Soothing sunsets, autumn leaves, gentle fields of grain. . . amber is there in many of nature’s most embracive scenes. No wonder this color has such an uncanny ability to wrap itself around an audience, drawing them into a uniquely transcendent space.

“The amber of the moment,” author Kurt Vonnegut of “Slaughter House Five” fame called it.

Ed Warren created such a moment for Four Tet’s appearance at Berlin’s iconic Velodrom when he enveloped the entire 5,000-capacity room in an immersive sea of amber, as shown in the photo above by Markus Werner.

The Manchester-based LD projected this amber display from a single continuous 62-metre strip of battens that ran across the entire stage above the DJ booth. From this position, the fan of amber spread out wall-to-wall across the spacious room over the packed crowd, creating a sense that a mythical force, or perhaps a setting sun lay just beyond the stage. Using the entire room as his canvas, Warren created a feeling of movement by graduating the colors overhead, as his light emanated from the stage, going from white-almost yellow, to a more orange tinged amber.

Through the course of the show, Warren changed to other colors and configurations, but at this particular “amber of the moment,” he captured something deeply moving and mysterious. It was, in his words “heaven.” We couldn’t agree more.

Those lights you directed over the crowd really stopped us in our tracks! How many were there? How many fixtures did you use to create them?
“I had a center truss—a continuous 62-metre strip of linear battens, plus two additional 62-metre trusses on either side, evenly spread with spots and strobes. The center truss was on a frame that allowed movement and dynamic positioning. We’ve been playing around with slow-moving, thin sheets of light for a while at various shows, and when my client announced this one, my instant thought was to see how long a sheet we could create. So, I just drew a straight truss right down the room. It seemed to turn a large arena into a nightclub in an instant. The idea was to break the scale of the venue and create a more immersive, intimate atmosphere. A single, uninterrupted line of light running the length of the space was a simple yet powerful way to reshape the room.”

What angle were the lights tilted at?
“All the trusses were perfectly horizontal, except for the Centre truss, which we tilted to about 25 degrees at certain points, with the lowest point just three meters above floor height. At times, we dropped it completely horizontal to three meters, making it nearly within reach of the crowd. It created a really ominous, imposing presence.”

You mentioned making the room feel intimate. How big was that space?
“The Velodrom floor space is 68-metres long and 38-metres wide, with a standing capacity of around 5,000.”

Can you tell us which specific colors you selected for those beams?
“I like to develop Kieran’s (Four Tet’s) shows incrementally as they can last up to 5 hours. For the first hour, the only light in the room came from his desk lamps. Then, as we moved into the second hour, I introduced a few bars, slowly adding more elements over time. I didn’t use any spots until three hours into the show. For that first hour of lighting (the second hour of the show), I only used white or shades of off-white. That way, when I eventually introduced color, it had a more jarring, dramatic impact.”

We don’t usually see shades of amber in such dramatic beam displays. Why did you choose that color?
“A lot of the music Kieran plays has an organic, warm feel to it, unlike the colder, mechanical sound of some techno. I’ve spent plenty of time on dance floors myself, and I tend to light a room based on how I’d want to feel if I were down there. It usually works out right. It’s easy to bombard dancers with strobes and intense hits for five hours, but I think it’s just as important to create a space where people feel encouraged to dance—where the lighting wraps them in a kind of warmth rather than just assaulting them.”

The colors got darker as they moved further from the light source. What effect do you think that had on the overall look?
“Because the whole room was my canvas (rather than focusing on a stage or single performance area), I could build patterns and shapes across a huge X/Y/Z space. I spent hours in the visualizer crafting symmetrical positions and effects—90-percent symmetry, 10-percent controlled chaos. At times, I’d let an effect run and I’d take a wander around the dance floor, experiencing it from different angles. Wherever I went, I felt completely immersed in my own DMT-inspired geometry. It was heaven.”

You used white light in the beams too. What color temperature?
“It ranged from 3,000K to 6,500K depending on the mood. The first actual light of the show, after the desk lamps, was a 2,700K thin, slow-moving sheet of light sweeping across the room. I left it running for about 15 minutes, just watching it glide over the crowd. It was incredibly satisfying.”

You repeated the amber palette on the walls. Why was that?
“That was a happy accident. I lit the walls only briefly, almost as a reminder that they were still there. It was like revealing the edges of the space for a moment—just enough to pull people back from feeling like they were floating in another dimension.”

How did this look reflect the mood of the show?
“Kieran’s shows are a journey through his vast musical palette—there’s no set formula or predictability. I often ask if he has any tracks in mind that I should prepare for, but he never tells me. I just have to be ready for anything. I think the reason we’ve worked together so well for 17 years is that I approach every show as if I’m part of the crowd.

“My role is to bridge the gap between the music and the audience through light, and there’s something deeply satisfying about following him on that journey. Having the center strip meant I could create looks in the moment that I hadn’t even imagined in the visualizer—triangular tunnels, flat horizontal sheets, intricate lattice formations. When the show ended, I didn’t want it to stop. I could’ve kept going for hours, gradually building and evolving the space. Luckily, we’ve got two more of these in London later this year!”