“Cirque Dreams” music by Conrad Askland and David Piché. © 2017.
We recorded this song in Prague, Czech Republic in 2017 while performing music for the world tour of Varekai by Cirque du Soleil. David was violinist in Varekai and I was the Bandleader and Keyboardist.
At the time I was taking a music production class with Berklee College of Music. What was actually tricky for me in producing this song was that as part of the class, I couldn’t use any of my normal software, plugins or outboard gear. Imagine being used to playing a Steinway grand piano and then someone gives you a mini Casio keyboard to play. That’s what it felt like but the point of the class was to put us out of our comfort zones and take away all the bells and whistles.
We recorded the parts in our hotel rooms the week that Varekai was in Prague. David Piché is an incredible violinist and I encourage you to check out his work on YouTube and your favorite streaming app.
The video was fun to work on using “Cirque Dreams” as a theme. I think it’s common to have work dreams and I’m sure most of my fellow Cirque du Soleil artists have also had their own Cirque dreams. We have the life dreams of art we want to express and then we have literal dreams from our work environment.
When I am performing on shows I usually have the dream that the show is about to begin and I can’t find my way to the stage. Kind of like that famous scene from “Spinal Tap”. But the dreams in this video are a little more poetic and I hope you enjoy it.