The Biggest Ideas Don't Have Ceilings. Labyrinth and High Scream on Pushing the Limits of Live Music

Live music promoter Labyrinth and creative production company High Scream on big ideas, unexpected spaces, and taking experiences to the next level with their latest venture - transforming a UNESCO World Heritage Site into a live music venue.

London is once again proving itself to be the world’s greatest playground for live music. On the hunt for the next fun experience to add to my calendar - as I was on a mission to be outside this summer - I took myself down to one of the biggest events this season for electronic music.

Having just released their latest album Pure Devotion the same day, Overmono made history by being the first electronic act to play at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Old Royal Naval College in Cutty Sark. This night, fully curated by the duo, stood out as truly one of the most visually stunning events I might have been to for a while. It made me realise that we crave seeing the artists we love in new, unlikely places, much like this iconic landmark. Personally, I’ve always loved being by the Thames, with the water in view and boats constantly passing by. So, with the stage positioned right on the river, watching Overmono play as the London skyline sat across the water and the sunset started peeking through the clouds made for a pretty perfect summer evening.

But who are the brains behind transforming a space to produce an event that goes beyond the traditional club or concert venue, and upping the standard every time? Promoters are getting increasingly creative with the spaces they choose and sometimes, the setting can become just as memorable as the show itself.

That’s something Labyrinth knows a thing or two about. Known for putting on electronic music shows in spectacular locations, they saw an opportunity in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Whilst the space was already opening its doors to more intimate, calmer concerts, the idea of bringing electronic music there for the first time felt almost like a no-brainer.

To help bring that vision to life, Labyrinth joined forces with production company High Scream. Together, the two creative powerhouses have produced a string of shows that took place at this UNESCO World Heritage Site and still respect it, play with it and collaborate completely with the natural architecture that holds 600 years of rich history.

I was able to get the opportunity to speak with Romain, the founder of creative production company High Scream and Michael, co-founder of Labyrinth to understand how they manage to knock it out of the park every single time. 

With both Michael and Romain having spent a fair few years working within the entertainment industry, for Romain, the pursuit of bigger and more ambitious production has always been a long-standing mission. Now 48, he traces that ambition back to his teenage years, when he was already trying to convince electronic artists that their shows needed to be treated as more than just a backdrop for the music. “I will sound very old. I'm 48 years old and I think I started when I was 17. So many, many years. And I was always the kid trying to convince all the electronic artists that they needed to do big production and big design. And everyone was like, why would we do that?”

Michael has witnessed that evolution from a different angle, having spent three decades working in the industry and watching production and design become increasingly integral to the live experience. Recent years have marked an exciting period for show design, with electronic music proving especially suited to the possibilities of visual production. “I've been around for 30 years and probably 20 that production and design were part of the experience. I think it gradually came to that, and the last five years have become much more interesting for the show design world. Electronic music works so well with that, so that's something we enjoy a lot of what we're doing at the moment.”

That shared appreciation for production is also what brought Michael and Romain together. As Michael became more immersed in electronic music and its surrounding culture, he began to recognise the very evolution Romain had spent years advocating for.

For Romain, he points to the attention to detail and commitment to quality as key to what makes Michael and his team successful, while emphasising the responsibility that comes with asking audiences to invest their time and money in an event. That attention to detail is something Michael admits can become an obsession. While the audience may never consciously notice every technical decision made behind the scenes, he believes they can feel the cumulative effect of those choices. "I think sometimes you get stuck in the details a little bit too much. And even this year, how we're rigging the lighting club, but making it clean at the same time has been my biggest concern and focus.” The difference, he says, can be subtle. Audiences might not walk away knowing exactly what has changed - or why the stage looks different - but they can still sense that something has been elevated.

With an obvious tension between a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contemporary music, I wanted to get their thoughts on how they leaned into the contrast between the two. "It's interesting. You have to respect the space. It's all about the space, right?" Michael begins. "And we're really fortunate in that we've got great collaboration with the Old Royal Naval College. They understood what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it really well. But the space is completely symmetrical. It was designed 300 years ago also as a space of gathering and I think it was basically built for gatherings, not necessarily concerts, but they have had concerts there.” 

With a perfect view of the Queen’s House which is across the road and part of the Royal Family’s property, you need to seek permission from them to put a stage up that would potentially block the view to St Paul’s. “So that's when we came up with this idea of this mirror stage which reflects all the surroundings, but also with no rear roof sheets. It creates loads of challenges in itself.” Michael explains. “Romain helped us design it and the concept that we iterated was something that just complements the space. And it can't be too big. It can't be too imposing. At the same time, it needs to blend in.”

“It's really interesting to mix modernity and this beautiful venue,” agrees Romain. “I think they blend really well together. The mirror obviously helped a lot. And I think the contrast between modern and old, if it's well done, works really well. It’s an incredible location but when you see the stage in there, it doesn’t look out of place. I think both architectures work pretty well together.”

