Call for papers: EMS 2020 conference, hosted by MTI!

Next June MTI will be hosting the 2020 EMS conference! The call for proposals is out, on the theme 'Future Directions of Electroacoustic Music Studies' - deadline for submissions February 20th:

http://www.ems-network.org/ems20/call.html

Call for proposals:

Electroacoustic Music Studies Network conference:
Future Directions of Electroacoustic Music Studies

Music, Technology and Innovation – Institute for Sonic Creativity (MTI2)
De Montfort University, Leicester UK
Wed. 17 – Sat. 20 June 2020

Deadline for paper submission: 20 February 2020

Celebrating 20 years of Music, Technology & Innovation at De Montfort University, and 25 years of the ‘Organised Sound’ journal, 2020 is an opportune moment to investigate the state of our field and, perhaps more importantly, look to the future. As sonic creativity continues to develop rapidly, its field of study is arguably still in search of itself. Are we suffering from the old adage that music cannot be studied until it has existed for a long time? Or perhaps from our field being too interdisciplinary in nature?

EMS20 seeks to present, alongside up-to-date research results, a number of papers investigating how today’s and tomorrow’s specialists expect this important field to evolve. Will it settle in as a contemporary sub-area of musicology? Or will it find its own foci of scholarly endeavour thanks to the fact that it incorporates all sounds as well as many forms of technology?

ADDITIONAL EMS20 THEMES
The conference is also open to other topics relevant to the history and/or contemporary practice of electroacoustic music. We encourage the submission of papers relating to any aspect of the field, including but not limited to analysis, perception, listening, terminology, composition, performance, cultural issues and education.

Analysis:
- What types of discourse are relevant to electroacoustic works?
- Which analytical methods are currently being developed?
- Can one adapt existent analytical methods of music to electroacoustic works, many of which involve no prescriptive notation?
- How can we further develop the field of study of electroacoustic musics?

Transcription and representation of sound, new audio-visual tools:
- How are analytical tools being produced and disseminated in the community?
- Which means are available for communicating this sonic art form through symbolic and graphic representations?
- Does the study of electroacoustic musics require specifically designed tools or can it take advantage of methods conceived for other musics?

Taxonomy, terminology - 'meaningful' units of music description:
- Which systems of classification are in use or should be developed?
- How can we become more consistent in our use of terminology in a field as dynamic as electroacoustic music?

Real-time music making:
- How can live performance/composition strategies be analysed
- What is 'live' electronic music?

Performance, presentation, dissemination:
- What is the 'work'?
- New presentation spaces, technologies.
- Aesthetical and musical issues raised by Internet communities, group compositions, telematics and performances.

Listening, Intention-Reception
- Issues of perception and interpretation.
- How do the composer's intentions relate to what is perceived?

Semiotics/semiology, 'meaning':
- What (and how) do different electroacoustic music genres express?

Soundscape, sound ecology:
- Analytical tools for the understanding of soundscapes.
- New approaches to sound ecology, sonification, sound environment.

Genres/styles, 'languages':
- Questions of unity, diversity, plurality, multicultural resources, polystyle, hybridisation, 'local music'.

Gender issues:
- Have gender balances shifted since the early days?
- The relationship between technology/electroacoustic music and gender.
- Unrecognised contributions: revising history.

Research on history of electroacoustic music:
- Research on historical documentation.
- Studies on the genesis, development and activities of private and public studios.
- How can and should we revise history?

Socio-cultural issues:
- What are the socio-cultural ramifications of electroacoustic music?

Pedagogy:
- Curriculum design.
- Balance between theory and practice, general and specific approaches.
- Real-time and interaction versus fixed medium and studio techniques.
- Teaching material: how to select it, and language issues.

Caution: Participants are discouraged from submitting proposals focusing on their own compositions as well as those discussing the development of new technological resources for musical application that have a better home at events such as ICMC.

Deadline for submissions: 20 February 2020

All approved/presented papers will be published on the EMS site that has an ISSN number.

Tonight!! Bret Battey artist's talk, Phoenix 6:30pm

Tonight, Monday December 9th 2019, MTI Prof. Bret Battey will be giving an artist's talk at Phoenix Leicester at 6:30pm:

https://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/bret-battey-artists-talk/

Phoenix Leicester, Screen Room
4 Midland St, Leicester LE1 1TG
Free Entry

"Bret Battey joins us to talk about the making of his audiovisual installation Three Breaths in Empty Space, its relationship to his earlier works and his longstanding partnership with Phoenix as an artist and curator.

