Addictive TV create the perfect integration of audio and visual technologies in their thrilling live show. Using musicians from around the world in their John Lomax-esque Orchestra of Samples project, they cut and splice different media into one cohesive vision.
– THE HUFFINGTON POST
“The show celebrates cultural commonalities in all their polysyllabic richness: otherwise wildly disparate sources interact with and complement one another in enthrallingly unexpected ways”
– THE QUIETUS
Take hundreds of musicians from more than 30 countries, all recorded over a period of 10 years. Imagine that the musicians never met or recorded together but converge in unique compositions created simply by sampling.
Orchestra of Samples, by UK-French artist collective Addictive TV, was described by the UK newspaper The Times as “Ingenious and compelling” and as “a glimpse into the very essence of music” by arts site Cultured Vultures and has won the artists international acclaim. After filming more than 200 musicians around the globe since 2010, then sampling and seamlessly splicing them together, they’ve created a digital supergroup of international artists who never met but play together on screen. A musical journey without borders, breaking down cultural and musical barriers in a fusion of sound and vision, the artists explore new forms of collaboration with musicians playing all manner of instruments. Performances have included Italy’s Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Mexico City’s Centro Nacional de las Artes, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and WOMAD festival in the UK.
Described by US magazine XLR8R as “light years beyond the gallery realm of masters like Bill Viola“ and by Live Design as “Inspiring an entire generation of artists exploring the crossover between audio and visual mediums”, Addictive TV are known for their audiovisual performances and innovative use of video sampling. Much of their work sits between creative homage and surprising re-appropriation and something that wouldn’t have been out of place during the DADA movement had there been the technology!
Meticulously sampling everything from Hollywood movies to their own sizable archive of musicians from their global Orchestra of Samples project, the collective are driven by a passion for creating music from visual sources, where music and images are equal, inseparable and indeed synergetic partners.
They’ve had their work exhibited in New York’s Museum of Moving Image, Shanghai’s Museum of Contemporary Arts, Siggraph in the USA and London’s ICA. They’ve now performed in over 50 countries, in venues including the Pompidou Centre in Paris, The National Theatre in London, Brazil’s Museum of Image & Sound in São Paulo and Russia’s Erarta Museum of Contemporary Arts in St Petersburg. On the directing and sound design front, they were the first artists ever sanctioned by a Hollywood studio to sample and remix a Hollywood film (Take the Lead, 2006), and have created alternative trailers, sampling and remixing films for studios including 20th Century Fox, Universal and Paramount. In the past, they were also twice voted Number One VJs in the World in DJ Mag alongside the magazine’s Top 100 DJ Poll, which said “they’ve become famed for their eye-popping live shows, shredding and cutting film with beats into a heady, mind-meltingly funky mixture”.
