Sheffield Pattern Club event archive

Our first meetup, which was originally called “Algorithmic Pattern”. We celebrated the release of the TidalCycles live coding system for musical patterns with a quick workshop exploring its new features.

Our second meetup, where we explored the Strudel system for live coding musical patterns, which is an accessible version of TidalCycles for the web.

Our third meetup, and our first textiles-focussed workshop, where we explored Japanese Kumihimo braiding hands-on.

• Venue: DINA, Fitzalan Square
• Time: 6pm-8pm 24th Jan 2023
• Sign up here – free!

Blackwork was a popular 16th and early 17th century embroidery technique, characterised by its use of black silk thread (though other colours are sometimes seen) worked on white linen. Over the roughly 100 years of its application Blackwork Embroidery evolved significantly from the early reversible counted-thread style through to the geometric infill patterns and shaded style worked in ‘speckle’ or ‘seed’ stitch.

Contemporary Blackwork primarily uses simple straight stitches across the regular grid structure of evenweave fabric to create repeating geometric patterns.

In this workshop Toni Buckby will lead us in exploring how these patterns are formed and look at some of the more complex plaited braid stitches used in the historic technique. Materials supplied, no experience of needlework is required!

7.30pm – 1am, Sat 14th Jan 2023 @ Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield
Tickets (pay what you can afford)

An evening of pattern-based music performance, a journey from wacked-out instrumental minimalism to full-on algorave and handmade machine music. Diverse performances over two rooms of Sidney & Matilda, plus a secret room of pattern processing run by local dreampeople Interworld.

If you can’t make it to Sheffield then you can also watch it streamed online!

Featuring:

LOULA YORKE – trademark improvised hardware-only live sets see her building abstract sonic collages into powerful beat workouts backed by kaleidoscopes of interlocking and repeating algorithmically-derived melodies. For pattern club, Loula is bringing a laser as well. https://loulayorke.com/

EMERGENCE COLLECTIVE – Sheffield’s own Emergence Collective build minimalist structures that morph through musical dialogue, generating otherworldly, shifting and evolving musical landscapes.. Drawing on influences from folk, jazz, experimental and early music. Well they’re a bit hard to explain, but if you didn’t catch their recent show at Abbeydale Picturehouse, catch up on the video below. 

https://linktr.ee/emergencecollective

TYGER BLUE – producer over from Birmingham, recently lighting algoraves on fire at No Bounds festival and London’s Iklectik, back to Sheffield – https://www.instagram.com/tygerblue_/

DIGITAL SELVES (https://lwlsn.github.io/digitalselves-web/) x HEAVY LIFTING (https://heavy-lifting.org/) x YAXU (https://slab.org) – from-scratch live code algorave all-stars Lizzie, Lucy and Alex go back-to-back-to-back

HELLOCATFOOD – algorave regular back with the next level of his a/v algorithmic bangers, and he still really likes cats.  https://www.hellocatfood.com/  

SDGORDON – Based in Scotland and currently working on a series of instrument designs & LP’s that center around electro acoustic / physical sound synthesis including the recently developed  “Radial“ Rhythm and Texture instrument. A friction based design where textured tubes and stepper motors produce a range of noise and rhythmic patterns
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl3O8_5D6es/

PLUS! a secret bonus room from independent record label and collective INTERWORLD, extracting data and processing patterns.  – https://www.instagram.com/interworldmedia/

Join Emergence Collective for a workshop exploring musical patterns! “We will be guiding you through our own minimalism-inspired process that we use ourselves in jams and gigs to improvise our performances. It’s super simple to pick up; we are going to guide you through some musical games and short improvisations to help you make your own pattern-based music in small groups. Vocalists and instrumentalists are equally welcome! If you play an instrument, please bring it with you. No Van Halen wannabes need apply – the workshop will be about playing simple lines, rather than lots of notes. If you have any affection for minimalist music, we think you’ll really love this workshop.” – Emergence Collective

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/BM1BMsxsgbwXXdKQ6

Venue: Access Space @ Event Central, 22-26 Fargate, Sheffield, S1 2HE (opposite m+s)
Time: 6pm-8pm, Tuesday 21 Mar 2023
Cost: Free signup

An extra-special session with Peruvian artist Paola Torres Núñez del Prado introducing us to Andean informatics through textiles and sound. Paola is an e-textile and sound artist, who integrates electronic sensors into their handmade textiles, including in Khipu (ancient Andean practice of recording data in knotted structures) as well as weaving.