Born in the United States, Bret Battey is Professor of Audiovisual Composition at De Montfort University. He creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesising a diverse professional and educational background in music composition, computer science, design and electronics. Bret has exhibited internationally and has been recognised with many awards and prizes, including Prix Ars Electronica."

Awards for John Young & Louise Rossiter at Musica Nova competition

The 2019 Musica Nova competition in Prague has recognised two MTI composers this year:

Prof. John Young has received an Honorary Mention for his orchestral work 'Spirit', while alumna Louise Rossiter has received an Honorary Mention for her acousmatic composition 'Neuronen'.

Congratulations to both!

These and the other winning works will be celebrated in a concert in Prague on Tuesday December 10th 2019:

https://musicanova.seah.cz/cds/MusicaNova2019/index.htm

This weekend: Aural Diversity Conference 2019!

Join us for the first Aural Diversity Conference, which will take place this weekend, on Saturday November 30th and Sunday December 1st 2019 at the University of Leicester:

http://auraldiversity.org/conferences.html

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30th, 2019

9.00-9.30 Registration. University of Leicester, George Davies Centre (GDC)

9.30-9.45 Welcome. Prof. Andrew Hugill/Prof. John Levack Drever (GDC)

10.00-11.30 SESSION 1: Hearing & Listening 1 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.

• Keynote 1: Dr. Alinka Greasley (University of Leeds) “Exploring the music listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments: patient and practitioner perspectives”.
• Prof. William Davies (University of Salford) “Autistic Listening”
• Lena Batra (Independent Hearing Therapist) “Assisting the Musically Diverse Patient”

12.00-13.00 SESSION 2: Composing, Music & Sound Art 1. Attenborough Arts Centre (AAC). Chaired by Prof Andrew Hugill.

• Jay Afrisando (composer) “The (Real) Laptop Music :))” (multimedia performance)
• Simon Allen (composer) “After Cornell” (multimedia performance)
• Josephine Dickinson (composer/artist/poet) “ALPHABETULA” (performance)
• John D'Arcy (digital media researcher) "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (presentation)

14.00-14.10 Welcome address by Professor Paul Monks, Head of the College of Science and Engineering, University of Leicester (GDC)

14.15-16.00 SESSION 3: Hearing & Listening 2 (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Alinka Greasley.

