UNCOMPRESSED
Meet the world’s first synth-nerd supergroup
What happens when you take a mad-genius creator of DIY electronic instruments, a vintage synth virtuoso and a music-tech maven, and get them to play together for the first time?
An all-star team of wire-loving electronic music luminaries have come together as the brand new supergroup you didn’t know you needed.
Assembled by Patreon, and debuting at Barcelona’s Sónar Festival, Uncompressed are a trio of Europe’s foremost synth wizards working today: synth builder Look Mum No Computer (Sam Battle), YouTube synth pop video remix maestro Cuckoo (Andreas Paleologos) and Berlin’s experimental electronic music composer Hainbach. The name comes from the fact that it’s three (lovely) people who are famous for streaming usually compressed YouTube videos stepping out into the real world – accompanied by furby organs, antique electronics and oscillators.
“Sam came up with the name,” said Hainbach, “because I had the idea that we have to make something off the screen, step out of the screen, something where we’re coming into life.”
Ever wondered what a 1,000-oscillator, wall-mounted Mega Drone looks like? Watch the ramshackle trio’s first rehearsal at This Museum Is (Not) Obsolete in Ramsgate, UK – a museum of electronic esoterica on the British seaside which collects experimental and historic tech – and wonder no more.
You just know you would binge-watch a series about their adventures. When the collective saw the positive responses to their formation coming in from the announcements, Andreas said, “It just made my heart so happy”.
What’s so good about this?
Each of the nuts and bolts that make up the trio of Uncompressed work together with their communities to achieve financial freedom and maintain full creative control. They were put together by Patreon, the online service which lets fans support independent content creators and gain access to exclusive content. TOPIA loves the ethos of Patreon when it comes to changing the way art is valued as it puts creativity – and what’s good – over everything.
Meet the writer
Lisa Goldapple is the creative brain behind the world of TOPIA. The magazine’s Editor-in-chief has been creating shows for MTV, BBC, Vice, TVNZ, National Geographic and more since the noughties. Then created social good platform, Atlas of the Future. Today her desk faces the trippy side of Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which might explain a few things. To understand how TOPIA came out of this rare brain, read ‘Mind Blown’. As she puts it: “If life splinters and you hallucinate triangles, make a kaleidoscope.”
Follow @lisagoldapple on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. (Open to freelance collaborations.)
