South Korean music programmers will bring a multimedia feast with an Arabic twist

These boundary-pushing programmers make their Middle Eastern debut at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre and promise a unique audio-visual experience.

Jaeho Chang, left, and Jin Won Lee of Tacit Group. Courtesy Tacit Group

In early 1999 the game-changing sci-fi movie The Matrix bewildered audiences with its revelation that our world is really just an elaborate computer programme. Sheer fantasy, of course, but Tacit Group are now applying a similar system to music – although they prefer a less sinister comparison.

"That's totally right, The Matrix is a system, and we make systems," says the Korean collective's co-founder Jin Won Lee. "But the classic way to describe what we do is wind chimes. People hang wind chimes outside, but who makes the sound? The wind makes the sound, it plays whatever it wants. That's the way we explain what an algorithm is in music."

These boundary-pushing programmers make their Middle Eastern debut at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Centre tonight and Thursday, and promise a unique audio-visual experience. Each Tacit Group show is different, and almost as surprising for the players as for the audience. As Lee suggests, their compositions use algorithms: complex computer equations allowing the group to improvise and seamlessly integrate a wealth of digital media into their performances – there are electronic sonic effects, spectacular interactive visuals, and in a particularly novel twist, live onstage game-playing.

“Algorithmic arts usually have problems communicating with the public,” admits fellow founder Jaeho Chang. “The reason we incorporated video games into our works was this, at the beginning.”

Far from being boring or baffling, Tacit Group shows often look like a retro gaming contest – with a better soundtrack. Lee, Chang and their colleagues combine arcade classics with their music by actually rewriting each game's code, adjusting the rules to fit their performances. Their production Six Pacmen, for example, reinterprets Steve Reich's acclaimed composition Six Pianos to accompany a giant onstage game of Pac-Man, while Game Over customises another oldie.

“One day I was playing Tetris, and all of a sudden it looked like [musical] scores to me,” Lee recalls of the enduringly popular falling-shapes game. A bad Tetris move by one of the six onstage performers “leads to the same note playing over and over”, he explains. “Or no sounds at all.”

That mix of media is a particular favourite of Chang’s. “Not only do people like the piece,” he says, “but also it clearly shows the main characteristics of our work”. Lee concurs: “Kids are very excited by the computer game-based works, especially Game Over. They sometimes scream if a player does some wrong block-matching.”

Younger spectators even “sing along”, says Lee, who has significant experience of audience interaction away from Tacit Group. From the late 1990s onwards he was a globally renowned techno artist, under the pseudonym Gazaebal, but eventually tired of creating beats for dance floor. Having enrolled on a university course back home in South Korea, he met Chang – his professor.

“I was mostly teaching algorithmic composition and Jin became interested in it while he was studying with me,” Chang recalls. “In 2008 Jin and I started Tacit Group with other students in the Music Technology programme. We had a few chances of performing to the public in that first year. It was quite successful.”

Seven years on, Tacit Group have performed across several continents, which is a sizeable logistical task. “ In Abu Dhabi there will be six players onstage and one on the side of the stage: we call him ‘server’,” Lee says. “He operates all the server computers, so he has the most difficult job, because he has to take care of the most detailed stuff: open this programme, close this programme, control the projector.”

The collective will also perform a specially reworked piece at these shows. Their audio-visual interpretation of In C, a 1964 composition by the minimalist musician Terry Riley, has undergone several transformations already. "When we made In C originally, the visual part involved simple shapes such as circles," Lee states. "But when we made the second version, we put Korean letters that show the names of notes we play. This was a fascinating change for us because the audience liked it way more than we expected." The new version "involves Arabic letters instead, which is technically simple but culturally interesting, I think," says the former DJ, who is "looking forward to seeing how people in Abu Dhabi feel". Indeed, they may well receive repeat visitors: especially with the two shows being free feature different pieces each night.

Lee says the group will pack as much material into this visit as possible. “We have fun on stage, because we’re not playing exactly what a score says. It’s more like jazz: you have the rules, but how we play is our own decision,” he says. “As long as you keep to the simple few rules, you can do whatever you want.”

• Tacit Group perform at NYUAD Arts Centre Wednesday and Thursday, 8pm. Free entry upon reservation on www.nyuad.nyu.edu