2003-2023… 20 years of environmentally friendly travel

Recording Festival OBOE at Maison d’Italie, Paris © 2012 Olivier Gascoin

My first trip to Festival OBOE was in 2009 where I recorded three concerts. One year later I documented the 10th instance of the event. Eight concerts at five locations, the Cathédrale Americaine, the subterranean Auditorium de la Cité des Arts, the glass enclosed Conservatoire du Centre at Les Halles, Bateau Daphné on the Seine and the venerable Schola Cantorum. And in 2012 I added video to the mix. Check out this clip from the Dhun in raag Bhairavi featuring Sanjeev & Ashwani Shankar (shennai), Anand Shankar (tabla) and Alain Lutic (surshehnai), performed at the Centre Mandapa.

Traveling light © 2009 Stephen Levine
Traveling with my “BIG RED BOX” @ 2010 Olivier Gascoin

In the meantime I have explored other options as well, a golf caddy for medium sized gigs (housing the microphone stands and cables) and even a large aluminum suitcase that I just had retrofitted with high duty wheels to be able to take the strain. Bottom line: It is possible to realise amazing, award winning audio and video productions* while protecting the environment.

Images © Olivier Gascoin & Thibaut Baissac. Montage © Arnfried Weiss

(* Goldener Bobby 2014 for a recording with Quatuor BRAC)