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Music

Musicians Fill an Old Brewery with a 3D Experimental Film

Experimental band Carnet De Voyage collaborates with Mike Figgis at the Istanbul Arts + Culture Festival.
Images courtesy of the artists

Carnet De Voyage, a side project between classical pianist Rosy Chan and Mimi Xu, performed a cacophonous mix of classical, jazz, hip hop and electronica to a multisensory tonic of pulsating visuals at the Istanbul Arts + Culture Festival in May.

The show featured a screening of short clips created by director Mike Figgis, of Leaving Las Vegas fame, as a backdrop. At the newly renovated Bomonti Brewery, the crowd was stylish and impatiently waiting to be entertained. Carnet De Voyage’s presentation fell between performance art, multimedia experience—and art world satire: the band, which has often likened itself to “a sonic and visual journey into the heart of music history, contemporary culture, and personal memoir,” and “an invitation into a magical and mysterious tour” leaves much room for interpretation.

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Formed during the 2013 Venice Biennale, Carnet de Voyage played its debut show a few weeks later for 70 a crowd of 70 at the Steinway Hall in London. Neither had specific plans to continue, but through word-of-mouth quickly became popular within the art-rock circuit. This is likely due to the collaborative chemistry between the pair. “We each bring something unique [to the table] when we perform,” Rosey told The Creators Project post-performance, “but have a shared aesthetic and sensibility.”

This might, in part, be due to their worldly upbringings: both are Chinese emigrants, Rosey via London and Mimi was raised in Paris, and they speak and act like long-lost sisters. Since forming Carnet De Voyage, they have participated in London’s Meltdown Festival alongside multimedia design collective UAU, played the Gagosian Gallery of Paris, and performed everywhere from an abandoned airplane hangar to an 18th-century ballroom in Paris for Fashion Week.

The band’s vibe falls somewhere between Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit and a raucous evening at a Julliard practice room, a balance of controlled minimalism with short explosions of humor and irony. In the coming year, they plan on teaming up with Figgis once again to create a guerrilla performance for Doug Aitken's Station to Station at the Barbican, London. They are also working on an exclusive concert at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and have an LP coming out mid-2016.

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Most importantly, they are also working on new “personalized technologies” to further their art form.

Learn more about Carnet de Voyage on their website.

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