More Chouchou - Making music from somewhere far, far away

Ever since Thursday when Evo Szuyuan TP'ed me to a snow-globe jewel in the sky, I have longed to know more about that space... more about the musical group Chouchou - that exists only in Second Life - and more about their incredibly haunting song and music video "coma," which was shot in part, at that location.

"coma" Music Video - Chouchou

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I touched base with juliet Heberle (rez: 4/17/2007) yesterday and discovered that she is Japanese, but has been living in Manhattan for the past ten years, while her partner, arabesque Choche (4/8/2007), lives in Tokyo and is half-Japanese/half Central European.

juliet Heberle: Our group name is Chouchou, and the sky place you visited is "Islamey," created for our live concerts (teleport from here, and then walk through the tunnel and touch the crystal ball to teleport up).

Chouchou came into existence in July of 2007.



Bettina Tizzy: What is "coma" about? It seems so ardent.

juliet Heberle: "coma" is sung in a language from nowhere. I created the lyrics, imagining words from somewhere very, very far. Yes, people really like the song, even if they don't know the meaning of the words.

Her almost child-like, completely unforgettable voice, whispers in our ears while we are regaled with imagery that transports us to another mindset. Juliet shared that so far she sings in "Japanese, English and a language out of nowhere."

Bettina Tizzy: Did you and arabesque meet in Second Life? And who did the Machinima?

juliet Heberle: No, we've known each other for a long time, and have met in Real Life, but we can hardly meet each other. It's too far! arabesque made our official videos "coma" and "Islamey." The location, Islamey, opened last fall and changed to a winter version now.

Bettina Tizzy: Who built Islamey?

juliet Heberle: I had those images for the space first, and I collected all the things I needed to assemble it. I then turned to Yuki Aabye - one of a great creators in Second Life, and he helped me to transform my images into shapes.

The icy floral space is delicate and finespun like the most exquisite snowflake, and includes winter trees by Julia Hathor , owner and creator of the four sim Creative Fantasy Home & Garden (teleport directly from here).

Bettina Tizzy: The recordings... done in real life?

juliet Heberle: arabesque first composes the music and sends the data to me through the Internet. I listen to it, and write the lyrics and sing. Then, I send that data back to arabesque, again via the Internet, and he mixes it. We're working on new songs right now, but in the near future, we want to make more videos for our songs.


Photograph courtesy of Chouchou

Bettina Tizzy: Did one of you convince the other to come in-world?

juliet Heberle: I think arabesque told me about Second Life first, and we decided to start together.

You can purchase their music in-world (teleport directly from here), and also pick up a free Radio Box, from which you can stream Juliet's weekly radio program (lasting between one to two hours) on Saturdays at 6am SLT, "Little Tiara."