Onyx Ashanti

Since being introduced on the worldstage by way of a fortuitous TED talk he did in 2011 entitled “This is Beatjazz”, Onyx Ashanti has been evolving at a pace that surprises even him.  A Mississippi native, now living in Detroit by way of Berlin, he is musician, programmer, 3d print-designer, writer, performer, inventor…a self described child of the internet, and disciple of the open source philosophy. Onyx has spent the last handful of years creating a multidimensional expression concept called beatjazz.

Beatjazz is “beats” and “jazz” — beats are electronically derived rhythm and jazz as improvisational sonic investigation  — to create an improvisational sonic construct for investigating rhythm, harmony and melody interactively. This is expressed as sound and performance but also as projected visualization, light color sequencing, robotic parameter feedback and CAD design-multiple dimensions of a singular expression. A hyper expression.

More recently Onyx has aimed his efforts at ever more surreal territory promising something new by the time AutumnLEAF rolls around…

“As for the event, i am currently transitioning into a new type of musical expression that is grafted into daily life, but with sonocybernetic prosthetics so no matter what we discuss today, by October it will be infinitely more surreal. There is an article that was just written about my project that encapsulates it all very nicely…”

Links

http://onyx-ashanti.com/

The future was already here: Detroit’s Afrofuturist enclaves

Videos

Atelier Céladon diaspora conference concert @ Le Belmont, Montreal Quebec-Oct. 3, 2015

Live@CONSENSUAL-Detroit, 5-2-2015-hyperdrum tweaks and expanded kinesthetics

3d printed beatjazz controller debut @ LIVE LYRICS AND BEATJAZZ(berlin 2.2012)