ART & ENTERTAINMENT: Pop Art Display opened in Second Life-Sandy Demina reporting...

Morghana Savira

Staff Reporter • Monday, December 20, 2010

A new exhibition area devoted to Pop Art has been opened on 23 November :the Pop Art Display (P.A.D.) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Solaris%20Island/46/167/486 .

By raising daily commonplace reality to the artistic dimension Pop Art accomplishes its transfiguration: it sheds light on what is closer yet often invisible to us and through such an artistic process it penetrates the meaning of life in mass society.

The identity of form and content in the advertised product undergoes a process of estrangement and reversal. In pop works of art the sexy element of images becomes disquieting, euphoria has a shade of melancholy, glamour and make-up are covered with a dim layer, precision is turned into provocation.

Pop Art has widened two key concepts of modern times, “double” and “dislocation”, and has highlighted mass media as the incessant producers of the double of everything. Most of our experience is the experience of the “other” reality, the one that the media have arranged for us and communicate to us.

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CULTURE: Pop Art Display opened in Second Life-Sandy Demina reporting

Morghana Savira

Staff Reporter • Monday, December 20, 2010

A new exhibition area devoted to Pop Art has been opened on 23 November :the Pop Art Display (P.A.D.) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Solaris%20Island/46/167/486 .

By raising daily commonplace reality to the artistic dimension Pop Art accomplishes its transfiguration: it sheds light on what is closer yet often invisible to us and through such an artistic process it penetrates the meaning of life in mass society.

The identity of form and content in the advertised product undergoes a process of estrangement and reversal. In pop works of art the sexy element of images becomes disquieting, euphoria has a shade of melancholy, glamour and make-up are covered with a dim layer, precision is turned into provocation.

Pop Art has widened two key concepts of modern times, “double” and “dislocation”, and has highlighted mass media as the incessant producers of the double of everything. Most of our experience is the experience of the “other” reality, the one that the media have arranged for us and communicate to us.

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MUSIC: Declan Greenfield's magic sax in Second Life-Sandy Demina reporting

Staff Reporter • Monday, November 29, 2010

Declan has been playing saxophone for many years in real life. He currently performs in three RL bands . You can see one of the websites at www.bluemoonband.co.uk . While he also sings, he prefers to perform with saxophone. He  brings his smooth romantic sound to second life, performing a mix of soft classical country/50s love songs/and modern love songs. Delclan has also received numerous compliments from owners and other perfomers alike.
During a Declan's concert it's possible to  enjoy his soft romantic sounds that will melt your heart.A great sound for any couples romantic occasion or just to relax.

SANDY:Where are you from?Declan: I am from Wiltshire in England. I have loved music most of my adult life. Playing currently in several live bands in the area. I play alto and tenor saxophone. I enjoy performing as Father Christmas every year. I like to travel, play golf, and write music and poetry. In my time, I have been an Aerospace Project Manager and business consultant.

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MUSIC: :Karter Stonecutter Rocks Second Life! - Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Karter joined the US Navy out of high school and spent most of his time in Florida, where he teamed up with some fellow sailors and started working gigs at the chief's club and special events. Out of the Navy, he went right into the piano bar circuit for a few years before realizing his heart was in Rock 'N Roll. Now he spends his time touring North America working large rock clubs and festivals, living a rather modest musician's life on a definitely modest musician's salary!

His diverse musical background provides for a unique performance. His piano bar days give him the experience to engage his audience and it's always evident in his performances. But don't let that fool you. Karter can rock with the best! He can adapt to most any styles and venues, which has given him longevity and popularity in the musician communities around the United States.

Whether it be indulging his audience in sweet romantic ballads, old standards or rockin' the house, a good time, a solid performance and some fun lasting memories are what you can expect when you come to see Karter Stonecutter. (http://www.myspace.com/karterstonecutter )

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MUSIC: Deep Dive Focus on Waltkeys - Sandy Demina Reporting...

walt real life

Staff Reporter • Monday, November 08, 2010

Walter Runge (http://waltkeys.com ) is a seasoned RL musician, but he's quite new in SL where he prefers to use his stage name in RL:WaltKeys Faith.

