'ABBA VOYAGE' LIKE NO OTHER

It took over five years from conceptualization to execution to launch the mixed reality show called “ABBA Voyage,” with computer-generated avatars performing like the original foursome backed by a 10-piece live instrumental band in a custom-built arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park east of this city proper.

- By JOAQUIN HENSON

Don’t think “ABBA Voyage” features a tribute quartet pretending to be Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus. They’re avatars on stage, not holograms, created from the image and likeness of the four ABBA stars who, for five weeks in a Stockholm studio, were strapped with sensors hooked to computers that brought human movement into clones.

ABBA sang, danced, emoted and spoke wearing motion-capture suits in the digital process to bring to life avatars that took the form of the four in how they looked in 1979.

Creating the avatars was half the challenge. The other half was producing a 90-minute concert with avatars belting out ABBA's biggest hits on three 9.5-meter-high, 65-million-pixel LED TVs. The main screen is at center stage where the avatars appear in human size. Two giant panels flank the middle to magnify the performers.