About
BotBop is more than a band; it's a living, breathing synthesis of human ingenuity and computational creativity. Formed in 2019 following a special commission from Bozar, the prestigious Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, BotBop pioneers the art of live coding as a powerful medium for musical improvisation and instant composition.
At the heart of BotBop is a trio of seasoned artists, each bringing a deep and varied background to the real-time algorithmic stage:
• Andrew Claes: Wielding the saxophone and wind controllers, Andrew's artistic path led him through a PhD in the Arts, sparking a dedicated love for programming and live coding. He is a prominent figure in the global music landscape, known for his work with the jazz fusion powerhouse STUFF and numerous projects including Stellar Legions and BRZZVLL. With countless performances around the world, Andrew’s interest in the scripting interface of Bespoke Synthesizer drives his vision for a massive, dynamic music system capable of generating an endless, interactive stream of music to jam with.
• Dago Sondervan: A musical polymath, Dago roots his journey in jazz drumming, having graduated in 1991. He immediately thereafeter partially transitioned to the electronic music scene, DJing in legendary clubs like Brussels' "Fuse" and touring globally as a drummer with acclaimed acts such as Think of One and Trixie Whitley. Drawing from his early generative music experiments using Atari computers and programming compositions in Symbolic Composer (a Common Lisp-based language), Dago found his ultimate expressive outlet in the live coding community in 2010. Today, he shares his passion as a lecturer in live electronics, teaching live coding with environments like Sonic Pi and TidalCycles, fulfilling a long-held dream of improvisational coding.
• Kasper Jordaens: A civil engineer architect who crossed the bridge into the worlds of Art and R&D engineering, Kasper's research now focuses on spatial audio and AI-driven computational creativity. His journey, which included design work for Wim Delvoye and digital innovation projects for VRT and IMEC (the world's leading independent nanoelectronics R&D hub), moved into the realm of live coding in 2014 with the founding of Lambdasonic, Belgiums Toplap node, and the live coding duo H.AL.I.C. After years of coding collaborative visuals with Quil, his focus is aiming to build persistent, vital bridges between the analytical world of engineering and the expressiveness of digital art.
The Algorithmic Engine: A Modus Operandi
BotBop's signature approach is the incorporation of diverse methods for computer-aided music composition, all centered around real-time interaction with running algorithms. The computer transcends its role as a mere sound generator to become a collaborative player, interacting with the musicians, sometimes even with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.
Integers and Strings: The Second Iteration
The band's ambitious second project, "Integers and Strings," was born from a commission by the esteemed Sonar Festival in Barcelona.
This performance transforms live code into a written musical score for a string quartet in real-time. On a synced clock, the quartet musicians read and perform the algorithm's output a prima vista from iPads displaying the score via HTML/JS/Websockets. There is a fixed eight-measure delay, giving the AI time to infer, interpret, and transform the musical data before it is visualized. Every four bars, the preceding section is erased, allowing the strings to play a continuous, seamless musical thread.
These four classically trained musicians act as a vital feedback loop, breathing human interpretation back into the cold equations. Their performance influences the core BotBop trio, who are simultaneously tweaking their setups in Sonic Pi, TidalCycles, Bespoke Synthesizer, and Kasper’s live-coded data visualization system. The final sonic layer is completed by a selection of synths, Dago’s semi-modular drum machine, and Andrew’s windcontroller (EWI) data.
The Magic of AI Collaboration
The AI "brain" is a tweaked, pre-trained Magenta polyphonic model, capable of inferring MIDI scores on the fly with minimal delay. The true magic occurs when the AI-generated scores are dynamically remapped to match the live-coded notes and rhythms generated by the trio.
A Shared System, A Unique Outcome
All BotBop members are simultaneously engaged—live coding, playing music, generating visuals, or interpreting data. Their output is unified by a shared network system, a collaborative environment that allows for the real-time exchange of audio, MIDI, and other data. This robust framework enables the artists to operate as a tightly knit live band, reinforcing one another and providing direct, dynamic feedback.
BotBop's "Bop-robot" is perpetually evolving, a collection of curated code snippets, harvested algorithms, and refined implementations. By using similar underlying structures and movements, every single performance remains a unique and profoundly different experience.