NSDOS Sonic Odyssey
Multi-disciplinary artist NSDOS has developed a unique and unconventional approach to music. Using a range of elements, each as original as the next, he breaks codes and tears down expectations by inviting the audience to explore the infinite possibilities of objects, technological tools, sounds and bodily movements. He recently brought his practice to New Orleans, and was filmed by Edouard Lemiale.
Somewhere between movement and technology stands an artist whose name resonates with a unique vibrancy: NSDOS, also known as Kirikoo Des. The French artist cultivates multidisciplinarity, navigating between music, dance, and technological exploration, with an avant-garde sensibility that captivates the senses and defies pre-established norms.
The perpetual quest for symbiosis between body and machine lies at the heart of NSDOS’s sonic odyssey. Trained at the Académie Internationale de la Danse in Paris, he works, handles, and shapes technological tools to bring machines and materials together. Gathering live data collected by sensors placed on his body while dancing, he invents interactive devices and innovative coding, blending them with techno music to create an organic matrix. His vision extends beyond mere performance; it’s a pursuit of organic unity, where technology becomes not just a tool but an extension of the human form.
From the streets of Paris, where he immersed himself in the rhythm of hip-hop at a young age, NSDOS has forged his own path—an unconventional journey inspired by the anarchic spirit of movements like Dada and Lettrism. His influences range from the sonic alchemy of Christian Marclay to Donna Haraway’s reflections on the body, combining to form a new sonic order, an alternative approach to music. Yet, his practice transcends the use of technological tools or existing software; it embodies regeneration or transmutation.
NSDOS seeks out his own mediums, composing with old audio converters, Gameboy emulators, or pieces of metal dismantled and welded together to form surreal machines. Continuously pursuing hybrid elements, he employs a method that defies the linear anatomy of techno music, reimagining textures and manipulating sounds to evade artificiality and restore pure vitality.
Following three maxis—Lazer Connect (2013), Female Guest (2015), both released on the Parisian label Clekcleckboom Recordings, and Money Exchange (2016) created with the Standalone Complex label—NSDOS released Intuition, an album that epitomizes his organic vision of music. Composed during his time in Alaska, the album intertwines a principle of ‘biofeedback’ with meteorological data collected by the artist, giving voice to the movements of nature. Inspired by Japanese Buto dance and his interest in biology, the album follows an original method and is accompanied by a series of five videos tracing NSDOS’s creative process. Other compositions include Clubbing Sequence, where music fuses with the dancers’ movements in the disorienting atmosphere of an augmented reality nightclub, and Micro Club, exploring the meaning of gestures and movements.
During his residency in New Orleans at the Villa Albertine in 2023, NSDOS explored the connections between the physical and virtual worlds, and the evolution of post-internet dance. His S.E.L.M (Send Everyday Life Movement) project investigated the possibility of a dance that abstracts from the body, compiling captured movements or ‘rehumanizing’ the data into movements that expand the dancer’s palette.
Fascinated by what he describes as a “performance city,” NSDOS sought movement as a symbolic element, an archive of culture, immersing himself in the vibrant atmosphere of New Orleans—its Second Line bands, Mardi Gras, Black Indians, clubs, and urbex. These experiences, more about witnessing free expression than admiring shows, contributed to the creation of an original performance.
Returning soon to NOLA as part of a post-residency with Villa Albertine, NSDOS intends to continue his collaboration with artist Tiss Rodriguez, whom he met during his initial residency. Plans include recording at the Material Institut and creating an interactive, participatory digital platform enabling the city’s communities to independently share their stories.