But things can also get quite complicated when you think about all the technical elements of how exactly something is going to work out. Deciding to put clear roof sheets was a must as part of this set design, but then came all of the tiny details that made it all the more complex such as commissioning them to exact measurements or storing them correctly. “I don't think people realise how much work goes behind it." Michael says. "And then also, the idea of then trying to hang significant weight from a structure which effectively we don't want any trusses on because it needs to be as clear as possible and trying to make it weatherproof as well if we need to. It's challenging, but we love it.”

Lighting and visuals are the elements that have always had a big impact on my experience when attending live events. It was interesting to understand how they took that into account to make it an euphoric experience as well as use the buildings that already exist to make them all feel conjoined like family. Romain agrees, “I love the family thing. Basically, as you say, it's electronic music so nowadays it has become a concept. So you need to have a light design that allows you to create those big, very impressive looks. But at the same time, it's a party. It's strangely two different ways you use both lights. Then you need to create a light design that each artist can create their own identity with it. Peggy Gou can't be the same as Adriatique. And the last, but probably the most important is the venue is so iconic and spectacular in terms of it's almost theatrical. It's beautiful during the day, but you want it to be beautiful during the night. So you want something that is beautiful and all the architecture is really well lit. You want something to create a party with this immersive vibe. I think it's this mix of these ingredients. And I think that's what I love the most in electronic, is this mix between party and concert, how you blend both. And then we decided to make it even harder by booking some live artists as well.” 

But with all these ideas come with restraints too. Many artists need their own different types of lights or visuals which they tried to avoid to not block the view behind. The venue had different types of restrictions that all needed to be taken into account and some of their weirdly wonderful ideas, unfortunately, were just not going to run. “The first design we had, had lights on the roof of the buildings going all the way down and continuing right down to the underground square.” Michael says. “And I think the more we looked into it, the more we realised that the realities of doing shows in UNESCO spaces doesn't always work with the dream idea that you go to bed with.”

From creating exceptional events at the Pyramids of Giza or on the Statue of Liberty, High Scream have always strived to go further, pushing the boat each time. I wondered if those projects have taught Romain any differences between working at a landmark and working with a landmark. “The first question you asked was how many years have you been doing this and I said probably 30 years. But each experience is really unique and interesting.” Romain says. Constraints aren't necessarily something to work around; they can be what makes a project exciting. He compares the design process to a board game, where the more variables you have to navigate, the more interesting the challenge becomes. "You mentioned the Statue of Liberty, that one was really unique… that was the challenge of life. I really enjoy to work in very different spaces.” He recalls a show at the Louvre in Paris as an example. Rather than approaching the historic venue with the conventional idea of just building a stage, he wanted to rethink the entire setup. The more i hear Romain speak, I can tell he actually loves to be challenged. The way he reminisces about when people would tell him “no”, you can see how happy he is to let you know that he found a way around it. “You need to be more creative in a way. You need to not use the usual rules to create those shows, from that you can create very different experiences. And I don't try to make them different, it's just every venue is so different that you need to work with it. I think it was Mark Twain who said ‘They did not know it was impossible so they did it’ so that’s a good philosophy we have.” 

Similarly for Michael, that desire to push beyond the expected is not only a creative ambition, but something he sees as a responsibility. In an increasingly saturated market, he believes promoters have to keep finding new ways to surprise audiences and give them a reason to keep coming back. That willingness to experiment is ultimately what keeps a promoter relevant. The aim isn't simply to be different for the sake of it, but to continually look for new possibilities and challenge what audiences expect from a live event. That raises a broader question about the audience itself. In a city like London, where there is no shortage of established music venues, are audiences now looking for something beyond the traditional concert experience?

“100%. Everything today is about experience.” Michael affirms. “It's how we've built the business that we have today. And it's always been, ‘how do we deliver this to someone?’ because it’s not just the concert, but it’s a day out and it’s an experience. We had no idea how Greenwich was going to go a year and a half ago when we announced it. And I remember being up all night the day before we were going to announce it thinking, ‘Jesus, this is a massive risk’. We had all our artists confirmed and everything was that I felt it was on this rollercoaster that was just moving forward. As soon as we announced it and all the tickets sold out straight away, the second part of it was 'right, now how do we deliver the best thing that people have ever been to?’ And we sat down and thought, what are the best elements of every show you've ever been to that you want to put into this event? And so that's when the sound system tripled in size, the lighting budget went up, the stage… if anyone waits for more than two minutes for a drink, it's not acceptable, so we put more bars in, we put more staff in. For any show it has to be perfect and it's what we strive for. It must drive everyone insane but excellence and perfection is just what we aim for."

For Michael, the most memorable part of an event isn't necessarily the venue or the visual spectacle. When he thinks back to the festivals and shows he's attended himself, it's the sound that stays with him. For Romain, he tends to love the extremely small details that bring it altogether, showing that people really put thought and care into everything. But ultimately, for both, their shared passion is all about creating an experience that stays with people long after the night is over.

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