• Keynote 2: Prof Peter Rea (University Hospitals Leicester) “Aural Diversity: the consequences of pathology and treatment. A surgeon’s perspective”.
• Dr. Samuel Couth (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness) ”The show must go on: understanding the effects of musicianship, noise exposure, cognition and ageing on real-world hearing abilities.”
• Dr. Marie Thompson (University of Lincoln) & Dr. Patrick Farmer (Oxford Brookes University) “Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts”
• Ed Garland (Aberystwyth University) “Textual hearing aids: how reading about sound can improve sonic experience”
16.00-17.00 SESSION 4: Panel Discussion - Aural Diversity (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Simon Atkinson (De Montfort University).
• Panel includes keynote speakers (John Drever, Alinka Greasley, Andrew Hugill, Peter Rea). Contributions from the floor invited.
19.30-21.30 SESSION 5: Aural Diversity Concert #2 Led by Duncan Chapman.
***
SUNDAY DECEMBER 1st
9.00-9.30 Late registrations, organisational questions.
9.30-10.30 SESSION 6: Composing, Music & Sound Art 2 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.
• Keynote 3: Prof. Andrew Hugill (University of Leicester) “Consequences of Ménière’s Disease and other forms of hearing impairment for musicians, their music-making, hearing care and technologies”.
• Christopher Cook (Goldsmiths College) “Co-composing with Trevor, who has Mild Cognitive Impairment”
11.00-12.00 SESSION 7: Composing, Music & Sound Art 3 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.
• Dr. Balandino Di Donato (University of Leicester), Dr. Tychonas Michailidis (Solent University), Christopher Dewey (University of Huddersfield) “SoundSculpt: sculpting and experiencing sound-objects through mid-air haptics and holographic projection.”
• Prof. Matthew Sansom (Sunway University, KL, Malaysia) “Aural and other perceptually diverse inclusivity in an example of interdisciplinary arts practice”
• Dr. Matthew Spring (Bath Spa University) “Thomas Mace: a functioning deaf musician and music theorist in the seventeenth-century”.
12.30-13.30 SESSION 8: Soundscape, Environment & Acoustic Ecology 1 (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Alinka Greasley.
• Keynote 4: Prof. John Levack Drever (Goldsmiths College) “Phonating Hand Dryers: exploits in aural diverse composition and co-composition”.
• Dr. Karla Berrens Torruella (University of Barcelona) “Sound, discomfort and the making of place in an urban environment.”
14.00-15.00 SESSION 9: Artists’ Statements (GDC). Chaired by John Drever
• Alan Jacques (musician and trustee of the Ménière's Society) “A Tale of Two Inner Ears - Learning to live with Cochlear Amusia”
• Josephine Dickinson (composer/artist/poet) “ALPHABETULA”
• Lena Batra (Independent Hearing Therapist) “Embracing the Inbetween”
15.30-16.30 SESSION 10: Soundscape, Environment & Acoustic Ecology 2 (GDC). Chaired by Prof Andrew Hugill.
• Dr. Meri Kytö (University of Eastern Finland) “Cochlear implant as soundscape arranger: rethinking the signal-to-noise ratio”
• Johan Malmstedt (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) “Ecological Ears: Modes of Listening in the Writings of Murray Schafer and Bernie Kraus”
• Additional item: David Holzman (concert pianist) “Deep River - A Pianist’s Journey With Hearing Loss”
16.30-17.00 SESSION 11: Plenary discussion (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever. Questions to be sought from delegates in advance of the conference. The discussion will also focus on planning of future events and research.
17.00 Close
ADDITIONAL EVENT: CONCERT
Sara Stowe (soprano) and Matthew Spring (early instruments) Apollo, Orpheus, Midas and Pan. Hearing and mythology in early song. December 3rd 2019, 12:45-1:45pm (approximate) in the Main Hall, Attenborough Arts Centre.

Bret Battey: 'Three Breaths in Empty Space' Installation

Bret Battey's new installation Three Breaths in Empty Space was commissioned by Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their move to the Cultural Quarter. It will run mid-November to the end of December 2019, filling the Phoenix Gallery with abstract computer animations and surround sound generated with custom software systems. The work invites participants to contemplate continuous change and shimmering instabilities in everything from subatomic activity to the level of the cosmos. Are we witnessing quantum foam on invisible waves, nerve patterns in the body-mind, maps of social structures coalescing and transforming, or transfigurations of some vast nebula? As ghostly fragments of Maurice Ravel’s piano work Ondine occasionally materialise and dissolve at peaks of audiovisual intensity, we can ponder how phenomena arise and pass in Emptiness.

For more information: https://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/three-breaths-in-empty-space/

Simon Atkinson: Night Music, Greenwich October 16th

On Wednesday October 16th, MTI's Simon Atkinson will be performing a solo concert at St. Alfege Church, Greenwich, London, as part of the University of Greenwich's Loudspeaker Concert Series:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/simon-atkinson-loudspeaker-orchestra-concert-tickets-73423173689

"Simon Atkinson presents a programme of acousmatic and lowercase music inspired by the nocturnal and evocative of the night, projected over the Loudspeaker Orchestra.

"Simon is Associate Professor and a founding member of the MTI: Institute for Sonic Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester. His work is primarily in musical composition made possible through digital technologies, exploring the evolution of timbre and texture through time. He has worked in a diverse and eclectic range of musical projects, mediums and contexts over the years, recently in notable collaborations with dance and digital dance.

"The Loudspeaker Orchestra presents immersive acoustic experiences through programmed concerts of multichannel sound design, sonic art and electroacoustic music. Regular concerts, featuring work by international artists alongside students of Sound Design, take place in and around Greenwich."

