuming that the footsteps and shuffles sounded very different in the Pavillion compared to how it sounds in the YouTube video (3D sound?) and that it was to soft immerse everybody into the experience and familiarise them with the sensation they would feel in the floor throughout the rest of the performance. Perfume’s performance was also captured using stereoscopic cameras, so it was shot for 3D. a-chan throwing the paper airplane, all of the 360 degree camera movements and animated sections were undoubtedly implemented to really sell the 3D of it all.
The more I watched the behind the scenes video, the more I felt that watching the YouTube performance was a very watered down version of what it actually was for and was intended for. But this is a Perfume performance for ya. But experiencing them in person is a whole other thing entirely.
%20IOWN%20x%20Perfume%20Behind%20the%20Scenes%20%234.png "NTT share a behind-the-scenes look of Perfume’s IOWN powered performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 | Random J Pop") |
| IOWN×Perfume: Behind the scenes | NTT |
It was really cool to see how much creativity and effort went into this performance from so many different people and teams who you wouldn’t necessarily see coming together for a music performance. It was such a cool and unique way to showcase telecommunications technology, and Perfume was the perfect choice for such a thing. Perfume has an amazing creative team who are always pushing boundaries. And Perfume has two decades of experience performing with all manner of technologies and things which are reliant on data transfer with no latency. So, IOWN technology is something that Perfume’s creative team would probably genuinely use and incorporate, if they haven’t done so already.
It’s cool to see the whole Perfume and technology thing still being a…thing. And that Perfume’s partnership with NTT is not just them in a DoCoMo commercial. The timing also works brilliantly here, because narratively it also ties into Nebula Romance as a whole. Well, kinda. We as fans are having to connect those dots. But at least there are dots to connect. Perfume are in a really unique position, in that they can do these sorts of partnerships and tie-ins, and put their artistry and creativity front and centre in ways that not many other acts could. Also, this tech and this specific style of performance requires such a crazy sense of spatial awareness and precision that not every act has. It all works, because Perfume can deliver live performances which match the data and recordings of the performances they had given before. So shit like this really does speak to Perfume as performers and makes these partnerships and creative endeavours feel very unique to them.
It would be cool to see more of this synergy happening with Perfume’s technology focused partnerships and tie-ins, as opposed to it being this side project thing as it has been occasionally in the past. Because technology is a huge part of Perfume’s identity as performers. I think it’s why I felt so lukewarm on Reframe initially. Because it felt like ‘Oh We’re doing a technology focused performance thing now.’ The whole time I’m sat thinking ‘But…y’all are always doing technology focused shit?! Why section it off?’.
%20IOWN%20x%20Perfume%20Behind%20the%20Scenes%20%231.png "NTT share a behind-the-scenes look of Perfume’s IOWN powered performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 | Random J Pop") |
| IOWN×Perfume: Behind the scenes | NTT |
I like that Perfume’s partnership with NTT has delivered the same style of performance over the years, but that it gets more and more refined each time. This not only makes it easy to see the creative evolutions between performance and the improvements in execution — but it’s another thing which adds to the visual language of Perfume, which is something I feel has gotten a bit lost in their music videos. So I hope they continue to do shit like this.
%20IOWN%20x%20Perfume%20Behind%20the%20Scenes%20%232.png "NTT share a behind-the-scenes look of Perfume’s IOWN powered performance of “Nebula Romance” for Expo 2025 | Random J Pop")
Comments
Post a Comment
HTML tags for bold, italic and hyperlinks are allowed