Luma partnerships manager Dan Move, left, and internationally-renowned light artist Angus Muir stand in the latter’s ‘Triangular’ installation in Queenstown Gardens.
It’s part of the 2023 Luma Southern Light Project, which opened last night and runs till Monday – tickets are still available via luma.nz
“You’ll hear us, that’s for sure”
For Queenstown band EchoKnot, this weekend’s Luma light, sculptural, performance and musical festival is their creative highlight of the year.
Echoes of yesteryear: EchoKnot – from left, Scott Kennedy, Andy Paterson and Joe Cowie – playing at an earlier Luma
The three-piece band – bassist Andy Paterson and electric guitarists Joe Cowie and Scott Kennedy – have already played five Lumas, and this time will again be showcasing new music and visual elements.
They’re performing every night from 8.30 till about 9.30.
“There’s an area called ‘The Liquid Salon’, we’re going to be there,” Kennedy says.
As to where that’ll be in the Queenstown Gardens, he’ll only say, “you’ll find us”.
“You’ll hear us, that’s for sure.
“I always like to describe to people, ‘we’re loud, quiet, bright and dark, and all of those spaces between those are where we live’.
“We only play original music we write, and it’s mostly instrumental music, it can be everything from really delicious and incredibly sweet to incredibly loud.”
As for their genre, Kennedy says “we have very eclectic influences, all of us, we come from different places”.
“It’s everything from ’60s, new-wave, experimental music, all the way through to dance music that’s today.
“If you take all the things we enjoy and sort of whizz them up, you get us.
“Our band is a mix of traditional live instruments as well as triggered elements, like, we have synthesisers and drums and guitars and samples, all happening at once.”
The band produced its first record in 2019 and is finishing up another one, “so we’re going to play some more gigs once that’s all finished”.
Kennedy admits they’re not really a pub band, nor are they really a wedding band.
“We played one wedding only, it was a unique wedding for them, and for us.”
Kennedy, who in his day job is facilities manager for local arts and cultural centre Te Atamira, and a filmmaker, writer and photographer in his spare time, says Luma means a lot to him.
“Luma means creativity, and a community coming together to really embrace people doing new and exciting and different things, so it’s my favourite time of the year.
“Even though we’re going and performing in a part of it, I’m just as excited to see what else is going on there.
“I purposely don’t find out what’s going on, I want to go down and discover it as much as everybody else.”
However, he’s already heard the buzz about how much it’s morphed this year.
“It’s easy to say it’s back bigger and better, but I think it’s going to be back deeper and better – deeper into the forest, deeper into people’s imaginations.”
EchoKnot, Luma, nightly till June 5, 8.30pm
Luma’s ‘bass popera’ debut
Something different: Dunedin opera singer Calla Knudson
Dunedin-based opera singer Calla Knudson’s promising an “ethereal and ambient” vibe during her Luma performances this weekend.
The 26-year-old, who last year received a Dame Malvina Major Arts Excellence Award, is part of this year’s Luma Emerging Artist Programme, along with Queenstowner Billie Carey, both of whom have been invited to present their work as part of the five-day event, which started in the Queenstown Gardens last night.
Knudson, who’s completing her honours degree in performance, voice & music production at the University of Otago, says she’s actually never been to Luma, and her only experience performing in the resort to date was years ago when she busked on the waterfront.
Describing her sound as “bass popera”, Knudson says it’s a hybrid of all the styles she’s influenced by.
“I have a strong influence from classical and popular music, and the bass music scene as well, so it’s a combination of opera in a more contemporary form, and because I’m operatically-trained, it’s how I use my voice.
“And then, with the added element of electronic bass, that just gives a huge amount of depth to the sound.
“The brief for Luma performances is really about creating an atmosphere that really brings people to the exhibition iteslf – it’s really about creating a unique environment where people are totally immersed.
“We’ll be creating a phonic landscape that mirrors and matches the visual landscape,” she says.
About to release her second album, Patterns of Remedy, she’s also just kicked off a nationwide tour in Oamaru – while there’s no Queenstown date, she’ll also be performing at Wānaka’s LaLaLand with Queenstowner Miki Brown next Saturday.
Calla Knudson, Luma, Queenstown Gardens, 7.15pm-8pm, June 2, 3 and 5, 7.30pm-8.15pm, June 4