Further Concert Dates: http://bit.ly/2lZacgS

New article by MTI² director Leigh Landy

The latest issue of Cambridge Journals' Organised Sound, on the theme of 'Borrowing, Quotation, Sampling and Plundering', includes a new article by MTI² director, Prof. Leigh Landy, titled 'Re-composing Sounds … and Other Things':

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/recomposing-sounds-and-other-things/6AA9E8D99FF45A1E44F02643C2FFBAE5

"In this article, based on four decades of experience of using samples in diverse ways in experimental, particularly electroacoustic compositions, the author investigates the world of what he calls ‘sample-based sound-based music’ and suggests that there is a relative lack of scholarship in this important area. The article’s contextual sections focus on briefly delineating this world of sonic creativity and placing it within today’s sampling culture as well as dealing with two political aspects of sampling, a musician’s attitude towards the reuse of sonic materials and the legality of sampled sounds, including musical passages, in the discussion of which current legislation related to sampling is challenged. Following this, a number of categories are presented in terms of the types of sampling material that is being used as well as how sample-based works are presented. The subsequent section is perhaps the most poignant in the article, namely the opening up of this form of innovative composition from a more traditional ‘artist creates work’ mode of operation to a more collaborative one which is essentially already part of most other forms of sampling culture. The objective here is to suggest that such collaborative approaches will enable sample-based sound-based music to become part of the lives of a much broader group than those currently involved with it."

John Richards: '101 Ways to Make the Sound xcstZhhh!'

MTI's John Richards recently keynoted the 'Heretical Sound Synthesis' conference in Helsinki, with a talk entitled '101 Ways to Make the Sound xcstZhhh!'

Video link:
https://youtu.be/LmbCzZfQL0w

More info about the 'Heretical Sound Synthesis' conference:
https://hereticalsoundsynthesis.wordpress.com

Simon Emmerson keynotes 'Bowed Electrons' in South Africa

MTI's Professor Simon Emmerson has recently returned from South Africa, where he was keynote speaker at the ‘Bowed Electrons’ conference and symposium.

This is a unique countrywide event which took place at the Universities of Cape Town, Pretoria and Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). Professor Emmerson gave his keynote address, a masterclass and performances of his works (Aeolian and Memory Machine) at all three locations within five days!

The conference aims to bring together local, regional and international practitioners and academics in music made with technology. South Africa is a unique society in rapid development with a rich and diverse range of cultures and arts practices. Professor Emmerson commented: “I hope this is the start of a fruitful exchange between MTI² and this great range of musicians across South Africa”.

Professor Emmerson shared the keynote platform with Neo Muyanga, who co-founded the ‘Pan African Space Station’ in 2008 as a continually evolving host of cutting-edge Pan-African music and sound art on the internet and across stages in Cape Town and other parts of the globe; he will be producing a new commission for Liverpool Biennial 2020. (See the local Cape Town newspaper preview of the conference below.)

https://www.sacmmt.com/bowed-electrons-2019

Convergence 2019 conference/festival: Photos

Our Convergence 2019 conference/festival was a great success! Take a look through the conference photo album at some of the wonderful events & presentations:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/mtidmu/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2296885543955701

James Andean's 'Valdrada' receives Honorary Mention at Matera Intermedia Festival

MTI's James Andean has received an Honorary Mention from the 2019 Matera Intermedia Festival, Italy, for his work Valdrada:

http://www.materaintermedia.it

'Valdrada' is being performed tonight at the Festival, together with works by Daniel Blinkhorn, Raphaël Néron, Nahuel Litwin, Matteo Traverso & Maria Isolina Cozzani.

Convergence 2019 conference/festival, Sept. 12-15

Join us for the Convergence 2019 conference/festival, Sept. 12th-15th 2019 - guest speakers include Curtis Roads, Barry Truax, and more!

CONVERGENCE 2019
International Conference/Festival of Music, Technology & Ideas
12-15 September 2019
MTI² Institute for Sonic Creativity, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

2019 Theme: Complexity & Simplicity

TO REGISTER:
https://store.dmu.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-computing-engineering-media/conferences/convergence

SCHEDULE:
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/september/convergence-2019-programme-information.aspx

More info:
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/september/convergence-complexity-and-simplicity.aspx

21st century musical creativity rides on the convergence of many streams of musical cultures, styles and value systems.  The previous century’s passage through modernist and postmodern imperatives has propelled us into a state of glorious collision, where tradition and innovation coexist in fusion and confusion.  New technologies are a central element in this creative ferment - from elaborate, immersive multichannel and audiovisual environments, expressions of artificial intelligence and transmedia narratives to hardware hacking.