Born in Brooklyn NY, he's lived in the US from New York to Alaska: St Louis Missouri, Dallas Texas, San Francisco CA, and he has been camping and hiking in several other states in the US.

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A look to the Past to live the future:"Musei in Comune" opens in Second Life ~Sandy Demina Reporting...

ChrisTower Dae.

Staff Reporter • Monday, November 01, 2010

Monday, October 18th a brand new sim has been inaugurated: "MiC - Museums in Comune Roma Capitale (http://slurl.com/secondlife/MiC/204/156/39 )

This sim has been bought by The City of Roma Capitale through “Zetema”, the company that manages all the museums of the civic circuit.
Marina Bellini (Mexi Lane in SL) who is in charge for the Communication 2.0 of the city of Roma is the general manager of this sim that is supposed to become an important cultural centre where virtual exhibits will replicate l the same exhibits currently displayed in the museums in real life.

A great room will be given to avant-garde metaverse artists, who in turn, will present their own personal immersive exhibits.

Every exhibit will be video recorded and distributed through the Museums' channels and also throughout the Metro and Bus transport systems of Rome :this will be a way to merge together virtual creativity and real life artworks.Furthermore at the Macro of Rome (http://www.macro.roma.museum ), a dedicated space will be set aside for the Virtual Expo currently exhibited at MiC in Second Life.

Lectures, meetings and events will be soon proposed on this sim that is open to all kind of original proposals:everyone is so invited to submit his projects to the Art Director Mexi Lane, either via notecards (within SL) or e-mail: mar.bellini@gmail.com .

An important local agency of Roma Capitale will start in January 2011 to work in the field of education and training using this sim as social platform.

This sim ,a sort of a look to the Past that allows to Live for the Future ,is worth of a visit also for its amazing building who has been set up under Mexiâs supervision:the evocative design of the meeting place has been staged by Rumegash Altamura and Patrizia Blessed, using references from Ancient Rome and of its capital wonders, which have provided in its absolute exclusivity, the major part of the textures for the construction; from the wall of the "Tempio di Giove" under the room of "Marco Aurelio" at the "Musei Capitolini", to the friezes of the "Tabularium", even to the Roman walls of the "Galleria Lapidaria", and to finish with the precious objects of the "Palazzo Nuovo".

The textures and objects have been crafted by skilfull builders and designers utilizing such progams as Blender, Photoshop and Gimp,in order to achieve the most realistic effects possible in the Metaverse. Some details have been by Antosperandeo Allen, Solkide Auer, Maryva Mayo and Flavio Dayafter.

A small part of the island has become the home of the Vestals,the Cave an evocative and fascinating place, where will take place those cultural meetings and events which require a particular emotional attention.

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SL VENUES:Nicci Winsmore's World of Art and Fashion - Sandy Demina Reporting....

Nicci Winsmore-Trees in light

Staff Reporter • Monday, October 25, 2010

  Through the experimentation of forms, of colors and of textures all artists try to communicate their emotions and Second Life is a great place for all the ones caught up by their (first) life and who ended up doing something different... to their regrets.

This is the story of one of them, Nicci Winsmore has been enjoying art since she was very young. Her aunt even bought her a sketch book when she was about ten, feeling that she might do something with it.

But her true love was born when a professional photographer visited her high school and talked about his profession. This was it and she thereafter pursued photography as a passion.

Nicci Winsmore (aka Nicole Perrot) loves representing nature through her viewfinder. She has been taking pictures in various parts of the USA including California and New Mexico. She tries to keep her photography as real as possible without using any enhancements except for contrast and light with Photoshop. What you see is mostly what you should get. Her influences are many but her main one is Ansel Adams.  