Paola will talk us through some of her works, with some focus on patterns that run through Andean culture. She’ll bring some of her e-textiles and share a live performance with us.

Free sign up here: https://forms.gle/sdvBmDHdgRdQ3f5t8

Saturday 15th April 7.30pm – midnight (performances from 8pm)
Theatre Deli, Arley Street, Sheffield, S2 4QP

Pay-what-you-can-afford tickets: £4 / £8 / £12

Pattern Club Live with Church Andrews & Matt Davies, Damu, Epiploke, Eye Measure, Innocent, Kate Sicchio & Alex McLean, Sleepsang and Phoneutrian

Acts will include mutant live drum experiments, modular-cyborg-synth arpeggios, and an algorithmic robot dance performance, each feeding our minds with their own twist on patterned form.

This will lead into live coded algorithmic bangers from Sheffield’s finest algorave musicians.

If none of this makes sense, check out some of the videos below or just come along and enjoy the patterns!

* Venue: DINA, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield S1 2AZ
* Time: from 6pm, Tuesday 27th June 2023
* Cost: Free signup (not essential, but helps us plan and let you know of changes)

After a spring break we’re back with our regular pattern club sessions, back in DINA on Fitzalan Square. This one will be themed around “work-in-progress”, with people showing patterns they’re in the process of making / dreaming up.

Video/code/sound artist, curator and algorave regular Antonio Roberts (aka Hellocatfood), will be visiting Sheffield for an algorithmic pattern residency with Then Try This, and will talk for a bit about what he’s working on at the moment, inviting feedback!

Pattern club resident Alex McLean will show a collaborative project he’s working on too, an augmented reality thingie for exploring rhythmic patterns by drawing abstract symbols. You’ll be able to have a go!

Also feel free to bring along your own works-in-progress, and please do let us know if you’d like a slot to talk about it! Amateurs / imposters welcome, with full respect to the beginner’s mind 🙂

Wednesday 7th June 7.30pm – 11pm
Hatch, 107 Harwood St, Highfield, Sheffield S2 4SE

Tickets £8 / £10 / £12

Pattern Club Live with Ewa Justka, Rian Treanor, Eye Measure and Yaxu 

A bit last minute, but we had the chance to put on this show while Ewa is in town, in collaboration with local superhero Rian Treanor, and pattern club residents Eye Measure and Yaxu supporting. Hope you can join is for this intense evening at Hatch !

18.00 – 20.00, Tuesday 22nd August
@ Gut Level, 121 Eyre St, Sheffield S1 4QW

An introduction to making music using Strudel for live coding musical patterns. Strudel is version of TidalCycles that’s available in the web browser: https://strudel.tidalcycles.org/

To participate, you just need to bring a laptop and some headphones so you can have a go at live coding yourself. Absolutely no experience of coding or anything like that is necessary!!

The workshop will be led by us 🙂 More info on the Gut Level website: https://gutlevel.co.uk/whatson/patternclub8

Fee

While all of our workshops have been free so far, this one it is £4 and you also need to be a member of Gut Level (which costs £2/year). If you aren’t a member, please sign up before buying a ticket. (There’s also the option to support Gut Level monthly, in which case you’d have access to all their workshops for free).

Gut Level is a really amazing community venue doing loads of great things so do support them if you can! But also if you can’t afford the ticket for whatever reason let us know and we can sort that out.

7.30pm – midnight, Thurs 28th September 2023 @ Sidney & Matilda factory, Sheffield
Tickets (£8/10/12 – pay what you can afford)

An evening of pattern-based algorithmic dance music, with focus on live manipulation and sharing of code and other strange structures.. Mixing up live coding, mechanical techno and radical DAW artistry. Taking place in the Sidney + Matilda factory (the room on the right before you enter the courtyard).

