Jaenga: A Visual Dream
The Third Rail crew had the pleasure of participating in Jaenga's Dream Machine album release video, a project that combines Jaenga's deeply inspirational sound with 20 Kvant laser units, 14 Chauvet Colorstrip PiX ILS, and 16 6x18w battery pars to create a spectacle of light and sound. Third Rail was called into action to supply and design all lighting, provide a portion of the laser units, and timecode laser design for a number of the tracks. In designing these tracks we had to carefully curate a feeling that matched the energy of each individual song. Jaenga had created a masterpiece, allowing our technicians to pull a wide range of designs out of the bag. His spectrum of sound hits both ends hard, blending dreamy flowing sounds with punchy high-energy moments.
“Goin' Mental is funky and fast, giving more of a glitchy feeling and allowing for a lot of fun bouncing effects with quick cuts, while In the Light captures a dreamier tone leading up to its drops, allowing me to create emotion before going big and spectacular.” -Henry Olson
With an album this big, the idea had to be big too, requiring a large amount of equipment on site. With lots of tech comes lots of fun; we had a blast designing on this rig and got tons of creative freedom given the depth of the production itself. 20 laser units with a lighting rig makes it easy to keep every cue fresh, the timing of hits exciting, and the layering feeling immersive.
“We wanted the album to feel consistent all the way through while not leaving you bored with the same looks for different sounds.” - Henry Olson
Of course, this much tech in an abandoned warehouse doesn't come without its speedbumps. The team took on some challenges with the venue during the setup/filming process, including police, flooding, and hefty winds.
"It didn't take long for us to draw attention, but the police assumed we would never do something so big and crazy without permission. I didn't correct them on that. Later in the night we had issues with flooding and winds too, but our team was running around like crazy to keep the haze looking good through the wind and blockading the floodwaters just long enough to make this happen. We find ourselves in a lot of interesting places and situations, but never one without a community.” -Nate Olson
Overall a risky idea to execute, but it made it much more exciting and memorable. The team came together with Jaenga to bring the emotion of the album to life visually and let nothing stand in their way. Getting the feeling right is the most important part of production, and we worked with Jaenga to make sure each song had the colors and beats on point to truly make you feel the Dream Machine experience.
“Pat [Jaenga] made it easy for me, all I had to do was listen to the tracks with my eyes closed and the lasers flowed effortlessly.” -Henry Olson
A special thanks to Centermass Productions for making this happen, Laserosity for supplying laser units, and the excellent team of designers for timecode: Jack Shapiro, Keoni Eppe, Korben Feldstein, and Theo Petrides.
Check out the full video below to see the results!