Colors flow into one another and transform the concert space into a blue-green world, gold-speckled bubbles rustle over an iridescent background, the world of colors suddenly changes to a strong red This visual overdose is played by the Krautrock Group at Import Export in Munich Karl Hector & The Malcouns A concert at the end of December, followed by the band project Hodogaya make his live debut. An evening full of psychedelic music – but the listening experience gains intensity through the live, analogue light show.
The duo is for them Cruiser alternator Responsible: Leonard Will and Lucien Lietz stand behind their workstation made of boxes on which two overhead projectors (OHPs), two slide projectors and two 8 mm film projectors are placed. Lietz pours colors into bowls and swings them over the OHP, works with utensils, Will operates the projectors, both let their hands dance rhythmically in front of the lamps. The duo has dedicated themselves to an art form that emerged in the 1960s: at concerts by bands such as Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd Psychedelic light effects were created with oil and water, projectors and self-made machines, which created new worlds of experience, coordinated with the music, which were supposed to go beyond known forms of perception. This art form should not only revolutionize concerts, but society as well.
“Cruiser alternator”, that is Lucien Lietz (left) and Leonard Will.
(Photo: Fabian Beger)
30-year-old Lucien Lietz is a graphic artist, 29-year-old Leonard Will is studying art. Both sit in Lietz’s studio in the Glockenbachviertel and remember the beginnings of Cruiser alternator, where the oil-water experiments could not yet be foreseen. In 2015 it was in the Munich subculture enclave Café Kult. Will put on a concert by the band Karaba with a slideshow of his own photos. The next time his school friend Lucien Lietz, an OHP and a drum head were in the room – and an idea. “We cleared the kitchen there,” says Will. The two of them poured soy sauce and beetroot juice into the drum head, which they placed on the OHP. “We achieved blatant effects that we have never been able to do again,” says Will. Marbles, prisms, crystal glass bowls, water- or oil-based paints and other liquids for generating chemical reactions then proved their worth.
All ideas arise from the moment, which is why their art form is so ephemeral
Many ideas came about through experimentation during their light shows: “That’s the beauty and the bad thing about improvisations, that they don’t always come out the same,” says Will. The art of Kreuzer Lichtmaschine lies in its spontaneity. “We take an active part in the concerts,” says Lietz. The two react to the music depending on the situation, adapting colors, patterns and images to the sounds. As Kreuzer Lichtmaschine they mainly move in the psychedelic genre, they used to be punks and today they indulge this attitude towards life as musicians with their brute “one-day bands”, which they form for a concert and then break up again. The transience is also a central element of the light shows, which are unique due to their spontaneous sequence and the interplay of music and light.
The ingredients in “Kreuzer Lichtmaschine” are varied, the main thing is that the effect is right.
(Photo: Fabian Beger)
Kreuzer Lichtmaschine became famous in 2018 when they were engaged for the concert series “Behind the Green Door”, with local herb and psych rock bands such as embryo and international like Kikagaku Moyo from Japan play. The duo found the slides via classified ads. For Will, the psychedelic effect arises in the alienation: “At such an event you expect pictures of an Art Nouveau dancer, and not of a grandma who is cutting cakes,” he says and shakes his head “if people knew what we were doing with theirs Grandmothers make “! 2019 was the most successful year for the duo, one of the biggest commissions was a concert in the Berlin Tempodrom, where Lietz and Will had to push the limits of their light sources. “People forget that we arrive with a small bus full of equipment and not with a Macbook and projector,” says Lietz. In order to do justice to the size of the hall, they had to adjust the light intensity. Analog light shows are handcrafted. Where does the love for this form come from? “The analog is much softer and more organic than a projector projection,” says Will.
The duo would like to develop further, to experiment with self-made light sources, but for that they need space: There are hardly any affordable rehearsal rooms in Munich, and they often play in small clubs where their construction is limited. “We want to get out of the usual concert venues,” says Will. You want to work on theater productions.
Lietz and Will have known each other for half their lives, and that also affects their working mode as a cruiser light machine – they often work with each other and with the artists on stage without a word. “If we do something artistically together, it works,” says Lietz.
This was also the case with the concert evening at Import Export. Lietz squints his eyes, Will his mouth, the trumpet kicks in and the imagery with the warm tones tilts into a luxurious abundance. How does this work? “We are visualists”, says Lietz and sums it up dryly: “We turn on the headlights, improvise, turn off the headlights, see you again.”