How might we make sense of this multiplicity of creative endeavours? What are the tensions and synergies we feel amongst the creative approaches of practitioners and between the insights of theorists and critics? What, if anything, might we sense is our relationship with the ideals and cultural products of the past?

Convergence 2019 proposes that we consider these issues from the perspectives of complexity and simplicity. Can we conceive ever more elaborate designs and complex ways to divine meaning in music, or should we find in the plethora of possibilities a path that leads to a more immediate clarity, even simplicity? And how, as curators of our artistic fate, might we expect 21st century audiences to respond?

Convergence aims to bring together many of the diverse strands of music made with new technologies and to celebrate these alongside some traditional practices.  In 2019 we will also be working with the Darbar Fringe Festival to bring high quality traditional and experimental Indian music projects to the conference.

Keynote speaker and guest composer for Convergence 2019 will be eminent composer/researcher Curtis Roads. Dr. Roads' presence at Convergence is made possible by the kind support of the US Embassy and the British Association of American Studies.

Interview with MTI's John Richards

Interview with MTI's John Richards, on the Makery website:

https://www.makery.info/en/2019/08/22/english-dirty-electronics-radical-chips-for-a-feral-camp/

Article: John Young's 'Three Spaces in Mid-Air' takes 1st place at KLANG!

"DMU professor's music recognised with prestigious prize":

https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2019/july/dmu-professors-music-recognised-with-prestigious-prize.aspx



A piece of music composed by a De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) professor has won first prize at a prestigious international competition.

Professor John Young, Professor of Composition, created the work, called Three Spaces in Mid-Air in the research studio of DMU’s MTI2 Institute for Sonic Creativity.

It was awarded first prize in the Klang! International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition 2019, held as part of the annual festival celebrating the sonic arts held in Montpellier, France.

Artists from around the world come together for a series of concerts, installations and conferences exploring the latest developments and thinking in the world of sonic arts. Organisers have more than 60 loudspeakers arranged around the venue to ensure the very best sound quality for performances.

It is the second international first prize for Professor Young in six months, following the success in December of his work Magnetic Resonance at the Prague Musica Nova competition.

Three Spaces in Mid-Air is in three connected movements and explores the compression of musical form.

"The experience of sound is directly physical, even tactile, and electroacoustic music opens up new worlds for the imagination by lifting us out of our daily encounters with sound,” said Professor Young.

“In many ways electroacoustic music naturally lends itself to extended timescales, since it is so often about immersion in the richness and complexity of sound.  In Three Spaces in Mid-Air I wanted to challenge that by conveying reflective and sonically rich atmospheres but within time frames that encourage listeners to engage with the way sounds are shaped in time.

“A good analogy might be in observing the movement of clouds, which can be fast or slow, turbulent or passive. Sounds can be made to act out these qualities of motion and change. The difference is that sound is immaterial, yet it touches us - and that can be a very powerful avenue of expression.”

The KLANG! competition is organised by the Maison des arts sonores, which also promotes concerts and educational initiatives in the sonic arts through partnerships with the Montpellier Conservatoire, the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Montpellier and others.

Two other works from the DMU studios were among the eight finalists for the award, James Andean's Valdrada, recently released on the Montreal empreintes DIGITALes CD label along with Abwesenheit – another work by Professor Young premiered in Austria by the Vienna Acousmonium.

As part of the prize for winning first place, Professor Young will give a solo concert of his work at the 2020 KLANG! Festival in Montpellier.

Judges of the Klang! Festival this year included highly-regarded practitioners including Annette Vane de Gorne, Jonty Harrison, Denis Smalley and Francis Dhomont.

The festival is in partnership with the Opera Orchestra of Montpellier Occitanie, the SCRIME Studio of Creation and Research in Computer Science and Experimental Music of Bordeaux, BEAST Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theater, All For Contemporary Music, Ensemble Flashback, Nau Côclea, the festival Manca Nice, Zepplin Festival Barcelona and the Regional Conservatory Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole.

MTI & DMU award Honorary Doctor of Music to Prof. Xiaofu Zhang

Yesterday MTI and DMU awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music to Professor Xiaofu Zhang of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China’s premier music school:

https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2019/july/class-of-2019-leicester-media-school-graduates-in-the-spotlight.aspx

Professor Zhang has spent the past 40 years writing, composing, teaching and researching at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China’s premier music school. His compositions are performed around the world.

