Bret Battey’s ‘Estuaries 4’ screening @ Imagina AniFest, New York

 Prof Bret Battey’s audiovisual composition ‘Estuaries 4’ has been selected for screening at the Imagina AniFest in New York City at the end of December:

https://imaginaanifest.com/


Anna Xambó Sedó on LOLTRAX001 album release

 MTI²'s Anna Xambó Sedó has participated in the compilation LOLTRAX001 with the track mnnw (extract). This compilation is curated by Joe Beedles and Guillaume Dujat (LOL Editions) with 14 tracks by artists including WEȽ∝KER, 1000PA, Michael-Jon Mizra, Chloë Sobek, Robin Fox, Dan Valentine, SONAMB, busf, Kindohm, Ellen Phan, pantea, Lauren Sarah Hayes and Iettatore. 

LOLTRAX001 is an experimental computer music compilation. Based in Manchester UK, LOL HQ have reached out to an international cohort of artists for the label's first release under the ‘TRAX’ format. Within this 56 minute celebration of rhythm, tone and noise, experience the last croak of a circuit bent keyboard, DSP dexterity, luscious pads and phased-out synthesis. Blast yourself with the full hour-long journey or take it in measures.

Proudly presenting: WEȽ∝KER’s GM dissection, 1000PA’s delicately pressurised arrangements, Michael-Jon Mizra’s synthetic scuttling, Chloë Sobek’s post-anthropocentric noise, Robin Fox’s vectorised laserscapes, Anna Xambó’s high altitude human-computer interactions, Dan Valentine's luxurious additive dub, SONAMB’s shiny mechanoids, busf’s intermittent piston blasts, Kindohm’s signature style coated in a newly saturated varnish, Ellen Phan’s therapeutic wall of sound, pantea’s filtered sonic taxidermy, Lauren Sarah Hayes’ unapologetic ML improvisations, capped off with Iettatore’s face-melting stereo spread.

There is a limited edition cassette for £12. All proceeds will be donated to MIND (UK based mental health charity).

The album can be found at Bandcamp: https://loleditions.bandcamp.com/album/loltrax001



Online Symposium Dec 15/16 2023 - HfM Trossingen - AI in Music - Agency, Performance, Production and Perception


 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new chapter in the ongoing development of technological tools that promise to transform the processes of creative work and artistic production. Now is the time to reconsider the relation of art and AI in practice, its aesthetic potential and to actively participate in and shape the transition and development of artistic and technological professions in the field of AI and music.

The symposium brings together experienced artists, practitioners, researchers and engineers who have been known for crossing over between composition, production, design and performance, engineering and development. The event addresses questions related to the agency of data, AI ethics, performance, and perception.

The symposium organisers hope to provide context from which to approach and make even more sense of the new and revolutionary tools bleeding edge research places at our fingertips.
 

Keynotes:

"Deconstructing data: the compositional process as critical inquiry"

Artemi Gioti (University College London, UK)

"Creative Dialectics: Playing with Intelligent Instruments"
Thor Magnusson (University of Sussex, UK)

Full Program and registration: https://eveeno.com/ai-in-music-symposium

Prof Landy's 'Experiencing Organised Sounds' Launch 22 December


Prof Landy's new book Experiencing Organised Sounds will be launched by Routledge on 22 December, 2023.

https://www.routledge.com/Experiencing-Organised-Sounds-The-Listening-Experience-Across-Diverse-Sound-Based/Landy/p/book/9781032533278?utm_source=individuals&utm_medium=shared_link&utm_campaign=B051398_eh1_1au_1aj_t012_1al_45231

Prof Landy in Hangzhou: Musicacoustica 22, Master Classes and Chinese Academy of the Arts


During Prof. Leigh Landy’s two-week visit to Hangzhou in late October/early November, beyond his featuring as composer of the year at the Musicacoustica 2023 festival and his week of master classes as Visiting Professor at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, he was invited to give a talk, ‘Making New Music Relevant’ at the national China Academy of Arts, also in Hangzhou. This talk was attended by well over 100 specialists in the field of intermedia.

Prof Emmerson — invited speaker Sound and Music/British Music Collection/Heritage Quay

On November 15th, Emeritus Professor Simon Emmerson was an invited speaker at an event organised by Sound and Music/British Music Collection/Heritage Quay in Huddersfield on the early years of 'The Electro-acoustic Music Association (EMAS) and Sonic Arts Network', associated with the exhibition 'The Cutting Edge: New Music since 1945'.

Prof Emmerson – keynote at MuSA 2023 / MANTIS performance

On October 28th Emeritus Professor Simon Emmerson was the keynote speaker at the Music and Sonic Arts (MuSA 2023) conference in Manchester, presenting a paper ‘Imagination and Image (in sonic art)’.

