Evolution of Music
Concept by Joël Harmon and Yvonnick Dugast, pyrotechnical design by Rodrigo Oyarzp Contador. FireOne firing with ~3500 cues.
An almost perfect summer’s evening with pleasant temperatures and a favourable wind direction was the backdrop to this anticipated third participation by féérie in Montreal.
The thematic concept of the display was the evolution of music and it did begin very rhythmically with a narration explaining how we progressed from banging rocks together to adding voice etc. to the music. Very quickly we ended up with rock-and-roll, jazz and reggae, but there was nothing much about any other music between caveman times and the early 20th century.
On the pyrotechnic side, with favourable wind conditions we could enjoy the vibrant colours Igual products are renowned for. There was a good variety of effects, but rather fewer special effects compared to the Italian and Polish shows (so no studatas or effects such as the now popular ghost shell). We did get some interesting horizontal wheels as well as horizontal firing mines on ramp 3.
The link between the fireworks and music was good on the whole but I got the feeling that there was sometimes a bit of a disconnect between the lyric of a piece and the effects used. For example, in Blue Suede Shoes, the fireworks did, indeed, start out blue, but not for long. In other places we had girandolas where the music was quite rhythmic, something of an odd choice in my opinion. At the start of Bob Marley’s One Love, a sequence of comets fired a large I, then a heart and then a large U – this was well done but we only saw it once and it was easy to miss.
Overall, the firing patterns were a little bit on the simplistic side and, despite the larger number of cues compared to their previous display, I didn’t feel that they did as much as the theme had promised.
All in all, though, it was a very well executed display that did make good use of all of the space, though it did lack a certain density and sophistication from time to time. Definitely a contender for a Jupiter, though.