He told graduates to seize the opportunities that technology presented to make a difference in the world. He said: “It is a pleasure and an honour to be given this honorary degree from DMU. I think it’s an opportunity to recognise my 40 years’ work in research and teaching but also a reminder for me to work harder. 

“I said to graduates today that they are graduating at the best time. Technology has made the world smaller and it brings many opportunities with it.”

DMU has had a relationship with the conservatory in Beijing for 15 years through close links with the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, led by Professor Leigh Landy.

MTI postgrad Sam Topley teaching at Goldsmiths

MTI postgrad Sam Topley will be teaching at Goldsmiths, University of London this summer, running a course on sound art and e-textiles at the Creative Computing Summer School:

https://www.gold.ac.uk/computing/studywithus/summer-school/

John Young's 'Three Spaces in Mid-Air' wins 2019 KLANG! competition

'Three Spaces in Mid-Air', a 2017 acousmatic composition by MTI's Professor of Composition John Young, has won the 2019 KLANG! competition for electroacoustic composition:

https://klangacousmonium.wordpress.com/concours-international-de-composition-electroacoustique-klang/

In addition, James Andean's 'Valdrada' and John Young's 'Abwesenheit' were both included among the competition finalists.

On 'Three Spaces in Mid-Air':

"Form, writes Nicholas Bourriaud, is ‘structural unity imitating a world.’ I have responded to this idea with Three Spaces in Mid-Air, which is designed as a continuous work in three discrete sections. Each explores the idea of spectral space through interaction and coalescence of sonic strata, as three-dimensional objects ‘suspended’ before the listener. The work’s individual sections also address the compression of form, each aiming to embody the atmosphere of a self-contained ‘world’ — evoking implications of direction, tension and release while balancing states of stasis and motion."

MTI activities this month in Mexico

Head of the Institute, Leigh Landy, is in Mexico City this month, for a range of activities including:

- A solo concert and three talks at CMMAS (Mexican Centre for Music & the Sonic Arts), in Morelia:
https://cmmas.org/cmmas_eventos.php?lan=es&id=1726

- A meeting with the Dean of Music and Head of Music Technology at UNAM (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) in Mexico City, to discuss a new collaborative agreement with MTI². UNAM has courses at all levels in Mexico City, as well as postgraduate courses led by CMMAS.

- Co-directing this year's Electroacoustic Music Studies conference at UNAM, Mexico City.
This will include two talks, along with MTI's James Andean, on our planned ‘Sensing Sounds’ project.
The event will also include the launch announcement for EMS20, which will take place at the MTI² in June 2020 - stay tuned for more info!

John Richards in new documentary film 'The Sound is Innocent'

MTI's John Richards is one of the featured artists in the 2019 documentary 'The Sound is Innocent'. You can spot him, and his work with Dirty Electronics, in the film's trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByJSwD4j43A

"As if directing a science-fiction film, Johana Ožvold dissects the story of electronic music. From the pioneer sound engineers working behind the Iron Curtain, through the French avant-garde composers, up to the post-modern creators of digital sonic artefacts, the first-time filmmaker summons an abstract landscape that is haunting and yet achingly beautiful. A voice appears from old television screens forgotten in the maze of some futuristic archive where past and future seem to coexist in a complex and multi-layered way. The oblique strategies through which analog equipment and digital recording tactics create new possibilities are observed by the filmmaker with playful affection, like a scientist in his lab among his favorite tools and… toys. A documentary debut that challenges all the preconceived notions about the observational approach and manages to create an exhilarating landscape in which sound becomes and space dissolves itself in tones never heard before. A different kind of space odyssey."

Out now & online: "Perceptual Issues Surrounding the Electroacoustic Music Experience", ed. Sven-Amin Lembke

Out now & online - the latest issue of the journal Organised Sound, guest edited by MTI's Sven-Amin Lembke:

"Perceptual Issues Surrounding the Electroacoustic Music Experience"

Volume 24 - Special Issue 1 - April 2019

Click here to visit the Cambridge Journals page for Organised Sound

Interfaces Festival trailer

Take a look at the trailer for our upcoming Interfaces Festival, which runs from May 29th to June 4th 2019 in Leicester:

The Interfaces Sound Art Festival brings sound art to venues across Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. Presented across the Cultural Quarter in Phoenix Square, The Curve Theatre, LCB depot and The Exchange Bar, the festival includes a diverse range of work that explores and celebrates sound in relation to space, place, image and sculpture.