That same evening he was MANTIS Festival's 'featured guest artist' in a presentation of his acousmatic work 'Near and Far (at once)' which he had discussed in the earlier keynote.

 

I2MT Inaugural Concert - 30 November 2023

 

Experimental Music Inaugural Concert by I2MT (Interactive & Intelligent Music Technologies Research Group) and special guests featuring music works by Juan Martinez Avila, Steve Benford, Craig Vear, John Richards (AKA Dirty Electronics) and special guest Anna Xambó.

I2MT is the start of a new cross-faculty research cluster that investigates Interactive & Intelligent Music Technologies. Our work focuses on developing technical innovation (new software & hardware interfaces and instruments), pushing boundaries of practice (such as robotics, AI, deep learning), understanding human computer & AI interactions in music, with the ultimate goal of enhancing human creativity.

Date and time: Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:30 - 18:30 GMT
Location: University of Nottingham - Jubilee Campus
More info: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/i2mt-inaugural-concert-tickets-749901474497

Young's SoundPlay awaded first prize in Musica Nova 2023, Prague

John Young's SoundPlay for piano and electroacoustic sounds has been awarded first prize in the instrumental category of the Music Nova Competition, Prague, and will be presented in a concert in Prague on 15 December, streamed on the Czech and Slovak Republic radio.  SoundPlay uses high definition audio samples taken from a very dilapidated upright piano that used to be located in the basement of DMU's Clephan Building. Young worked with digital transformations of these sounds to blend them with the equal tempered tuning of the concert piano.The work was premiered in Leicester in November 2022 by Swedish pianist Eva Sidén.

A link to the work is found here:




Battey's 'Estuaries 4' awarded Distinction in Prix CIME 2023

 The jury of Prix CIME 2023 awarded Bret Battey's Estuaries 4 a Distinction in the Video Music category (along with João Pedro Oliveira for Coalescence).

3rd Sensing the Forest Seminar: Liz O'Brien and Alice Eldridge


The AHRC Sensing the Forest project is organising a series of three fortnightly online seminar talks with experts related to artistic, social and scientific interventions in the forest or other natural landscapes with a special focus on acoustic phenomena.

The last but not least online seminar will take place on Wed, 15 Nov 2023 15:00 - 16:30 UK time (UTC+0 GMT) - see https://www.timeanddate.com for other timezones.

We will have the following presentations:
- Liz O'Brien - Sounds in and of the Forest: Can We Connect People to Nature Through Sound?, who will talk about the ecotone network, an interdisciplinary team focused on health and wellbeing, conservation ecology, and education; and the ACCESS project, which links social science with environmental issues.
- Alice Eldridge - Tuning in to Soundscape Dynamical Complexity, who will discuss natural soundscapes by sharing some initial research results exploring a range of approaches to map, model and measure the dynamical complexity of soundscapes across temporal resolutions.

You can find more info and register for the free event on the following Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensing-the-forest-seminar-liz-obrien-and-alice-eldridge-tickets-745155689727

All are welcome!

 

Anna Xambó keynote @ Audio Developer Conference 2023

 

 

MTI's Anna Xambó Sedó will be giving a keynote on Tuesday, November 14, at the Audio Developer Conference 2023, with a talk titled From NIME to NISE: Rethinking the design and evaluation of musical interfaces:

https://adc23.sched.com/event/1PudY/keynote-from-nime-to-nise-rethinking-the-design-and-evaluation-of-musical-interfaces

On Wednesday, November 15, Josh Reiss will be giving a keynote entitled Commercialisation of Audio Technology:

https://adc23.sched.com/event/1Pueo/keynote-commercialisation-of-audio-technology

The conference runs from November 13th to 15th - the full programme is available here:

https://adc23.sched.com

To find out more about ADC23, visit:

https://audio.dev/adc23/

There are only a handful of tickets still available for the in-person event in London, although tickets for the online experience via the Gather Virtual Venue platform are still on sale. To find out more and register a place, take a look at the link below.

https://audio.dev

2nd Sensing the Forest Seminar: Saloni Shah and Jones/Bulley

 

The AHRC Sensing the Forest project is organising a series of three fortnightly online seminar talks with experts related to artistic, social and scientific interventions in the forest or other natural landscapes with a special focus on acoustic phenomena.

The second online seminar will take place on Wed, 1 Nov 2023 15:00 - 16:30 UK time (UTC+01) - see https://www.timeanddate.com for other timezones.

We will have the following presentations:
- Saloni Shah - How Information Design Can Save Forest Ecosystems, who will give an insightful talk delving into the art of crafting meaningful data storytelling projects focusing on forest conservation.
- Jones/Bulley - Living Symphonies, the artist duo will give an in-depth summary of Living Symphonies, a landscape sound installation that portrays the thriving activity of a forest’s ecosystem, and its precursors.

