.

Swedish House Mafia's Axwell to DJ Cosmic Opera

Series kicks off February 24th at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC

January 11, 2012 1:15 PM ET
axwell
Axwell performs at Global Gathering at Long Marston Airfield in Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom.
Ollie Millington/Redferns

Dance music fans have been wondering how Swedish House Mafia will top December's blowout show at Madison Square Garden. For Axwell, one-third of the DJ supergroup, the answer was in the works long before the lights went down at MSG.

Axwell will be headlining and curating the musical talent for Cosmic Opera, a dance event series taking place at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom beginning February 24th. Like an opera, it will take place in "acts" in the form of three monthly, six-hour-long events that will integrate the high-tech 3D mapping techniques used by Skrillex and Deadmau5 on their tours. Baroque-era performers, along with dancers and acrobats, will be placed throughout the room to create a 360-degree spectacle that pays homage to the venue's history.

Axwell has been working on the events with Cosmic Opera creator Justin Cohen, former COO of entrepreneurial conference Summit Series. "It is a revolutionary time for dance music," he tells Rolling Stone. "To go with it, we needed to establish a new type of event." Axwell will be responsible for filling the musical bill at each of the three events. In a nod to Hammerstein's theater roots, Axwell will also play the role of conductor, not only manning the turntables but leading accompanying opera singers. Watch the trailer for the event below.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

prev
Music Main Next

blog comments powered by Disqus
Daily Newsletter

Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
marketing partners.

X

We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »