them do that.â However, Ludvig made it clear that while the technology and choreography was absolutely top notch, the underlying focus of the concert was not simply the ABBAtars. âIf you come to our concert and leave feeling like âWow, that was cool technologyâ, then we will have failed. âŠIt has to be about emotion, it has to be about the audience feeling something like you do when you listen to music that you like. âŠItâs about coming into a space where you feel something for two hours, where you get transported, transcend-- something that music can do. And weâre doing everything we can to enhance that experience. So yeah, we have really cool avatars, and they are completely lifelike, and theyâre incredible, but theyâre only a vehicle. Itâs not about them. Itâs not about how cool they are. Itâs about the whole experience.â Ludvig explained further, âThe unique challenge is that weâre creating a concert with a band that isnât there⊠and we still donât know if we have risen to that challenge. We donât know if itâs going to work. But we know we have a very good idea. And we know that weâre doing everything we can to make this experience a beautiful one.â And that wasnât the only challenge. From Covid to Brexit, there have been many, many challenges, especially those that came with exploring the uncharted territory.
Svana didnât even know where to begin with the amount of challenges they faced. âI mean, the base level of doing something like this, [something] that hasnât been done before is the amount of research and development that you have to do. And the resilience that you have to have to carry on when you go down the wrong road and something doesnât work out? Well, you try something 10,000 times and you canât make it work, you know, youâve got to constantly evolve and change and adapt. That was... difficult because it takes such a long time. Itâs taken four years to do this, because itâs the first time itâs been done. Next time, if I ever want to do it again, I could probably do it in 18 months, because we know now how to do it.â That âunlimited, never ending stream of catastropheâ, as coined by Ludvig, included figuring out the set list. âWe probably had about 60 different versions of a setlist. It took a long time to whittle down the catalog into these 22 songs,â Svana revealed. From organizing toilets in the London arena to discerning between lights to answering questions for the 10 piece live band (created by James Righton of the Klaxons), Svana and Ludvig have been very busy. Ludvig recounts, âItâs been a very long and complex process. But again, itâs fun almost all the time. Because⊠again, like all kinds of creative processes, or any kind of art or music or cinema⊠there are no rules. So thatâs both really daunting, but also liberating, and lovely, because you can do whatever you want. And thatâs scary. But itâs also fun.â One of Svanaâs favorite moments were the 5 weeks filming in Stockholm, where
ABBA and ILM employees went to actually capture ABBA on camera. âFilming them was joyful⊠Iâll never forget those weeks. I mean, ...one day, it might be âOh, today weâre going to do Winner Takes It All and Chiquititaâ, letâs say, and you spend all day watching ABBA perform Winner Takes It All and Chiquitita. And, you know, itâs just fun. Itâs just lovely. And then you have lunch, and you come back after lunch. And you know, you do it again, it was really relaxed. It was really joyful. It was really emotional. As for one of Ludvigâs favorite moments? As it turns out, the ABBA members had to shave their beards in order for the motion capture suits to work. âThey said, âWeâre not going to shave our beards.â And we had like, 100 people for ILM sitting next door waiting to start to shoot. They said, âNo, weâre not doing it.â And then we said, âWell, then we canât do it. Then we have to shut the whole thing down.â They were like, âYeah. And thatâs what has to be.â But of course, theyâre reasonable.â In the end, money still was not a big factor to ABBA rejoining and rerecording-- in fact, the work on the show brought them to create another album, not the other way around. âBenny and Björn went together into the studio and said, right, if weâre going to do this concert, weâre going to have to write some new songs. So they wrote âDonât Shut Me Downâ and âI Still Have Faith in Youâ and a couple of others in that initial session that they had in the studio⊠Then they listened back and they were pretty happy and they had fun in the studio. The studio has always been great fun for them. And then they went, Well, why donât we just do a few more, why donât we just do an app. And that was the motivation. And it didnât take much. I mean, none of us persuaded them to do anything⊠They loved being back together again. And it was just fun.â Overall, Ludvig recounts the experience as a joyful reunion. âThey get to be back on the stage, but look like they did in 1979. I think they like the idea. They like that it hadnât been done before. They like the adventure of it. They like the sort of unknown territory aspect of it⊠They had a great time. I mean, theyâre used to it. Theyâre professionals. But I think they enjoyed the process and still do.â
RACHEL CHUNG, REVIEW SECTION EDITOR
41 REVIEW