Jake Parry @ IRCAM Forum, Paris

PhD candidate Jake Parry has recently returned from Paris, where he gave a paper at the prestigious IRCAM Forum, with the support of the M4C Doctoral Training Partnership.

Parry's PhD project on spatial audio is interrogating the ideological and conceptual foundations of immersion. Against a backdrop of rapid technological development in spatial audio, Parry's paper addressed convergences between art and product, examining how immersive strategies circulate between experimental practice and commercial design. 

Using gambling media as a case study, it highlighted problematic features of the immersive paradigm—illustrating how sound in this context is carefully engineered to regulate attention, sustain engagement and elicit compulsive behaviours, while simultaneously obscuring the extractive mechanics that drive commercial profit.

Prior to heading to the IRCAM Forum, Parry gave a paper at the School of Music, University of Birmingham.

Jake Parry at the IRCAM Forum 2026

Eddie Clijsen @ University of Montréal

PhD candidate Eddie Clijsen has just returned from a six-week research/composition residency at the Faculty of Music at the University of Montréal, under supervision of Prof. Jimmie LeBlanc and with the support of the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. The residency continues a long-standing research connection between DMU's Music, Technology and Innovation Research Group and the Faculty of Music at the University of Montréal.

In Montréal Eddie completed Équinoxe—a multichannel acousmatic work exploring a formalised approach to polytemporal polymicrotonal composition.  Équinoxe utilises multiple instances of microtonally-retuned and digitally-effected virtual pianos.  The work was conceptualised, implemented and composed in the multichannel studio spaces in the Faculty of Music at the University of Montréal, specifically the Studio Hexa, Octo and Gris.

Eddie Clijsen in the University of Montreal multichannel studio

 

 

Saturday 28 March in PACE Studio 1: The Call of Flute: Shashank Subramanyam

The Call of Flute: Shashank Subramanyam,
6pm - 7:30pm Studio 1, PACE Building, DMU Leicester

Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-call-of-flute-with-shashank-subramanyam-tickets-1984567520878

One of the most extraordinary flautists of our time takes to the stage for an evening of Carnatic classical music at its most intimate and transporting. Carnatic music does not simply play to an audience. It draws them inward, through intricate melodic architecture, cascading rhythmic patterns and improvisations that feel both spontaneous and inevitable.

Shashank Subramanyam, Grammy-nominated and honoured by the French Government with the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, possesses a rare gift for making this ancient tradition feel vital and immediate. His bamboo flute singing in ragas that shift colour with every breath, he guides the audience through a journey that is as deeply felt as it is technically breathtaking.

Subramanyam's story is as remarkable as his music. A child prodigy who first stunned his family at nine months and performed publicly at six, he is today the youngest-ever recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi's senior award and has performed in over fifty countries. Joining him is his long-standing percussionist and trusted musical partner Parupalli S. Phalgun on mridangam, a maestro of rhythmic dexterity and deep Carnatic theory, who has toured over forty countries and whose contributions to fingering technique have reshaped the art of mridangam playing. Together, this is a partnership refined over more than two decades on the world's greatest stages.

 

 

 

Bret Battey's 'Estuaries 4' Selected for Bangkok Festival

Prof Bret Battey's audiovisual composition Estuaries 4 has been selected for inclusion in the inaugural festival of the Thai Electroacoustic Music Society (TEAMS) at the Bangkok Kunsthale, April 17-19, 2026. 

PhD Student Matthew London — Talk at University College Dublin, June 2026

PhD student Matthew London has been accepted to present a 20-minute paper titled “The Non-Composer Influence: Speculating on the Poietic Processes Shaping Film Music and Sound” at the Music and Media: Directions and Aesthetics of the Digital Era conference at University College Dublin, 11 - 12 June 2026.

The paper explores how non-composer figures - such as directors, producers, sound designers, music supervisors, and re-recording mixers - contribute to shaping a film’s sonic identity. Adopting a speculative, poietic perspective, it examines how distributed creative decision-making challenges traditional models of authorship in film music and points toward multiple forms of integrated-soundtrack practices.

John Young's 'Three Spaces in Mid-Air' in Lugano

John Young's acousmatic work Three Spaces in Mid-Air will feature at the Teatrostudio, Lugano Arte e Cultura in Lugano, Switzerland, on 12 January 2025 in a concert organised by the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana's Spazio 21 series.
The theme of the concert is 'silence'. https://electropresence.com/en/even/47910-ear-2025-26-ear-1  

Three Spaces in Mid-Air was published on Young's solo CD Espaces lointains by empreintes DIGITALes in 2024, and was first prize winner of the 6th KLANG! International Electroacoustic Composition Competition (Montpellier, France, 2019).

Landy invited talk and international jury member in Macau

In mid November, Prof. Landy headed to the Academy of Music at the Macau University of Science and Technology where was asked to offer an invited extended lecture entitled ‘Innovative Music Making: Interesting or engaging? Why not both?’. He also served as international jury member at their Macao International Digital Intelligence Music Competition.