Anyma stuns at the first EDM concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas | Music

Arms outstretched, the humanoid woman with pulsating blue veins leans back and falls into a glowing, leaf-strewn abyss on the giant video screen in front of us.

She leads by example: For the thousands gathered here, this evening is about taking a similar plunge down an audiovisual rabbit hole of light and sound and a lot of computer-generated eyeballs blinking in time.

“Explore your future,” a woman’s voice commands in song over rhythms that hit the sternum like a sledgehammer, and that’s exactly what it feels like we’re doing here at the Sphere on Friday during the opening performance of “The End of Genesys.” “, Italian-American DJ-producer Anyma’s new eight-show residency, the first six of which sold out 100,000 tickets within 24 hours between presale and presale sold.

The Sphere’s first electronic music concert seemed a long time coming – even though the venue has only been open for just over a year – especially because its mountain-sized video screens and state-of-the-art sound system are perfectly designed to accommodate the innovative visual and to catapult the genre’s acoustic properties even further into the high-tech stratosphere.

And Anyma, who describes himself as “a hybrid personality who simultaneously coexists in the digital and physical realms,” is exactly the type who takes full advantage of Sphere’s audio-video innovations.

As the title of his residency suggests, Anyma on Friday delved deeply into his 2023 debut album, Genesys, whose songs are simultaneously bright and dark, with big, lilting synth lines and driving rhythms that stretch their arms in the air in contrast to slightly dystopian themes that explore the gap between humans and machines.

The album’s visual presentation revolves around the aforementioned humanoid Eva, a synthetic being in search of human connection. Their quest to overcome their artificial origins is documented in a series of breathtaking clips presented throughout the evening that have to be seen to be believed – and even then you might find yourself rubbing your pupils just to make sure Don’t fall into a futuristic fever dream.

Wait, did we just see Ellie Goulding’s face shatter into a series of puzzle-piece-like shards, exposing circuitry tendrils, after being massaged by multiple pairs of different colored hands? Yes indeed. This happened during the debut of Anyma’s new track with the British singer.

Another pop star who made a King Kong-sized appearance in Anyma’s video presentation was his partner Grimes, who writhed in a bright bodysuit during their song “The Last Artists.”

Aside from the truly trippy visuals, there were also plenty of real flourishes: Anyma performed in a towering, lighted DJ booth, flanked by robots on similarly tall stands, who at one point played the cello.

“How does it feel to be real?” singer Sevdaliza asked herself during Anyma’s “Samsara”.

Good question.

Ask any of these cello-playing robots.

Contact Jason Bracelin at [email protected] or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.