Featuring:

• Epiploke – Sheffield-based duo Heavy Lifting and Yaxu team up for some shifty algorithmic techno inspired by ancient greek metrical structures
• Eye Measure + Sam Underwood – Sheffield algoraver and Hope Works resident Eye Measure with a new collaboration with mechanical musician Sam Underwood
• Graham Dunning – mechanical techno legend Graham Dunning returns to Sheffield with what we think will involve a hybrid of mechanisms and live coding
• Innocent – Sheffield resident algoraver Innocent improvising proper dance music in Foxdot
• sclews – fruity loops isn’t technically live coding but when you see how sclews works with it live you’ll see the algorave spirit is strong!

22:00 – 05:00, Fri 20th December 2023 @ Hope Works, Sheffield
Tickets (£5/8/10)

Sheffield friends Pattern Club and Amledd have come together to put on a very special one off night of livecoding, footwork, computer music + club bangers !

An online collaboration with patterny friends in Spain, Sweden and the US, many diverse presentations spread over five days covering patterns in weaving, braiding, music, typography, code, juggling and more. For full details see https://salon.algorithmicpattern.org/

Pattern Club Live
7:30pm – 11pm, Sunday 17th December 2023
at Theatre Deli Sheffield
Buy tickets here (£12 final release)

Stage times (subject to change!)

08:00 Tante Verte
08:40 Leafcutter John
09:30 Peter K Rollings
10:10 Epiploke

A pre-solstice special, featuring..

Leafcutter John has performed and collaborated widely, including as part of mercury-nominated band Polar Bear, and solo at places like Jarvis Cocker’s meltdown and Planet Mu raves. His discography is all over the place, from the experimentalism of Housebound Spirit, to the folk-infused Forest and the Sea – the latter containing “Seba” which James Acaster named in his top nine essential tracks. John moved up to Sheffield a few years ago and quickly fell in love with climbing, come and hear the influence of gritstone on his sound.

Tante Verte is a new collaboration between Robyn Haddon, DS and Eye Measure, bringing together live vocals, electronics and code. So new we don’t have a video from them yet but considering the diverse and dizzy heights of their individual careers, this is one to look forward to.

Peter K Rollings and his Experimental Sonic Machines is a post-punk sci-fi mechanical musician from the future. He’ll be bringing his handmade instruments and mechanisms up from Lincoln, hopefully including his robot drummer Ernie. It’s hard to get across how wonderful this is in words, maybe just go and watch this four minute documentary on Peter’s work:

Epiploke are pattern club residents and algorave influencers Heavy Lifting (Lucy) and Yaxu (Alex) collaborating on shifting, handmade, from-scratch live coded dance music, with inspirations from ancient greek metre and carnatic rhythms. Here’s a moment from their last performance at pattern club:

18:00 – 20:00, Tuesday 20th February 2024
Theatre Deli, Arley Street, Sheffield S2 4QP
Free but advance signup required here

Kolam is a heritage folk art from Tamil Nadu in Southern India. These are hand-drawn patterns made on a grid of dots (pulli) and are passed down through generations of Tamil women. The Kolam tradition is millennia old, diffused between regions (termed Rangoli in the North, Muggu in Telugu-speaking regions), continually evolving, and connected to ritual, aesthetics, and religion.

In this workshop we’ll be introduced to a method for drawing Kolam by Anuradha Reddy, following templates generated live for us by a hacked receipt printer.

No specialised equipment or prior knowledge needed, but feel free to bring a favourite pencil and eraser if you like, otherwise we’ll have plenty for you to borrow.

If you’re curious you can watch Anuradha talk about Kambi Kolam, or read a related text.

We’re back with an evening of live coded+algorithmic dance music, celebrating 20 years of live coding! The live coding movement really got going with the founding of the international TOPLAP collective in 2004. We’re happy to join live coding communities around the world with throwing our own party to celebrate.

