Category: Issue #3

Strategies for spatial music performance: the practicalities and aesthetics of responsive systems design

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Ricky Graham (Stevens Institute of Technology) & Brian Bridges (University of Ulster)

This article will explore practical and aesthetic questions concerning spatial music performance by interrogating new developments within an emerging hyperinstrumental practice. The performance system is based on an electric guitar with individuated audio outputs per string and multichannel loudspeaker array. A series of spatial music mapping strategies will explore in-kind relationships between a formal melodic syntax model and an ecological flocking simulator, exploiting broader notions of embodiment underpinning the metaphorical basis for the experience and understanding of musical structure.

An alternative approach to 3D audio recording and reproduction

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Augustine Leudar (Queen's University)

The following paper provides an overview of an alternative method of recording 3D sound scenes using several separate SD card microphones as opposed to using single multi capsule ambisonic or surround sound microphones. Instructions are provided on how to set the microphones up, appropriate directivity and positioning, and speaker setup for reproduction.

Exploded sounds: spatialised partials in two recent multi-channel installations

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Nye Parry (University of the Arts, London)

I discuss two recent sound installations that both explore a spectral sound diffusion technique based on partial tracking that allows individual partials of a sampled sound to occupy individual locations in space. The two installations, The Exploded Sound (60 channels) and Significant Birds (12 channels), use similar techniques and modes of presentation to different ends.

Aural Territories: how phenomenology taught me how to compose electroacoustic spatial music

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Frederico Macedo (University of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil)

In this article I describe the process of creation, performance, and reception of two sets of multichannel pieces - Journey I and II and Night Song I and II - performed as part of Aural Territories: a concert of spatial electroacoustic music. The main philosophical foundation for this experience has been the views on phenomenology as conceived by Merleau-Ponty (2004) and Dufrenne (1973). In these pieces, I explore compositionally three aspects of the interrelationship between sound and space that were fundamental for my theoretical and practical understanding of electroacoustic spatial music: acoustic space, sound spatialisation, and reference.

Audium – sound-sculptured space

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Stan Shaff

Audium has established a series of ideas, expanding the layers of controlled sound in space and evolving a paradigm for positioning and listening. Additionally, it has taken a new architectural approach to the performance-space, with a potential for flexibility through a myriad of environmental combinations.

New developments for spatial music in the context of the ZKM Klangdom: A review of technologies and recent productions

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Ludger Brümmer, Götz Dipper, David Wagner, Holger Stenschke & Jochen Arne Otto (ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics)

The Institute for Music and Acoustics is a production and research facility of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. In this paper, we present some general thoughts on spatial music and its implementations as a motivation for our efforts. We outline the development of the ZKM Klangdom, a multi-loudspeaker facility for spatial sound diffusion that aims to provide artists and composers with new possibilities.

Multichannel sound and spatial sound creation at Sporobole: A short account of live performance, studio design, outdoor multichannel audio, and visiting artists

Posted on 1st December 20149th May 2019 by Philippe-Aubert Gauthier (University of Sherbrooke)

The recent history of multichannel audio at Sporobole, an artist-run centre located in Sherbrooke, Canada, is discussed based on a multidisciplinary exercise. The underlying working axes are presented, from the experience of hosting an experimental rock band in an artistic, electroacoustic, and multichannel context, to the centre’s development, which includes a multichannel sound studio in its recently renovated building.