You can find more info and register for the free event on the following Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensing-the-forest-seminar-saloni-shah-and-jonesbulley-tickets-745112580787

All are welcome!

25 Oct 2023 - CHIME Seminar with Chris Nash and Anna Xambó


 
The tenth free online CHIME Music and HCI Seminar will have Chris Nash and Anna Xambó. This will be on Wednesday 25 October (at 4pm UK time).
Chris Nash will be discussing what happens beyond NIME, when projects move beyond academia, and exploring this through the lens of the Manhattan project: http://nash.audio/manhattan
Anna Xambó will be introducing the AHRC project Sensing the Forest, on raising awareness and understanding of forest environmental data and how they relate to climate change: https://sensingtheforest.github.io
You can sign up via Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/739356454057

Upcoming books by Prof. Leigh Landy

A couple of exciting upcoming publications from MTI²: 

Proofs have been submitted to Routledge for Leigh Landy's latest book, Experiencing Organised Sounds: The listening experience across diverse sound-based works (all of which were made by members of the MTI² diaspora), which is due to be published in December. 

https://www.routledge.com/Experiencing-Organised-Sounds-The-Listening-Experience-Across-Diverse-Sound-Based/Landy/p/book/9781032533278

We have also been informed that Landy's other recent book, co-authored with John Richards, The Music of Sounds and the Music of Things, has also been contracted by Routledge and will be published in 2024.



Leigh Landy is 'Figure of the Year' @ Musicacoustica 2023 Festival, Hangzhou, China

Prof. Leigh Landy is Figure of the Year at the international Musicacoustica 2023 festival in Hangzhou, China, 24-29 October. During the festival, Landy's two latest works will be premiered, one a festival commission and another commissioned by percussion virtuoso Thierry Miroglio. Landy will present a one-composer concert as well as the Miroglio piece on his concert, as well as offering a talk and serving on the composition competition jury. He will remain in the city for the following week working at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music as Visiting Professor, providing daily master classes for advanced composition students.



1st Sensing the Forest Seminar: Semiconductor and Peter Sinclair

 

The AHRC Sensing the Forest project is organising a series of three fortnightly online seminar talks with experts related to artistic, social and scientific interventions in the forest or other natural landscapes with a special focus on acoustic phenomena.

The first online seminar will take place on Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:00 - 16:30 UK time (UTC+01) - see https://www.timeanddate.com for other timezones.

We will have the following presentations:
- Ruth Jarman - Worlds in Flux: Semiconductor, who, as one half of artist duo Semiconductor, will give a talk introducing their practice and their approach to using scientific data of the natural world as a medium.
- Dr Peter Sinclair - Locustream Open Microphones - Acoustic commons : a shared resource to renew listening, who will talk about the Locustream Open Microphones project dedicated to capturing local soundscapes and transmitting them live via the Internet.

You can find more info and register for the free event on the following Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sensing-the-forest-seminar-semiconductor-and-peter-sinclair-tickets-734997275637

All are welcome!

Prof. Leigh Landy @ EICC, Mexico

On 16-17 October, MTI²'s Prof. Leigh Landy will be offering a two-day workshop (online) for the festival organised by the Mexican organisation, Encuentro International de Grabación de Campo (International Meeting of Sound Recording). The practice-based workshop, including an introductory lecture, is entitled ‘Darle a los sonidos “un nuevo pensamiento” (y los sonidos también nos dan un nuevo pensamiento)’ (‘Giving Sounds a “New Thought” (and sounds giving us a new thought, too’).

In preparation for this workshop, Landy's composition, ‘Aplican Términos Y Condiciones’ (‘Terms and Conditions Apply’) will be broadcast in Mexico on 27 September on the Islas Resonantes (Resonant Islands) radio programme.



Sensing the Forest is live!


 The project website of the AHRC-funded project “Sensing the Forest” is live at: https://sensingtheforest.github.io

  
We will document the different project activities in this space. Next month we will start a series of online talks by six experts in the field. Stay tuned!

Yichen Wang’s visit on Friday 8th September


 On behalf of the Music, Technology, and Innovation – Institute for Sonic Creativity (MTI2), Robert Chafer and Anna Xambó had the pleasure of hosting Yichen Wang, an Australian-based PhD researcher supervised by Dr Charles Martin. Wang is from a computer science background, yet her work has applications for the arts and music by creating virtual instruments for use in XR technology. Thanks to Harry Pentony for the technical support, Tim Hall for a tour of the studios, James Andean for the photos, and the audience who came and engaged with Wang’s presentation and demo.

You can find out more about Wang’s work here: https://yichenwangs.github.io

Prof Battey - screenings in Iowa, Montana, and Sydney

 Prof Battey's audiovisual composition 'Estuaries 2'  recently screened at Montana State University (Sep 24, 2023) and 'Estuaries 4' at Iowa State University (Sep 30). Estuaries 4 is also scheduled to appear at the Australasian Computer Music Conference in Sydney on October 10.