We’ll be at the Alder Bar with a limited capacity, so be sure to get your ticket in advance, £8/10/12.

Please note we’ll be at capacity with pre-sales, no tickets on the door sorry!

• +777000
• bad circulation (hellocatfood x mxwx)
• digital selves x heavy lifting
• liimxa
• wispeh
• yaxu

If you’re new to live coding stuff check out the Sheffield Tribune article on algorave!

Pattern-based and algorithmic/live coded dance music in the Sidney and Matilda basement in Sheffield.

Lil Data – visiting from Reykjavik, Lil Data is well known for bringing pop-infused live coded love to the PC Music label. Check out this live set!

Polinski – one quarter of legendary Sheffield band 65daysofstatic, and long-time explorer of the application of algorithms to noise/rock/electronic bangers. He’s not sure what he’s going to do, but in the meantime have a listen to his latest solo release for some clues.

Collapse – we’re super happy to be hosting collapse who runs the London Pattern Club node. Check out this beautifully calm live coded set by them at Corsica Studios recently. 

Nzo – Sheffield-based DJ and producer is bringing out an awesome and very patterny release on DDS, this will be their first time performing live and promises to be special!

Also… Sheffield Algorave/Pattern Club residents Eye Measure and Yaxu <3

Tickets are £8/10/12 (pay what you can afford).

We’re doing a three-hour dive into live coding as part of the Sheffield Showcase weekend!

Date: Sun 8 Sep 2024 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Soft Ground, The Moor, Sheffield S1 4PF
Tickets £0 – £25: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/patternclub/1366388?

Live coding is where people make music by executing code in real-time, usually projecting that code so the audience can see it too. 

The Strudel platform for live coding musical patterns is an accessible version of TidalCycles for the web, available to use for free on desktop or tablet. It is straightforward to use and requires very little advanced knowledge – if you’re happy messing around, trying things out and seeing what it sounds like, you can make great sounding music very quickly!

In this workshop, we’ll explore approaches to performing music live using Strudel. We will show you how to construct and change different patterns in real time; use your own samples in your music and use transitions to support pace and tension within live performances.

There will be short walk-throughs of performances from us (Yaxu and Eye Measure) to explain our workflows, and the opportunity for you to create your own music, either alone or collaboratively within the group.

This workshop is open to beginners and those with some experience alike. We will start with a quick introduction to Strudel and provide you with code templates, meaning you’ll be able to start making sounds within minutes even if you have never used it before and even if you have no musical knowledge. For those with some live coding familiarity, we hope this workshop will provide new inspiration for performing and give you some new ideas!

Participants should bring their own laptop/tablet and headphones. If you can’t do this let us know as soon as possible and we will try to source one for you, but can’t promise anything

Date: 2pm-6pm, 26th October 2024
Place: Gut level, Sheffield
Tickets: £0-£20 – buy tickets

Come and make music using synthesisers and live coding in this workshop hosted by Pattern Club and Distribution of Power <3

Live coding is where people make music by executing code in real-time (we will be using Strudel.cc to do this). Synthesisers are electronic music instruments. Synths can also be controlled using live coding which is fun and cool !

In this workshop we’ll be making music intuitively, trying things out and seeing how it sounds. It’s 100% suitable for people who have never even looked at anything to do with synths or code. But it would also be fun if you do have a bit of experience or if you’ve been to one of our live coding workshops before

The ‘Distribution of Power’ programme and this workshop is open to all but specifically aims to carve space and prioritise participants who identify as having visible and invisible disabilities, being neuro-divergent, female, LGBTQI+ identifying and carers.

Distribution of Power are bringing loads of synths for you to work with. Please bring your own headphones (wired not wireless) and laptop if you have one. Also if you do have any synths bring them along (absolutely no expectation of this!) and let us know what you’re bringing in the check out form.

Please let us know accessibility needs by emailing patternclub@mail.slab.org

*** Gut Level is a members space and you’ll need membership to attend. Membership is open to all and starts from just £2 per year. More info at www.gutlevel.co.uk/membership. ***