The Future’s DJs No Longer Spin Records, but instead Code Music.
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Renick Bell and the Bay Area live-coding scene are revolutionizing the way we approach electronic music. At the recent Algorithmic Art Assembly festival in San Francisco, musicians and artists gathered to showcase their skills in algorithmic and generative composition. Attendees were treated to talks and demonstrations, as well as performances by popular algorave acts like Kindohm, DVO, Kit Clayton, and Algobabez.
Live-coding shows like these represent a departure from traditional EDM concerts, where the performer simply cues up sounds or samples. Instead, artists use computers to create music in an entirely new way, synthesizing individual noises and instructing software algorithms to string them together based on predefined rules.
The resulting compositions bear the artist’s fingerprint but are shaped entirely by the algorithms. This is the ultimate merger of human creativity and machine precision. The events that celebrate this form of generative composition have been aptly named algoraves, highlighting the fact that this is a new frontier in electronic music.
The music has a common aesthetic, leaning towards chaotic and aggressive electronica popularized by the UK band Autechre, but also branching out in other directions such as ambient, dub, and even straightforward dance music. The use of live coding as a performance technique has opened up new possibilities for artists, allowing for creations that are never the same twice.
The Algorithmic Art Assembly festival was not only a celebration of algorithmic music and art but also a showcase for the intersections between tech, art, and culture. In addition to musicians, programmers like Olivia Jack also demonstrated their systems for live-coding trippy visuals in a web browser. Artist Windy Chien handed out pieces of rope and taught attendees how to tie a complex knot, illustrating the concept of rules-based creation.
Live-coding shows like these are a welcomed departure from traditional EDM shows. They offer a new level of creativity and precision that is only achievable through the use of algorithms. With the algorave movement gaining in popularity, we can expect to see more and more musicians experimenting with live coding to create unique soundscapes that are never the same twice.
