The Code
Visualising a sonic world for one of UK’s most innovative musicians.
Hailing from London, The Code blends a wide array of electronic music genres into a meticulously crafted, sensual and intelligent whole. They avoid personal associations and remain anonymous, communicating their music solely with visual concepts. I have been working with them since 2015, concepting and designing the visual side of The Code.
The Code’s visual world was created as a blank canvas, aiming to add colour and expression with each release. Beginning with “Same People”, core dualities such as identity and anonymity, digital and human, perfection and imperfection became the inspiration of the artworks . I have designed the following album and single releases building on this inspiration, forming an abstract and carefully crafted visual persona.
Each release was presented through small videos, merchandise releases and website updates. I designed and produced all of the necessary assets in close collaboration with The Code.
Following the third release Mercury, we began differentiating the digital persona of The Code from the human one. “Flashback” is a reflection of the visual journey until that point and sets the scene for the transformation. It introduces a pulsating light entity as the digital presence of the sound, and an abstract space to contain the interactions.
For the following releases, I have began creating sound-driven 3D setups, to help listeners experience the digital persona of The Code as a viewer.
For “Opia”, I created a light setup that is powered by the strength of frequencies, displayed behind frosted glass. It’s an analogue approach with a digital result, akin to the production method of The Code. The form of the installation is inspired by the greek word opia, the sensation of deep eye contact.
For “Design”, I created a 360 video which unveils the layer between the audience and the real world that surrounds it. This layer, presented as a spherical room transforms with the intensity of the vocoder frequencies. Viewer can look around, witnessing time outside progressing at warp speed.
These tracks were pre-releases from “Resonance”, the 4th album by The Code. It focuses on how free their sound is of genres, and that it’s a constant interaction between human touch and digital abstraction. The artwork and the announcement video frames this moment, the first time The Code is visible in person experiencing the intangible.
This is an ongoing project with a strong vision, a passionate audience, with more chapters being revealed consistently.