Championing Emerging Creative Talent, the Third Edition of “Future Rising” Features Exclusive Audiovisual Collaborations that Celebrate the Individual Spirit of Four Iconic European Cities
W Hotels Worldwide, the lux rebel of Marriott International, today announced it has once again joined forces with Mixcloud, the audio streaming platform that is fostering a global community for audio culture. Now in its third edition, Future Rising is the cutting-edge, creative platform that brings together rising talent from both the worlds of music and visual art. Kicking off on 29 April at W Paris – Opéra, Future Rising will then travel to W Barcelona (2 May), W London – Leicester Square (9 May) and W Amsterdam (30 May) to explore the intersection of music and visual art to celebrate zeitgeist of a city.
“Music is intrinsic to the W brand – it’s part of our DNA. And through our long-standing partnership with Mixcloud, we’re able to further amplify our dedication to supporting music talent and creative artists,” said Jenni Benzaquen, Vice President of Luxury Brands – Europe, Marriott International. “Over the past three years, we’ve activated Future Rising at our W Hotels across Europe and Asia to satisfy our guests’ passion for what’s new and next. This series continues to gain momentum with each new edition, incubating new ways to celebrate and connect our guests with emerging cultural tastemakers around the globe.”
RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW! will feature four musical talents – Children of Zeus, William Djoko, Eliza and Lafawndah, paired with four visual artists Francois Boulo, Onionlab, Patience Harding and Random Studio. Together, these artists will explore each city’s spirit to co-create a unique audio-visual performance that will be premiered at each Future Rising event.
“Each year, Future Rising has gone from strength to strength and this year’s theme RIGHT HERE! RIGHT NOW! came about because we wanted to create something that’s urgent, necessary and vital for today in these different cities,” said Kazim Rashid, Creative Director at Mixcloud. “This is the first time we will bring together a host of exciting collaborators from the audio and visual worlds to co-create work that will launch at W Hotels across Europe. At Mixcloud, we are hugely excited about the art that will result from these collaborations.”
“Shout out to Future Rising for bringing all these talented artists out to different cities around the world,” said Konny Kon of Children of Zeus, a fast-rising R&B and soul duo from Manchester. “Pairing us with a visual artist to create a piece of art is something we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise – it’s such a great concept!”
Event details include:
- W London – Leicester Square: Eliza x Patience Harding, 9 May
R&B and Soul singer Eliza (FKA Eliza Doolittle), North London’s empress of soulful, bedroom jams who lives up to being one of the UK’s most exciting rising stars, collaborates with set and lighting designer Patience Harding, who cut her teeth in the music video world. Together, they will create a multi-sensory environment across different spaces of the hotel for a one-night only festival experience that captures London’s cutting-edge energy.
- W Paris – Opéra: Children of Zeus x Francoise Buolo, 26 April
Children of Zeus, the R&B and soul project from two of the UK’s fastest rising artists,
Konny Kon and Tyler Daley, will come together with Brittany-bred, music-obsessed graphic designer Francois Boulo to create a series of visual interpretations that emulate different moods and colours of different tracks, brought to life on the live stage.
- W Barcelona: William Djoko x Onionlab, 2 May
Amsterdam-based DJ and producer William Djoko, renowned for his heady blend of house, footwork and rugged motor-city techno, will collaborate with Onionlab, a Barcelona-based studio specialised in designing interactive audio-visual and virtual reality experiences, to create a lighting installation set to one of Djoko’s signature tracks. The multisensory artwork evolves into a night of Djoko behind the decks.
- W Amsterdam: Lafawndah x Random Studio, 30 May
Lafawndah, the Parisian-raised, Iranian/Egyptian experimental pop artist, will collaborate with Amsterdam’s Random Studio to design a ‘sensory room experience’, using sound, scent and visuals.
For more information, or to secure a place on the guestlist, visit https://futurerisingnow.com.