 

Nicci runs now in Second Life a sim named" World of art and fashion"(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Breezy%20Shores/31/31/21 ).It’s a very friendly place with a great atmosphere, where she lays down a stream-of-consciousness cascade of photographica priced by the yard.Worth a look.All art work in her gallery is original and catchy.

Currently she assembled a mix of new artists as well as old favorites: Fiona Letner, Oxil Zane, Toad Laloix, Ichiko Miles, Soul Yheng, Sandralee Palianta, , Ganso Artis, Giovanna Cerise, Tegan Jenvieve, Carley Noonan, Kyr Art/GeejAnn Blackadder, Artman Diavolo and Madison Arnahan.Nicci of course display in her gallery her works too.
We had a conversation about her (second) life and her passions.

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MUSIC SPOTLIGHT : Mommaluv Skytower- Sandy Demina reporting

Staff Reporter • Monday, October 18, 2010

    Mommaluv Skytower is from Pennsylvania and is an electronic artist/poetess who uses her voice as a pen and her music as paper creating globally fused artistic musical compositions that invite you into her mind.
She's from Philadelphia where she attended a magnet music school and then graduated from there, so she has been playing music for a really long time , mainly violin, guitar, and piano.

 

She has been in several bands since the age of 14 and, after a 7 year hiatus, at the age of 20 she got back into it when she was 27.

However she has let her skills there lapse, as her medium now is sound design with the invention of computers. "I have stayed faithful to this method -Mommaluv says -over the years, as I like to make my own sounds – either from loops I make using my Pro88 & Roland keyboards, which then bring into my production program. I also use my vocals and make them sound like instruments- tweaking them with plug-ins. And when I want a more traditional sound I collaborate with people that are much better at playing instruments than myself and then apply the same method- so I can stylize the sound as I want to hear it. "

When I asked her to describe her style she told me how she arrived, in 2005, to self-proclaim it as (a)VANTRONIK (m)AYHEM : "While having a conversation with a friend as we were trying to figure out how to market my songs on the net- so it would stand out from the rest. As we spoke, we looked at the genres that formed my style- electronica, acoustic, the avante guarde, psychedelia, spoken word and chaos. And then I took the genres and tried to mesh all the words together and decided on (a)(m) mews – which had more flexibility to play with- shortly after I saw music sites coming up with similarly named genres & thought that was cool- as the standard genres now had expansion for those of us that do not fit into anyone genre!"

Mommaluv says that she considers herself a songstress, not a singer since she likes to use her voice more theatrical than traditional , floating her music around her written poetry:further more she always hated being called a singer: her earlier years involved with music were quite traumatic and frustrating, due to the fact that record labels and mainstream producers she worked with always tried to make her sound like the famous singers at the time, quite nerving definitely. So she decided to refrain from anything remotely “mainstream”, producers, and labels...

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SL VENUES: Graine Macbain and her "Azure" dream in Second Life- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, October 11, 2010

You are almost guaranteed a good night out at the Azure Club, house of smooth sounds and cool time.
Pick the right night and you are likely to see one band you desperately try and remember the name of the next morning amongst the four or five who usually play each gig night. There is a relaxed vibe with an open-minded clientele who all have an obvious love of live music, which is appreciated by the bands, many of who are starting out their careers, who regularly pull out all the stops here. 

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Zerbie Magic's second chance in Second Life- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, October 04, 2010

Zerbie Magic was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She has been singing in real life for 13 years, and recently started performing in Second Life where she can realize her mission of "singing to the World."
Zerbie's passion is music and she is thrilled to be able to sing full time. She is doing what she loves to do and does soooo well. Fall in love as your soul is renewed by her music.... by a voice that is rich, smooth, powerful and sweet!

Zerbie sings covers of musicians such as Toni Braxton, Sarah McLachlan, and Savage Garden, with an original tune or two thrown in to the mix!! Her unique and varied style cross genres to include R&B, Pop, and Jazz.
Here below the text of our conversartion...

