David Guetta, Indochine and the Paris Olympics have one thing in common: their concerts are visually dressed by producer and director Romain Pissenem, whose obsession is to mix “history, electronic music and the spectacular.”
On the other hand, with his company “High Scream” based in London, this 46-year-old Frenchman produces some of the biggest artist tours and builds the visual universe that will give “volume” to concerts now imagined as shows.
His credits include the latest tour of the French pop rock group Indochine, with a monumental 360-degree video screen for stadiums, and the opening ceremony of the 2020 Euro football championship with a hologram of U2 leader Bono singing the official title composed by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix.
On the one hand, he makes the crowds dance in Ibiza with his brother Yann, in their club Hi-Ibiza with David Guetta among the residents and in a hotel with a giant open stage.
“I’ve been playing my little alchemist for years, mixing theatre, history, electronic music and the spectacular,” this hyperactive enthusiast, who started out in theatre as a teenager, told AFP.
Or rather “electro-theatre”, he jokes. “It was in 95-96, people looked at me like +you’re a bit crazy+. I insisted.”
On Sunday, he will be part of the team in charge of the musical show in the second part of the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games at the Stade de France, north of Paris.
– “Translate energy” –
Around the theme “Paris is a party”, this grand finale will bring together 24 DJs from various currents of the French electronic scene including Jean-Michel Jarre, Martin Solveig, The Avener and Ofenbach. It is up to him to make their performances shine, with “very symmetrical designs”.
“We, the electro artists, on stage, we don’t sing, we don’t have a group, and Romain manages very well to translate the energy of electronic music through visuals, with screens, lasers”, praises Valentin Brunel, aka Kungs, who has acquired international fame since his remix of “This Girl”.
In his eyes, Romain Pissenem still has “billions of ideas”, some of which have come to fruition with the creation of the scene with which the 27-year-old DJ has performed at festivals in France and Europe.
“I find it very powerful because he really understood how to translate this music, which is dance music, party music, night music, with visuals,” adds Kungs, who will participate in the closing ceremony.
– “Mix everyone together” –
Romain Pissenem’s childhood was nevertheless very far from dancefloors. This native of a Lorraine village – Azelot, 400 souls – blossomed at the same time as the French touch deployed its decks.
In addition to theatre and the nightlife, he has worked to break down the boundaries between artistic genres, such as with the Triphasé, a barge recovered from his native region that he rehabilitated into a “hybrid scene between theatre and party”.
Then came the advent of DJs and, “all of a sudden, instead of playing in small places, we started playing in halls, so production became important, putting the music into images,” he recalls.
But there is no question of denying the values behind these big-budget events. “Making popular shows” sounds like “a huge compliment to me,” he assures.
“I know it sounds a bit utopian to say this, a bit corny, but putting everyone together, forgetting the differences, mixing everyone up, it’s a very simple message but it’s very important,” he says.
By participating in the Olympic Games in his own way, Romain Pissenem is fulfilling another of his childhood dreams, he who imagined “an electronic Cirque du Soleil, telling stories to as many people as possible by creating incredible visual universes”. “So what could be better than the Olympic Games in Paris?” smiles the producer.
In 2025, he will continue to light up stadiums, with two major concerts already on his agenda: DJ Snake at the Stade de France on May 10 and David Guetta at the Vélodrome in Marseille on June 21.
fan/pel/vk
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