Sonic Arts Forum held at DMU 18 April 2026

The Sonic Arts Forum, a national/international UK workshop for electroacoustic and experiemental sonic arts was held at DMU on Saturday 18 April. 

The event, organised by Leeds-based composer Coryn Smethurst, has run for over 20 years at many different UK venues and is an opportunity for creative people working with sound and technology as a significant element in their practice to introduce their work and receive feedback from an audience in a friendly, supportive environment.
This was the first time it has been hosted by DMU, giving participants the opportunity to hear their work in the PACE Studio 1 immersive audio space, including a number of ambisonic and audiovisual works.

Participants:
Tom Williams – Clouds and Clocks
Matt Brombley – Collaborative improvisation
Salma Ahmad Caller – Counter Sonic archives
Jonty Harrison & Pete Stollery – Aides… mémoires… project
Holly Gowland – Natural vs artificial
Sibylle Pomorin – Colour sound flow
Tristan Kersten – Process based composition
Bruno Quast – Acousmatic film sound design
Andrey Chugunov – Astrophysical sonification
John Biddulph – Digital and analogue microtonality

Book chapter, published score, conference lecture and a premiere from Edward Clijsen

PhD candidate Edward Clijsen has a chapter in a new book Innovation in Music: Innovative Creative Practice, just published by Routledge. The book’s contents have been developed from selected papers given at the Innovation in Music 2024 conference in Oslo.

Clijsen’s chapter, titled “Redividing the Octave for Expanded Tonal Spaces: Preliminary Practical Explorations of Formalised Approaches to Microtonal Composition”, discusses the outcomes and implications arising out the compositional process for an early version of his piece Geïsoleerd (2024) which represented an exploration of methods for intuitive utilisation of microtonally-informed extended techniques on the Kingma System alto flute, to provide insight on the location of new affective potentials. The score for Geïsoleerd is now also available via Tetractys Publishing.

Clijsen also delivered a lecture at the recent Hyperchromatic Music Festival at Goldsmiths, entitled: “Redividing the Octave for Expanded Tonal Spaces: Reflections on Recent Practical Explorations of a Formalised Approach to Microtonal Composition”. The lecture reflected on the development of a formalised approach to microtonal composition by tracing its development through the portfolio of works encompassed within his PhD.

The festival's Saturday evening concert also premiered Clijsen’s Äußern (2024) for “19-div” and “Quarter-Tone” Microtonal Trumpets in 38-/48-divisions of the octave, written in collaboration with, and performed by, Stephen Altoft of Microtonal Projects.

 

MTIRG Symposium April 2026

Members of the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Group met for a one-day symposium on 17 April.

Presenters included
Robert Chafer: Foundations, Potentials, and Practice of Mixed Reality Spatial Audio Composition.
Edward Clijsen: Redividing the Octave for Expanded Tonal Spaces: Reflections on Recent Practical Explorations of a Formalised Approach to Microtonal Composition.
Matthew London: The Integrated Soundtrack: An Analytical Exploration of the Soundtrack Elements of Music, Sound Design, and Dialogue Within Horror Cinema.
Samvaran Rai: Is dramaturgy an invisible locus of control? An enquiry on dramaturgy and what it could mean for ambiguity in electroacoustic music.
Joanna Cogle: Hypersourced Scoring Practice And Expanding The Integrated Soundtrack In Contemporary Media Scoring.
Conor Snape: Navigating the Oddverse: Adaptive Audio and Interactive World Design.

Symposium participants: Front row (L-R) Pawel Wietrzykowski, Matthew London, Samvaran Rai,
Bret Battey. Back row (L-R) Edward Clijsen, James Andean, Simon Atkinson, Robert Chafer,
Joanna Cogle, Conor Snape, John Young

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.