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT-Melodee McDonnell, The Golden voice in SL - Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, September 27, 2010

Melodee McDonnell debut in world was  during early 2008 with appearances on SLCN.TV, countless grand openings, charity events like the Pink Ball for Breast Cancer, Toys for Tots and SL's Birthday Bash 2008 and 2009.

Still going strong in 2010, Ms McDonnell's SL group has topped 500 members. Her powerhouse vocals and 4 octave range have wow'd SL audiences time and time again. Melodee's fans have described her voice "like fine wine", specifically " 76' Chardonnay" "smooth, yet powerful" and "you never know what Mel will be singing next, she has an incredible repertoire" and sings with passion and vulnerability.

Her formal vocal training began at age 12 and continued into her 20's. 2006 marked the release of her debut CD "Possibilities" She is currently workin on her next CD-due for release in 2010. 

SLE Interview

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MUSIC: UKD Project-a RL Band Rocks Second Life! -Sandy Demina Reporting...

UKD Project was founded in 2006, UKD stands for United Kingdom of Delight because for us it's really important that people can enjoy the show by having fun and feeling involved in the project and the results are excellent. UKD Project has also become one of Second Life's strongest realities and they have been playing successfully for over two years in Second Life's virtual venues always making the highest peak of listeners during their live events.
The first album "Beyond two worlds" entered immidiately in the souls of the people and has been sold in several parts of the world. The band is now out with their second album, "The moon and the water" that includes many marvellous tunes like : "Treasure", "Bring me to Second Life", "Uncomparable lies" and many other new original songs.

They are playing original songs composed by Anto and Rola.
The originals are variate with famous covers.
The genre of their music is a mix of pop, soul and rock.

SANDY:Let's talk about SL : what brought you inworld?

Laura: We started because a customer of ours asked infos about SL and this was really the first step cos we thought that this "non traditional" media could have a nice impact on peolpe all around the world, at least for the music. It actually is a nice way to diffuse your tunes touching all the continents.

SANDY:Did you ever think to use your real name for what you usually do in Second Life?
Laura: Sure we usually use the real names during the gigs, well Anto is also registered using his real name and I registered as Rola cos I had too many difficulties to find the combination I wanted with my name Laura, but actually I always use my real name when I present myself and of course we have a site , facebook and my space related to our SL activity so I think it’s right to use a real name for us real musicians, this is not a game for us, well of course I am talking about professional bands or artists, not about people that makes it for fun.

SANDY:Where are you from?

Laura: We are from north Italy, Lago (Lake) Maggiore, 40 minutes from Milano.

SANDY:How long have you been playing music?

Laura: Anto started in the late 70’s and grew with the progressive music that put the basis to the actual productions that he mixes with electronic music, pop soul, dance and R&B.

I started to sing in 1996 and took my influences from Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Cher. Now am naturally transforming my chant very much in R&B style. This permits me to touch all the modern music styles and genres. I think it’s very important for an artist to evolve and sometimes transform but without loosing his or her characteristic style.



SANDY:What instruments do you play?

Laura: Anto is pianist and I play my voice hahahaha

SANDY:What you like to do here in Second Life when you are not playing?Do you like shopping or going to music concerts or art exhibits?
Laura: I seldom enter SL when I don’t have gigs, but if I do is only to talk with some nice friends I have on met in the inworld. Anto lieks also to build and make videos and explore new places…maybe t shoot videos for UKD. We use to have a lots of fun when we organize one week long video shootings.

SANDY:What has influenced you to get your to where you are today musically?
Laura: Well as I told before my influences comes from soul singers but I love my own way to perform and I think that if a singer has the talent and the experience and power infront of the mic well gosh…she or he does not need to imitate but will find the own way as I think I did.

Anto got his influences by genesis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dreams and Enigma and now some early style rock bands like The Keene, Kino and so on. We both mix our experiences together so when we compose we got a perfect combination of what we want to reach in our expressions.

