Éclat Part 79

Avatar eclatcrew | December 14, 2021

It's our last formal workshop for the year, and I'm so excited that we're welcoming live coder, producer and composer Alexandra Cárdenas to be our Guest Curator this evening!

Alexandra will not only be curating our samples for the evening, but will also give us a peek into the world of Live Coding. If you've ever been curious about making music using only computer code, then this is the event for you!

Alexandra Cardenas’ work focuses on the algorithmic behaviour of music and the exploration of musicality within code. She is a core member of the international live coding and algorave communities and teaches and performs worldwide using the live coding languages SuperCollider and TidalCycles. In 2017, she was the Chair of the International Live Coding Conference in Morelia, Mexico. Alexandra studied composition at the Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia, and later completed a Sound Studies and Sonic Arts Master’s Degree at Universität der Künste, Berlin.

Besides her live-coded music works, she has composed contemporary pieces for orchestra, ensembles, and soloists and worked with theater companies in Mexico, Belgium, and Germany. Her independent research on the idea of control in music composition through live coding has taken her to investigate topics as the sublime, randomness and generative creation, embodiment, and more recently, privacy and freedom in digital media. Her current work in progress, the opera CITIZEN 4 for Virtual Reality, is a juncture point of her research and performing and composing experience.

https://alexandracardenas.com/

For our challenge later today, we will use the Amen break:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_break.

This is what Alexandra has to say about today's challenge:
"[The Amen Break] is a very used sample by the TidalCycles community. It's an exquisite way to show how the software works on one hand, and on the other hand, it is great to learn about this very famous sample that we hear constantly. Using this sample will also help us discuss recycling material in electronic music production and how "everything is a remix."
The folder I'm sending has 32 samples, but we can think of them as just one sample chopped up. The idea is to recombine the parts in creative ways."

Download the samples for this week's challenge from WeTransfer here!

The rules are: You can use ONLY these samples, plus a vocal sample (you can sing or speak yourself, or you can use something you find or download elsewhere) to make a track of up to 2 minutes in length.

Here's what we made!

To try out Sonic Pi, a basic interface for Live Coding, check out their website here or watch some of the videos in the playlist below. And find more information about Live Coding at TOPLAP.