Since opening in east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2022, the frankly spectacular ABBA Voyage has become a shining example of how technology is being integrated into live music. Featuring a dynamic live band and virtual avatars of ABBA’s four members, the hugely popular concert residency — which will continue until at least June 2026 — has understandably raised the expectations for gig-goers of what a live show can be.
Each concert takes place in the 3,000-capacity, purpose-built ABBA Arena, which houses 291 speakers (producing 870,000 watts of audio amplification throughout) and over 500 moving lights which are mapped to 30,000 points. How, then, do Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson, the producers of ABBA Voyage, inject all the hallmarks of a typical live show into such a tech-heavy environment?
‘It is a live show!’ the pair tell M. ‘We have a live band, and we operate the show entirely live with a full control room filled with the best professionals in the business. The audience is also a huge part of the concert: even those people who come time and again say they’ve never had the same experience twice. The joy and emotion in the audience is an elixir that is completely addictive, and the togetherness in the room is always heartwarming and special.’
‘Visualisation in live music has come a long way in the past 10 years.' - Ed Warren
Tech-governed music spectacles aren’t an entirely new phenomenon — take Pink Floyd’s immersive The Wall shows, or Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee and his spinning drum roller coaster as notable past examples. But in recent years, thanks to the likes of ABBA Voyage and the spellbinding gig footage from the Las Vegas Sphere that often pops up on social media, a tipping point seems to have been reached. Is tech becoming the star of the live show?
‘Visualisation in live music has come a long way in the past 10 years,’ acclaimed production and lighting designer Ed Warren tells M. ‘The software is more powerful, the renders are far more realistic and the tools have become genuinely accessible. You can now build and preview a full show from a home office.’
Having recently worked with the likes of Mumford & Sons, Sugababes and Four Tet on their live shows, Ed explains of his typical creative approach: ‘Sometimes the right call is to keep the focus entirely on the music and let everything else sit quietly in the background. Other times you’re expected to support, lift or even exaggerate what’s happening sonically. The art is knowing when to step forward and when to step back, and riding that line with intention.’
While new visual technology is being embraced by many performers and their stage crew, the tried-and-trusted timecode — which provides an exact timestamp so each part of a production occurs when it’s meant to — has become ‘a huge part of modern production’, as Ed notes. ‘It lets an entire show — lighting, video, choreography, pyro — be locked to the music, down to the millisecond,’ he adds. ‘When you have the prep time, that level of precision can be transformative.’
Despite all this exciting technology on offer, though, it’s important to remember that live music is still inherently a shared human experience between a performer and their audience. With so many big, tech-fuelled moments now being factored into a typical arena, stadium or even club show — the lighting cues, the special effects, Charli xcx’s striking rain dance — is live performance being robbed of a sense of spontaneity for the sake of choreographed spectacle?
‘The show is under continuous review and cycle of improvements, mostly in terms of hardware and processes,’ producers Svana and Ludvig tell M about how they continually assess ABBA Voyage. ‘We recently added more songs to the setlist, and those creative changes are carefully thought out and take a long time to implement due to the complexity of the show. We operate a no-fail show: every single audience member deserves to get the best possible experience, and we don’t cut any corners to ensure that happens.’
For Ed, there’s ‘always a risk’ that a gig can be too reliant on visual technology. ‘But it comes down to the type of show you’re making,’ he continues. ‘A raw rock’n’roll set shouldn’t feel as locked-in as a high-gloss pop production. There is a time and a place for precision and a time and a place for looseness. The real craft is knowing which one your audience is coming for.’
Katie Boyle, one half of the London electronic dance duo Koven, agrees. ‘This is where you have to stay honest with yourself,’ she tells M. ‘It’s all about using production to your advantage and amplifying the moments that lean into your USP as an act. For us, that’s me singing. When I first started performing, tech felt like something you added to a show when you could afford it: a few visuals, some lighting, maybe a couple of synced cues. Now it’s become almost inseparable from the performance itself. It genuinely shapes how we build our shows.’
'The production of our show isn’t just an add-on for us, it’s another form of storytelling.' - Katie Boyle, Koven
Given the proliferation of smartphones at gigs, the fact that any show can have a shelf life that extends way beyond its encore can add extra pressure for music creators when it comes to designing their live performance.
‘People film everything: even in a 300-capacity room, what’s captured on someone’s phone becomes part of your global image,’ Katie acknowledges. ‘[But] the production of our show isn’t just an add-on for us, it’s another form of storytelling. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort investing in our live visuals and it’s developed a lot over the years. I subjected myself recently to eight hours in a water tank to capture just one of the eight “looks” within our new show package, so l would say we’re pretty invested!’
As a vastly experienced lighting designer operating in the live music industry, what new tech developments are exciting Ed? ‘The lines between departments have blurred,’ he replies. ‘Lighting and video now speak to each other seamlessly; you can trigger video from lighting systems and vice versa. Lasers and pyro live in the same universe as well. That integration has made shows feel more cohesive and avoided many of the old clashes between the creative disciplines.’
As ever, though, live performance should always prioritise the music. ‘If your production is the only thing people talk about after the show, something’s off,’ observes Katie.
As ABBA Voyage concludes, you're unlikely to hear anyone overly dissecting the tech aspect of the show as they make their way out of the venue. Instead, the air will be abuzz with discussions of the emotions conjured by the music in the show they’ve just witnessed. Thank you for the music indeed.
This article is taken from the latest issue of M Magazine, which you can read in full here.