More info:

http://www.interfacesnetwork.eu/post.php?pid=283-sound-art-festival

Interfaces Festival, May 29th - June 4th

INTERFACES FESTIVAL
Wednesday May 29th to Tuesday June 4th 2019
https://www.facebook.com/events/310193436523748/

The Interfaces Festival brings sound art installations and audiovisual artwork to venues across Leicester’s Cultural Quarter, including Phoenix Leicester, CURVE theatre, Leicester, LCB Depot and The Exchange Bar.

The festival provokes both eye and ear. Exploring ‘visual music’ – the artistic magic that can occur when image is shaped and formed like music – it offers two screenings of audiovisual artwork from around the world and two hands-on workshops from leading artists. Meanwhile, a fantastic range of sound art installations explore and celebrate sound in relation to space, place, image and sculpture.

The festival is organised by Music, Technology & Innovation, De Montfort University within the framework of the EU Interfaces Network Project, with the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The project focuses on ‘new music for new audiences’, aiming to inspire more people of all ages and demographics to experience contemporary music and sound art.

For the latest details see:
Installations: http://bit.ly/2VRQT9z
Visual Music: bit.ly/3024hHw


















Events

Workshop: Collaborative Animated Light Graffiti with Urban Projections
Wed May 29, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Mobile light projections from the workshop will be shown in the city, starting around 10:00 pm.
Location: Phoenix Conference Rooms
Price: Free, but space is limited. Online reservation at Phoenix required. Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/2Yefx1w
In this community workshop, participants will learn how to use special software on iPads to craft collaborative animations with music. A selection of the workshop pieces will then be displayed around Leicester at night with a custom ‘light cycle’ portable high-definition projection system.

Screening: Visible Bits, Audible Bytes
Fri 31 May, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Location: Phoenix Screen 1
Reservations via Phoenix recommended.
Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/2J6g2aM
Visible Bits, Audible Bytes shows how artists and musicians from around the world are using new technologies to animate imaginative audiovisual worlds. Going beyond the bounds of traditional narrative, abstract flows of image and sound invite wonder and contemplation.With the support of the EU Interfaces project, Visible Bits, Audible Bytes has commissioned award-winning Montréal video artist and composer Myriam Boucher to premiere a new work at Phoenix as part of the screening.

Installation: Myriam Boucher – Empty Spaces
Fri 31 May, 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm and Sat 1 Jun, 11am – 7pm
Location: Phoenix Screen Room
Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/304OaZB
Myriam Boucher’s Empty Spaces is a video and sound-based installation that acts as a companion or ‘prelude’ to her audiovisual composition by the same name, which will be premiering in this year’s Visible Bits, Audible Bytes. The installation explores the genesis of her project: the village where she grew up – concerning the source of the desire to run away, to escape from reality.

Artist Talks
Fri May 31, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Location: Phoenix Conference Rooms
A selection of artists involved in the Interfaces Leicester project will discuss their work.

Installation: Sam Underwood – Heed
Fri May 31 – Tue 4 Jun
Time: starting evening of May 31, open all day thereafter
Location: Phoenix
Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/2WwMINI
For this installation, sound artist and musical instrument designer Sam Underwood is placing a series of sonic devices in and around Phoenix. A variation on his long-term Sonic Graffiti project, Sam has chosen to reflect on our current divisions. Each piece encourages close listening and quiet reflection as an antidote to the bombast that seems so commonplace at this time.

Screening: Punto y Raya Festival Retrospective
Sat 1 Jun, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Location: Phoenix Screen 2
Reservations via Phoenix recommended
Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/2H4s15b
Spain’s Punto y Raya fosters Audiovisual Arts in their purest state: form, colour, motion and sound – no representation. Its mission is to recapture the spirit of Cinéma Pure and Absolute Film formulated by the European avant-garde in the 1920s, consolidating this unique artform lying at the intersection between Art and Media. This screening presentation by festival co-founder Nöel Palazzo offers a review of the festival’s 12-year trajectory, focusing on contemporary works and the many diverse techniques the artists have explored and developed.