SANDY:Do you think SL can be a valid showcase for your RL works?
Laura: Well we have produced 2 cds since we play in sl and we are working on our third double one so…yes I think it is a valid showcase.

In 2007: Beyond Two Worlds

In 2008: The Moon and the Water

And now in 2010 “A voice from the future” and “Surrounded by dreams” so divided because we are working on a cd totally played in dream stylewith some original ideas that we can’t talk about now obviously because we would like this to be a sort of innovative idea. Hope people will appreciate this J


SANDY:How would you describe your style?

Laura: We use many styles in our music cos as I told before we don’t want to be scheduled in only one genre. We are pop, rock, dance, soul and R&B trying to mix together those styles in one album. This is very exciting and never boring. I can’t listen to an album that has the same genre from the beginning to the end.



SANDY:Which are the sources of your inspiration?
Laura: Well I can write about everything except politics…I hate songs about politics and I don’t like too honeyfull lovesongs. I love intelligent and hidden meanings in songs and I have fun in writing lyrics about what I feel inside of myself, whitch is nearly always happiness so I love to write about positive feelings, trying to transmit them to the listeners.

And Anto composes the music from his inside inspiration too.

Sometimes our songs starts from my melody and sometimes from his melody, in this way we mix styles and have fun.

SANDY:Do you use other kind of digital promotions?
Laura: Basically we count on our website to promote all our works: http://ukdproject.com

We have a youtube channel for the videos:

http://youtube.com/ukdproject

MySpace, Facebook and so on and we have our music on all the principal stores like itunes and Amazon and so on.


SANDY:Where do you see yourself a year from now:will Second Life still exist?
Laura: Sure it will exist. SL Is only in the beginning of its journey and I think the future will help us for exemple to reach a higher audience without crashing sims and also probably get he instrument stronger by streaming videos easily. By now we go on like this….crashing.And …as everybody tells me about my laughter I would end this interview first of all thanking You Sandy and then ….hahahahahha keep on smiling! See you all on our gigs.

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Mike00 Carnell 's guitar gently plays in Second Life- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, September 20, 2010

If you ever get the chance to listen to Mike00 Carnell playing live in Second Life you definitely shouldn't  miss this experience! He plays guitar with an amazing talent and you will like both his original tunes and the soulful covers of great musicians such as Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler.

In SL he plays his fantastic Fender Strat USA deluxe and earlier in the day his new Taylor 414ce electro acoustic guitar. He plays a couple of songs from his favorite musiciand some funky songs, a few slow instrumental softrock songs and some other rock songs.
Mike is not only a great musician but he is also one of the nicest person I ever met inworld.

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT: Benisimo Luik: Songs from the Apartment...- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Benisimo Luik is a singer/songwriter based in the UK.
From his flat , Ben hopes to reach out to music lovers across SL and the world with his performance of covers by some of his favourite artists plus a sprinkling of his own works based on his life of passionate relationships and broken hearts.

He usually does covers from Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Doors, The Steve Miller Band, David Gray, Snow Patrol, James Morrison, The Flaming Lips and many more!
We had a nice conversation about music in Second Life... 

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MUSIC- Sinatra Cartier: The Voice of our Second Life!- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, August 30, 2010

Sinatra Cartier has been in Second Life since beta, 1/8/2003 : on its virtual stage he’s been performing Frank Sinatra's greatest music.

His "first life" name is Rick Ellis and he performs a show called:

"RICK ELLIS SINGS SINATRA"
A See-It-To-Believe-It Tribute
To The Chairman of the Board!

You can listen to demo here:
www.Sinatra.bz

INTERVIEW

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Dubai Jazz-My Way: Milla Rasmuson's dream in SL

Staff Reporter • Monday, August 23, 2010

Milla Rasmuson is a virtual business woman, whose businesses in SL all share one thing in common; They are really more of a services offered store than a place to purchase physical items.

She’s a fashion designer both in RL and SL: she creates model and mainstream cloths.

