Post by Johnnakis on Apr 19, 2014 18:21:23 GMT 1
It was two-an-a-half years ago, in November 2011 (11.11.11 for the numerologists out there!) at the Eightball Live Stage (Thessaloniki, Greece) when a legendary concert was held that went (unforunately) unnoticed to most people in Greece. The Accureacy, the only The Cure tribute band in Greece, presented a great tribute to three of the most important albums of The Cure: Seventeen Seconds (1980), Faith (1981) and Pornography (1982), which they performed live in their entirety (plus a small encore of a couple of more great Cure songs).
Preparations for such a project - and the appreciation and respect towards it - took several months of rehearsing, studying the little details and synthesizing/creating the correct sounds for the keyboards, effects and other instruments needed that would contribute for the most accurate rendition of the original recorded songs. The ultimate goal was to capture the very essence, mood and atmosphere of the original album recordings, as well as the accurate rendition of the finer musical details - at least as much as live performance conditions would permit.
The concert took place on Friday November 11th 2011 at Eightball Live Stage in Thessaloniki, Greece, exactly nine years after the original Berlin Trilogy by The Cure in 2002, where The Cure performed the Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers albums in their entirety as a trilogy. The Accureacy presented the "sister" trilogy of a more retro, minimalist and dark soundscape with the albums Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, entitled "The Dark Trilogy Sessions". Coincidentally, The Cure presented yet another trilogy show with the first three albums of their career (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds and Faith) four days after The Dark Trilogy Sessions, on November 15th in London, entitled "Reflections".
The Dark Trilogy Sessions was filmed by a dedicated filming crew, financed by the small funds gathered by the gig tickets as well as The Accureacy themselves, under the thought that such a project should really be filmed and printed on DVD as a small "souvenir" of the event for the band (and anyone interested). Success chances of such a project were slim really, as the long duration of the gig, the special sound rendering needed and the fact that there was no "second take" meant that any mistake, loss or problem would have been captured "as is", not correctable in any way. That was also true for the sound recording of the gig, as it was not done in multi-channel, being able to be mixed in taste afterwards (and even corrected for any mistakes). Main recording was done in a minidisc using a stereo microphone placed on the center balcony (loggia box) of the venue, facing the stage. Final production was done using this recording, helped a little by the camera sound recordings and a very rough soundboard mix.
Today, two-and-a-half years later, as a small Easter greetings gift to all The Cure and The Accureacy fans, The Dark Trilogy Sessions full video playlist is available free for watching at YouTube. We believe the final result made justice with all the efforts of The Accureacy in every aspect, either being the gig itself, as well as the filming/recording of it. We would really like to thank all people involved and especially the Artcut filming crew (www.artcut.gr) and Simos Batzakis for the final video montage, Sakis Mamais for all his efforts on stage lighting effects and Kostas and Ilias for the sound engineering and stage help. Sound recording/mixing/mastering and DVD production (menus, artwork, authoring etc) were done by Johnny Papaioannou (that's me! ). Many thanks go to all people kind (and curious!) enough to purchase one of the few DVD copies produced, especially people living thousands of miles away and never saw or heard of us before!
We really hope we soon have the opportunity to repeat such a great project as a small tribute to the band we really love, The Cure! Until then, enjoy The Dark Trilogy Sessions!
Preparations for such a project - and the appreciation and respect towards it - took several months of rehearsing, studying the little details and synthesizing/creating the correct sounds for the keyboards, effects and other instruments needed that would contribute for the most accurate rendition of the original recorded songs. The ultimate goal was to capture the very essence, mood and atmosphere of the original album recordings, as well as the accurate rendition of the finer musical details - at least as much as live performance conditions would permit.
The concert took place on Friday November 11th 2011 at Eightball Live Stage in Thessaloniki, Greece, exactly nine years after the original Berlin Trilogy by The Cure in 2002, where The Cure performed the Pornography, Disintegration and Bloodflowers albums in their entirety as a trilogy. The Accureacy presented the "sister" trilogy of a more retro, minimalist and dark soundscape with the albums Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, entitled "The Dark Trilogy Sessions". Coincidentally, The Cure presented yet another trilogy show with the first three albums of their career (Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds and Faith) four days after The Dark Trilogy Sessions, on November 15th in London, entitled "Reflections".
The Dark Trilogy Sessions was filmed by a dedicated filming crew, financed by the small funds gathered by the gig tickets as well as The Accureacy themselves, under the thought that such a project should really be filmed and printed on DVD as a small "souvenir" of the event for the band (and anyone interested). Success chances of such a project were slim really, as the long duration of the gig, the special sound rendering needed and the fact that there was no "second take" meant that any mistake, loss or problem would have been captured "as is", not correctable in any way. That was also true for the sound recording of the gig, as it was not done in multi-channel, being able to be mixed in taste afterwards (and even corrected for any mistakes). Main recording was done in a minidisc using a stereo microphone placed on the center balcony (loggia box) of the venue, facing the stage. Final production was done using this recording, helped a little by the camera sound recordings and a very rough soundboard mix.
Today, two-and-a-half years later, as a small Easter greetings gift to all The Cure and The Accureacy fans, The Dark Trilogy Sessions full video playlist is available free for watching at YouTube. We believe the final result made justice with all the efforts of The Accureacy in every aspect, either being the gig itself, as well as the filming/recording of it. We would really like to thank all people involved and especially the Artcut filming crew (www.artcut.gr) and Simos Batzakis for the final video montage, Sakis Mamais for all his efforts on stage lighting effects and Kostas and Ilias for the sound engineering and stage help. Sound recording/mixing/mastering and DVD production (menus, artwork, authoring etc) were done by Johnny Papaioannou (that's me! ). Many thanks go to all people kind (and curious!) enough to purchase one of the few DVD copies produced, especially people living thousands of miles away and never saw or heard of us before!
We really hope we soon have the opportunity to repeat such a great project as a small tribute to the band we really love, The Cure! Until then, enjoy The Dark Trilogy Sessions!