Prof. John Young @ Sound/Image 2023

Prof. John Young will give an invited performance and talk at the University of Greenwich’s Sound/Image 2023 “Creativity Shared” festival, 9-12 November: 

https://blogs.gre.ac.uk/sound-image/2023/07/18/sound-image-2023/ 



Habitat Sonore Montréal

John Young's multichannel audio work Le Chant en dehors will feature in Habitat Sonore, a series of four programmes of acousmatic music curated by the Akousma Festival and installed in the Listening Room of Centre PHI, Montréal from 27 September to 22 October 2023. The intimate listening space allows for the shared experience of deep immersion in spatial audio.  Other composers included in the series are Hans Tutschku, Natasha Barrett, Hildegard Westerkamp, Laurie Spiegel, Nicola Giannini, Francisoc López, Panayiotis Kokoras, Louise Dufort, Robert Normandeau, Ana Dall’Ara-Majek, France Jobin, Christian Bouchard, Monique Jean, Line Katcho, Marcelle Deschênes, Roxanne Turcotte, David Ledoux, Mélanie Frisoli and Simon Chioini.

 



 

Samvaran Rai's @ Radiophrenia & LCB Depot

MTI MA student Samvaran Rai has had more success with his composition With Time, which has been selected for broadcast on Glasgow’s Radiophrenia FM Radio Station: https://radiophrenia.scot/schedule/ 

And Samvaran's newest audiovisual work Ephemera is being presented in LCB Depot’s Sound Season in September: https://lcbdepot.co.uk/event/sound2023/

...together with other works by MTI students and alumni, including Jacob Braslawsce & James West.



AI and the Future of Human Made Music

Fourteen testimonials of how different music performers and composers are coping with and using AI in their musical practice were published in the online article “AI and the Future of Human Made Music” for the Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine. Introduction and interviews by Jonas Vognsen.

To read the article, visit the link: https://www.furious.com/perfect/artificialintelligencemusic.html

















From left to right, top to down: Ulkar Aghayeva, Anders Bach, Jon Leidecker, Charlie Looker, Francisco López, Massimo Farjon Pupillo, Fabio Ricci, Robert Rowe, Anna Xambó Sedó, Yi Seunggyu, Pamelia Stickney, Johanna Elina Sulkunen, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, and Mia Windsor.

MTI's Prof. Leigh Landy @ Bowed Electrons 2023

Prof. Leigh Landy, after offering the principal keynote talk at the Bowed Electrons 22 festival/conference at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape town, returned to Bowed Electrons 23 with two compositions, ‘To BBC or Not’ and ‘Ceci n’est pas une flûte’, and an invited talk, ‘From note-based music to sound-based music to (just) music’. Furthermore, immediately after the festival, he will commence a work with S. African master musician, Dizu Plaatjies, who specialises in Africa’s oldest instrument: the musical bow. The work is a commission of Bowed Electrons 24 and will be entitled ‘Musical Bow old / new’.


 

Renowned Indian Recording Engineer to Visit MTI

 

Mr. Avinash Oak, a distinguished individual with a remarkable career journey in sound recording and engineering will give a talk on his experiences in this field at 1pm on Thursday 14 September in the Courtyard Studio.

 

Graduating in 1973 with a Gold Medal in Sound Recording & Sound Engineering from the esteemed Film & TV Institute of India (Pune), Mr. Oak's passion for audio excellence was ignited early in his career which took off as an Assistant Location Sound Engineer for renowned film productions like Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Ishq Ishq Ishq. In 1974, he embarked on a prolific career at Western Outdoor, a leading music recording studio, where he ascended to the role of Associate Director-Audio with a tenure spanning nearly three decades. Avinash Oak's expertise extends across an impressive spectrum—from engineering recording sessions for songs in various genres and feature films to curating soundtracks for commercials, ballets, and audiovisual productions. Notably, he ventured abroad to enhance his skills by attending an APRS course at Surrey University in 1986. A lifelong member of the Audio Engineering Society, Mr. Oak is also a pivotal figure in the Indian chapter of the organization. His contributions have been honoured with prestigious accolades, including the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ of the Indian Record Industry Awards 2015, the ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Music Industry, Jury Award’ at the Mirchi Music Marathi Awards 2018, and the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Audio Education 2017’ at Soundideaz Academy. Beyond his illustrious career, Oak has imparted his wisdom as Visiting Faculty at various institutions, such as Mumbai Music Institute, ZEE Institute of Media Arts, Satyajit Ray Film & TV Institute, and more. As a Consulting Editor for Pro Sound Systems magazine, Avinash Oak continues to shape and inspire the world of sound engineering with his unparalleled expertise.