She discovered SL in 2007, reading an article about it that made her curious what SL was all about so she signed in.

From the beginning she was amazed about the live musicians performing in SL and thought, let her do something in the live music scene in SL.

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Musician Spotlight- Swina Allen's Italian mood in Second Life- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Thursday, August 12, 2010

Swina Allen is an IT manager whose life has always gone with the music.
When he was 14 he bought his first Eko guitar and he started playing and writing his own music. He loves also playing keyboard and piano:he has an awesome 1920 's Hofman-Khune piano on whose ivory keyboard he took his first jazz piano lessons...but the guitar was always on his way.When electronic music was accessible to his pocket he bought his first Roland hardware sequencer and a Roland synth and arranger. Soon after he got a Yamaha like strato electric guitar with a 100 W Montarbo valve ampli. He love to work with software sequencers like FLStudio, Sonar or Cakewalk to produce his own music.
A couple of years ago he discovered the virtual stages in Second Life, where he has packed all the inworld venues where he performs. His love of the jazz/blues genre comes through in his melodic verses and smooth rhythms. 

He only performs original tunes but sometimes he sings in his own way some greatest tunes:Springsteen's "Devils and Dust" and Sergio Endrigo's "Io che ho amo solo te" or Ivano Fossati's "Il bacio sulle labbra" among his favourites.

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT- Angee Seetan:my online music in Second Life- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, August 02, 2010

  Angee Seetan is one of the most popular singer in SL, with her really,what you hear is what you get. She has been singing for many years online and off, her musical style includes a wide range from country to soft rock, pop to jazz. If she likes it she sings it.

She is one more example of 100% “virtual” performer, who found in SL a great chance to share her music with a great number of persons from all over the world, she's also an awesome person, and here below you will find our conversation about music and (second) life.

 

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IN MUSIC- JooZz Magic's brilliant sound in Second Life - Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, July 26, 2010

JooZz is a Dutch musician, who started his musical career at the age of six. Playing the recorder first, which was replaced by the piano a year later. First band was formed at high school and ever since JooZz is deeply in love with Music.
In 1982 he entered the Rotterdam Conservatory, but family business needed him badly. Now, a few years later, it's Music Time again. Time for a second career...and hey, a Second Life as well !

The music of JooZz is best described as “coming from nowhere, going places”. Starting from scratch, JooZz takes you along to many exciting musical destinations, transferring breathtaking vistas into jewels of brilliant sound. Sometimes danceable, always rich, spiked with healthy doses of melancholy and lessons of life. Using the piano as a base point of reference, JooZz’s compositions, independent of any music style, keep your mind in motion until the next time you hit the ‘play’ button.

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MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT-Azriahl Alternative Rock- Sandy Demina Reporting...

Staff Reporter • Monday, July 12, 2010

Ontario native Kevin Kennedy (also known as Azriahl) brings a knife's edge to his solo acoustic performance as well as power and command in full band format. This is not the usual strumming balladeer. Soulful curios sifted from post-grunge rubble combine with his earthy candor to create rich songs and lyrical imagery. As broad as his northern home land, Azriahl's influences span the edgy rock of Alice in Chains, introspect of Radiohead, and gives a respectful nod to storytellers like Bob Dylan.
More than a decade behind the microphone has given Kevin an easy going but seasoned stage presence that engages his audience. He has the experience and instinct to absorb a crowd's energy and give it back in his performance. He thrives on it in fact and lively performances and approachability make Azriahl a crowd favorite anywhere he goes.

 

Typically, Azriahl’s sound falls into “Hard Rock Alternative”, and is always adding to his list of original songs as well as personalizing covers to breathe fresh life into inspiring tracks. As a band, they love outdoor festivals and gatherings, willing to place their music into the hearts and minds of anyone in attendance.
Azriahl after 2 years and half of live performance in Second Life is not so much inworld as before.However I've been lucky to catch him on line and so he kindly responded to my usual little virtual interview...

 

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