Creative Production Studio High Scream endeavour to create a new genre of entertainment in Black Coffee’s latest The O2 show

GRAMMY Award-winning DJ and producer Black Coffee brought his orchestral live show to London’s The O2 on Friday (22 May), marking both the European debut of the production and his largest UK headline performance to date. The show transforms his unmistakable Afropolitan House sound into a show resembling a hybrid of theatre, concert, rave and conceptual art. Stepping away from traditional electronic music performances, the production centred around an ambitious 360-degree stage positioned in the middle of the O2 Arena, with analogue visuals projected onto an enormous curtain rig framed by draped fabric suspended from the ceiling, entirely avoiding the use of conventional digital displays.

At the centre of the visionary stage production and the collaborative minds behind the show is creative producer and founder, Romain Pissenem and his creative studio High Scream. Having worked as the creative studio behind performances for artists such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta, and for brands such as UEFA and Disney, High Scream works as a full-spectrum creative lead, overseeing stage design, lighting and visual aesthetics, props, content, illustration and orchestra coordination. The creative studio continues to rip up the rulebook of live performance, and with this show, delivers one of the most visually and emotionally ambitious live productions in contemporary electronic music. This performance culminates a long-standing creative partnership with Black Coffee, having previously collaborated across his Hï Ibiza residency, Coachella performance and landmark sell-out show at Madison Square Garden.

High Scream was born from raves and parties Pissenem threw in his local theatre in the north-east of France during the late 1990s. “What was really interesting was as soon as we started to [throw parties] in the theatre, every three weeks[…] they would change the decorations. Doing parties at night on the stage of the theatre, with the people dancing in the middle of the decorations where you have a mix of theatre lights for decoration but also we were bringing things like strobes[…] it was really something I loved. I thought, “Imagine if I’m able to translate that party energy into a show, that would be fantastic,” recalls Romain. From then, it became his mission to bring elements of theatre into electronic music, with the goal of “bringing the energy of a big celebration into a story,” to create “a new genre of entertainment”.

Applying that ambition to Black Coffee’s recent performance proves that Pissenem’s vision has been fully realised. Rather than approaching the production with the idea of simply placing a large LED screen behind the performers, which was not exciting enough for him, he instead focused on how he could tell the story of Black Coffee’s life as the backbone of the design. “Before [Black Coffee] had his accident and lost his arm, he wanted to be a proper musician[…] and when he lost his arm he couldn’t play instruments, so he started doing things like mixing and becoming a DJ.” Challenging the typical set-up in which an orchestra becomes the main event while the DJ plays a secondary role, Black Coffee instead became the centre of the configuration, acting as a conductor leading the music. “I think that creates something super interesting and it’s at the same time very energetic and very poetic and I think the atmosphere it creates is really, really special.”

The challenge Pissenem faced when translating his stage design for the show to the O2 Arena was how to make the three-hour performance feel inclusive and one-of-a-kind while placing the experience of the 20,000-strong audience first. “The first stadium show I did was many years ago and I went to visit the stadium, and I walked on the grass. I still have a fine because you can’t walk on the grass, an expensive one, it’s 3,000 euros. I was in the middle of the pit, and I was like, “It doesn’t make any sense,” Arenas, the O2 and stadiums, they’re all designed so you can look in the middle of them, so as soon as you put a stage at the end – and I understand the reason, I do a lot of shows in arenas and, and they’re not always in 360 – but as soon as you put the stage at an extremity, half of the room doesn’t see anything.” 

“I come from a modest family in the north-east of France, and I always think every time I do a show, tickets are not cheap and if you want to bring your family or your girlfriend, your boyfriend, it costs you money to do that and I want to make sure people have a good experience[…]. Nowadays, you can see everything on your phone. You can see concerts on your computer almost live. So if you want people to go to the venue, you need to make sure that they’re close to the [performers]. And [having the stage in the middle] is not easy for a thousand reasons. Building up a 360 stage costs double, you need way more light […] basically double the amount of [speakers] I need to set up. So everything is much more complicated, but you feel so much closer.”

When discussing the philosophy behind the show’s emphasis on human connection, Pissenem expressed his passion for bringing people together, “I think especially more in the world we live in at the moment, music, concerts and entertainment is probably the best place you can put people together. And people from a lot of different origins, cultures, religions, tastes. And that’s always what I love, especially with electronic music, the kind of celebration moment where you can put everyone together. In all the shows we’re doing, this was my priority. How do you put everyone together? How do you make sure people have, for one hour, two hours, three hours a proper moment of celebration where we’re together and it’s a good vibe. After that we go back to the savage world but in that moment, at least there’s connection between people. And I think that first comes with the music, so our job is to take that music and translate it visually so people can hear it, see it, feel it, and suddenly come together[…] it’s how you translate, visually, the musical universe of an artist into an image. So basically you create a kind of living decoration, a kind of experience where suddenly people come all together into that. I think this is why visual shows are very important. People come for the music and the artist, and that has to always stay the centre point, that’s what we do with the frame around. We suddenly take that image and frame it so everyone can come and have a look and be part of it.”

Black Coffee’s orchestral debut at the O2 Arena marked a major moment for both the artist and High Scream, showcasing how large-scale electronic music performances continue to evolve beyond traditional concert formats. With its immersive staging and theatrical ambition, the production offered a glimpse into the future of live electronic music experiences.