Workshop: VJ Workshop with Myriam Boucher
Sat 1 Jun, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: Phoenix Conference Rooms
Reservations via Phoenix required
Phoenix listing: http://bit.ly/2Jk7GLX
Participants can bring their own laptop computer with the Resolume demo installed, or can use computers provided at the workshop.This workshop is an opportunity to learn VJ technique – the emerging art of live performance of visual projections with music – hands-on from an award-winning artist who is master in both visuals and music production. Montréal-based video and sound artist Myriam Boucher will teach aspects of her approach to live performance with Resolume software, with special attention to questions of how to work with musical structures and to create organic visual textures and transformations.

Installations from DMU Music and Audio Technology
LCB Depot installations start Thu 30 May 1:00 pm
All other installations start Fri 31 May, 1:00 pm
All finish 4 June, 5:00 pm
Curve Theatre:
Peter Batchelor, Contraption
Rob Chafer, Innermost
Danny Ingram, Balloon Bridge
Francesc Marti, Speech 2
John Richards, Death and the Shell
Stewart Worthy, Tungsten Ghost
Exchange Bar:
Donggyu Lee, Window ≠ Wall
LCB Depot:
Davide Baldazzi, Molekules
Bruno Iglesias, Frame of Phase

For more information:
Visual Music: Bret Battey – bbattey[at]dmu.ac.uk
Sound Art Installations: Peter Batchelor – pbatchelor[at]dmu.ac.uk

Open position: Lecturer in Music and Audio Technology

Want to be part of the MTI team? Do you have a background in any of the following: digital signal processing for music; computer music systems for composition; music information retrieval; machine learning for music and sound; music and sound processing; artificial intelligence for music; sound design; audio for gaming; neuroscience of music; sound and music synthesis; music and audio software development?

If so, we encourage you to apply for the position of Lecturer / Senior Lecturer in Music and Audio Technology. Deadline for applications May 20th.

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BRR803/lecturer-senior-lecturer-in-music-and-audio-technology

CD launch for James Andean's 'Assemblance(s)', Sheffield, Friday April 26th

The debut cd from MTI's James Andean, 'Assemblance(s)' is being released on the electroacoustic label empreintes DIGITALes, with a launch party at the Sound Junction event at the University of Sheffield, Friday April 26th 2019 at 6pm:

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/usss/soundjunction/sj2019april
https://electrocd.com/en/album/5846/James_Andean/Assemblance

Out next week: 'The Digital Score - Musicianship, Creativity and Innovation'

Next week will see the release of the new Routledge book 'The Digital Score: Musicianship, Creativity and Innovation', by Professor of Digital Performance Craig Vear:

https://www.routledge.com/The-Digital-Score-Musicianship-Creativity-and-Innovation-1st-Edition/Vear/p/book/9781138586680

"Digital technology is transforming the musical score as a broad array of innovative score systems have become available to musicians. From attempts to mimic the print score, to animated and graphical scores, to artificial intelligence-based options, digital scoring affects the musical process by opening up new possibilities for dynamic interaction between the performer and the music, changing how we understand the boundaries between composition, score, improvisation and performance. The Digital Score: Musicianship, Creativity and Innovation offers a guide into this new landscape, reflecting on what these changes mean for music-making from both theoretical and applied perspectives.

Drawing on findings from over a decade’s worth of practice-based experimentation in the field, author Craig Vear builds a framework for understanding how digital scores create meaning. He considers the interactions between affect, embodiment and digital scores, offering the first comprehensive and critical consideration of an exciting field with no agreed-upon borders. Featuring insights from interviews with over fifty musicians and composers from across four continents, this book is a valuable resource for music researchers and practitioners alike."

Large-scale Audiovisual Installation by PhD student Asher Arnon Apr 10-12

Asher Arnon

Audio-visual composition and installation

Four screens and thirteen speakers

30min loop
https://www.facebook.com/events/653194205109437/

Perhaps this scheme will enable us to hear more often from each other

A poetic documentary, an ensemble of images and sounds composed as a multi-layered narrative unfolding in time and space. Visual and auditory impressions, collected from eight localities, are assembled into a collage of fleeting moments of transience juxtaposed with longer stretch of reflection and meditation.

PACE 1, DMU, April 10th -12th

The installation will be on view on Wednesday 10.4 - 2pm-7pm, Thursday 11.4 – 12pm-7pm and Friday 12.4 - 10am-2pm.