review : FAD magazine

FAD Magazine filmed and reviewed the Compositional Constructs program at the Unconscious Archives Festival 2017

‘Compositional Constructs, part of the programme for London’s inaugural Unconscious Archives Festival, brought together four pioneering electronic music artists at Café Oto to present their innovative work exploring optical sound and performance art.


Featuring the artists Myriam Bleau (CA), Mariska de Groot (NL), Leafcutter John (UK), and Dawid Liftinger (AT); Compositional Constructs showcased not just performance but remarkable ingenuity with artists interacting with electronic devices of their own creation to produce the kind of music that has finally caught up with the promises of its 20th century pioneers.


These are devices that interpret light and movement then translate into rich and sophisticated soundscapes. Remarkably, for work that has the character of what was once considered science fiction, these are performances that connect the once future vision of a theoretical avant garde with the present. If the objective of the Unconscious Archives festival overall is to explore the human attachment and traceable engagements with technology, then what Compositional Constructs showcased was how this group of artists participating are capable of crafting original and distinctive experiences through highly nuanced, gesture based programming of electronic devices. The event presented artists of today who are defining the vanguard that looks beyond the horizons of Mountain View and Cupertino.


Mariska De Groot of Holland premiered Stirred Mandala, which echoed the mystical origins of James Whitney’s work such as Yantra. More than just sound art through the interpretation of movement and light, her performance presented a type of music that was once the future and has now manifested itself in the immediacy of the present.
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Find the full article with videos here