Kölsch Visuals & live shows

Building the live show

For DJ and producer Kölsch, we developed custom visuals for his live shows and tours. We’ve collaborated closely for nearly a decade, developing visuals across multiple tours, performances and live productions. Most recently we’ve provided the visuals for his Kölsch and the Machine tour.

For his album I Talk To Water, we created a visual package inspired by the themes of the record.The album explores more introspective themes, which became an important starting point for the visuals. Water is a central theme, and this allowed us to explore the underwater world through motion and atmosphere, while staying true to Kölsch’s surreal visual identity.

We’ve not only created visuals for Kölsch but also supported his live shows both technically and conceptually, where music, light, and visuals run tightly in sync in real time. For this edition, the goal was to create a new, larger show in which the new underwater-inspired material was integrated into the performance and the lighting design played a greater role.

Early live production in Sydney, Australia.

The challenge

Kölsch placed full confidence in our team to design a visual narrative that matches the pacing of the entire set. Building a live show isn’t just about individual tracks,  it’s about establishing a visual progression that supports the performance from start to finish.

A timeline view helps to break down the different sections into visual cues.

The approach

The visuals must serve the performance: knowing when to support the music, when to step back, and when to push the energy forward. We spent time dissecting the setlist to understand the changing energy throughout the set, from moments of calm to build-up and full release. The aim was to shape a visual rhythm that follows the journey the music takes you on and amplifies its impact.

Some tracks had to be created from the ground up, with custom animation designed to reflect the energy and structure of the music. For others, we turned to the I Talk To Water visuals, remixing them directly in-engine to fit the new context. This combination allowed us to stay flexible while maintaining a consistent visual language across the full set.

The creative foundation was rooted in Kölsch’s distinct dreamlike world, an aesthetic we’ve helped bring to life for years. For this tour, we were once again invited to explore that world.

His visual identity draws heavily from surrealism, distorted architecture and dreamlike environments, themes that helped define the visual direction of the live set.

Older works of our collaboration with Kölsch.

The process

With some initial input from Kölsch to help define the tone, we developed early concepts, moodboards, sketches, and styleframes to translate those ideas visually. He responded positively to the direction, which gave us a clear foundation to move into production with confidence.

Collecting and refining ideas is messy and satisfying at the same time.

Each track has its own mood, which we aimed to translate into visuals. The conceptual framework gave us room to explore a wide range of ideas, yet every visual choice had to serve the show’s overall narrative.

The full set was built as a carefully considered mix of full-length pre-rendered visuals, VJ-style loops, and real-time effects. Some tracks required complete visual sequences timed precisely to the music, designed to evolve throughout the track rather than rely on short, repeatable loops. Other tracks made use of shorter loops or live-triggered elements. This hybrid approach gave us the flexibility to meet the specific needs of each track while keeping the overall show cohesive and tightly synced.

For production of the visuals, we used our core pipeline: Cinema 4D for 3D animation, rendered with a mix of Octane and Redshift. Compositing and 2D integration were handled in After Effects.

We used Unreal Engine to build real-time scenes where necessary. For example, the gliding mountain sequence in Seite2, which is used during a long breakdown in the middle of the track. Unreal allowed us to build large realtime environments that would have been impractical to render traditionally.

A shot like this would have been hugely impractical to render traditionally.

Tracks required entirely different visual techniques and workflows, ranging from realtime environments to heavily processed and distorted imagery.

Don’t worry, it’s not your computer monitor that’s broken, that’s just the visual for OPA.

Live setup

Videosync, a visual engine for Ableton Live, formed the core of the live show’s visual structure. Full-track animations and shorter loops were imported and arranged much like an audio set by the performer. This setup allowed us to structure the visuals with a musical mindset. With this approach, we can emphasize even the smallest details in the music while remaining flexible enough to accommodate last-minute changes.

Videosync enabled us to treat video as audio inside Ableton Live, triggering and looping exactly on beat.

During the final production stages, we collaborated closely with lighting designer Andre Beekmans from The Art of Light to align ideas and ensure a cohesive performance. During the show, we sent timecode to Andre to keep visuals and lighting tightly synchronized.

Final production meeting with the whole team at The Art of Light studios.

The result

The final result was a live show where visuals, lighting and music operated as one continuous realtime performance. The previous iteration toured globally, with performances in cities like London, Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, and major European festivals. The new show debuted in London. This ongoing collaboration between artist, visuals, and lighting is something we’re proud to contribute to, not just as creators, but as part of the live crew working behind the scenes.

“Studio Rewind has done an incredible job bringing my music to life. Auke and the team are extremely talented and create visuals bar to none. They have helped me countless times over past decade with everything from my live shows to DJ sets.”– Kölsch