Timo Maas Meets Amazing Mechanical Design in ‘Tantra’ – Premiere
Marbles meet metal in “Tantra,” the remarkable new clip from German DJ, producer and dance music artist Timo Maas. Filmed around an art installation built by a Japanese creative team, the video for the latest single from Lifer premieres here and supports the idea that, when paired together, mechanical design and electronic music can be mesmerizing.
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“We decided to make something extra special for the video and spent a lot of time trying to come up with strange and different concepts,” Maas tells Rolling Stone. “The goal was to create a totally immersive viewing experience that brings the track to life through the visuals, connecting every little sound with a certain movement. My team found this insanely talented Japanese artist who liked the song so much that he built an entire art installation from various mechanical devices controlled by a computer processing all the different parts of the track. It is quite different and really conveys the hypnotic feeling that I wanted.”
Creative director and software engineer Daito Manabe and his team spent weeks researching and testing materials before building the final installation from an Arduino controlled ball dispenser, motorized rotating steel plates and LED lights. Next, the track was deconstructed into MIDI parts so that the movements fit with the shifts in volume, vibrato and cues, resulting in a fascinating end product.
As for the song, which is also the namesake of Maas’ new EP, the artist considers it “possibly the most complex track on my album,” adding, “It has a certain beauty and deepness behind it, making it definitely one of my favorites to date.”