Subsonica and the Hydrogen Juke Box

A spectacular music event took place in Italy recently to mark the end of the two-day cele-brations to launch Turin as the Book Capital of the World.

Organised by the band Subsonica, a four-hour concert was staged at the Olympic Palasport (Palaolimpico Isozaki) in the city, named Volumi all’Idorgeno.

This was Subsonica’s only performance of 2006, and joining them onstage were Africa Unite, Linea 77, Marlene Kunz, Mau Mau, Perturbazione, E'LIA, Gatto Ciliegia and Wu Ming in an evening that didn't just set out to be a concert but a major ‘happening’; all the bands worked between themselves, building a cross narration through a game of quotations, turning several books into music which ran across various video screens.

The marathon show ran continuously, without change of stage, almost like a rave of electronic images, lights words and music. The name of the evening,‘Volumi all'Idrogeno’ was inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Juke Box all'Idrogeno’ (Hydrogen Juke Box Prophecy) but also refers to the real use of hydrogen generators that powered some of the scenic structures.

Audio, lighting and technical aspects of the show were all taken care of by Big Talu Music Service of Mondovì (Cuneo) with the close help of Fumasoli Service (Aosta).

The audio system was designed by Enrico Fumasoli around Martin Audio line array components. For the main system he used one cluster per side of 16 x W8L line array enclosures, and for the side hangs a cluster per side of eight W8L line arrays were flown. Covering the bleachers were two further hangs, consisting of eight W8LC compact line arrays.

On stage were no fewer then 52 Martin Audio LE400C and LE12JB stage monitors, run active bi-amp, with two clusters of W8LM mini line array as sidefills.

According to Mauro Codeluppi of Audiosales, Italian distributors for Martin Audio, the event was a big success — thanks to the expertise (and combined inventories) of the two major rental companies involved.