Alex McLean a.k.a. Yaxu makes live broken techno using his handmade programming language TidalCycles, a technique called “Live Coding”. He co-founded Algorave, bringing live coding to dancefloors, a growing movement that has already spread to over eighty cities. He has performed widely since the year 2000 in several collaborations including Slub [http://slub.org] and CCAI [http://ccai.lurk.org], and at major festivals including Sonar Barcelona, Club Transmediale Berlin, Sonic Acts Amsterdam, Earzoom Ljubljana, NODE Frankfurt, Ars Electronica Linz, Dissonanze Rome, Vivo Mexico City, Lovebytes Sheffield, Lambdasonic Gent, Bluedot and STRP Eindhoven.
Alex’s performances are in general improvised, however he has started recording music, leading to the six track Peak Cut EP on Sheffield label Computer Club. Bleep.com said of it “.. Yaxu’s polyrhythmic and hyperreal strand of techno is showcased on cuts like Public Life and Cyclic showing that he is not just testing the confines of how music can be consumed but also how genres can sound. A truly forward-thinking influx of material from Yaxu and the Computer Club team”. He’s currently working on his first solo album Spicule, again with Computer Club.
Alex is active across the digital arts, including organising the annual Festival of Algorithmic and Festival Movement [http://algomech.com], co-founding the Algorave and TOPLAP live coding movements, and instigating the live coding environment TidalCycles [http://tidalcycles.org]. He works as post-doc researching ancient textiles as digital art for Deutsches Museum [http://penelope.hypotheses.org/], and as a trustee of Access Space Sheffield.