Asymmetry Music Magazine has just reviewed my Sargasso CD: you can read the full review and listen to some excerpts of pieces here: Asymmetry Music Magazine
I've just received the latest issue of Journal of Music, Technology and Education (JMTE) which features my review of Pamela Burnard's Musical Creativities in Practice - Burnard has produced a great book that has much in common with my own research interests in creative practice and the relationship between composers/performers and the context in which they compose/performer.
I'm heading to Madrid in a couple of weeks to present a paper and piece at 'Espacios Sonoros 2013'. My paper is called: Between Plasticity and Performance: space-time relations in electroacoustic music and will focus upon the ontology of electroacoustic music... The piece (Escapade) will be performed at the Museo Naconal Centro de Arte Reina Sofia... should be a lot of fun... For more info see here
I'm travelling to Barcelona next week to present a concert of electroacoustic music from the University of Sheffield at PHONOS at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (details should appear here soon). The concert will include pieces by me, Adrian Moore, Stephen Pearse and Martin Curtis-Powell. Come and say hello if you're in Barcelona...
I have finally finished my PhD! I had my viva last month and successfully defended my thesis:
The Acousmatic Musical Performance: an ontological investigation
The submission contacts 6 musical works and 5 chapters which explore the ontological relations that hold between acousmatic works and their performances. Please get in touch if you're interested in reading a copy...
Yesterday, Adrian Moore and I were interviewed by local BBC news about our conference: From Tape to Typedef: Compositional Methods in Electroacoustic Music
The feature is likely to be broadcast some time next week. For more information on the conference, please visit the website: TAPE TO TYPEDEF
World Music Days and L'espace du Son received a surprisingly mixed review from Mouvement - a French magazine. The review, which highlights various ostensible cliches in contemporary music, contains the following paragraph about the concert that I was in:
"One of the most important events at L'espace du Son (especially in time: more than two and a half hours of music) this year was the selection of acousmatic music for World Music Days. The programme showed how the cliches mentioned above are rife in contemporary practice, whatever its origins. However, amongst the two parts of the programme, some stood out: the bustling Escapade by Englishman Adam Stansbie, the humourous Rhizome by Danel Perez, the Mysterious Barricades by Antonio Ferreira, Gallivanting by the Irish composer Donald Sarsfield, who creates a musical discourse with potetic texts, and especially the admirably Urban Adagio of Franco-Quebecois George Forget."
The full review can be found: here.
Great news! Pollen - a short Visual Music composition - has been performed at the International Electroacoustic Music Festival (EMUFest2012) in Italy.
See here for more details: http://www.emufest.org/emufest_en/index_en.htm
Isthmus - my first solo CD of works - has been published on the Sargasso label.
Copies can be ordered here: http://www.sargasso.com/isthmus
Calculus - a short piece for alto-recorder and tape - was premiered by Erik Bosgraaf (www.erikbosgraaf.com) on May 24th in a concert called 'electrified erik'... You can hear an excerpt of the piece on the 'music' tab.
Great news! I have a new job - from Sept 2012 I'll be lecturing at The University of Sheffield, alongside Adrian Moore. Sheffield is doing some very exciting things at the moment - both in terms of teaching and research - and I look forward to joining them.
Some exciting projects to follow in the near future...
Fractions - a 7.1 acousmatic piece - has been selected for the International Computer Music Conference which is being held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in Sept 2012 - I'm looking forward to vising Slovenia again - it's a great place!
Fractions has been selected for NoiseFloor 2012.
NoiseFloor - at Staffordshire University - is taking place from 1st - 4th May 2012. All of the concerts are free and details may be found here:
http://www.benramsay.co.uk/noisefloor/concert_programme_2.html
Fractions will be performed at the International Festival for Innovations in Production and Composition (IFIMPaC) on Friday 27th April 2012. The festival looks great - there are some interesting speakers and lots of excellent composers - please see the following link for more details:
http://postgraduate.lcm.ac.uk/leeds-international-festival-innovations-music-production-and-composition
I'm very pleased to announce that Escapade has been selected to represent the UK at the ISCM World Music Days 2012.
In November last year, a shortlist of 6 composers, selected by the British Panel, was presented to the ISCM - the ISCM then selected two works from the shortlist - Escapade, by me, and Sringara Chaconne by Jonathan Harvey.
It's a great honour to have been selected alongside Harvey - one of my favourite composers - and I look forward to a trip to Belgium later on this year!
Escapade has been selected for Open Online 2 by Fermynwoods Contemporary Art - an independent arts organisation based in Northamptonshire. Open Online 2 includes works by 9 different sound artists - more details may be found here:
http://www.fermynwoods.co.uk/category/news/
Last weekend, I gave a talk (or two) at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam (http://www.ahk.nl/en/conservatorium/) about my music. It was great to meet such interesting and enthusiastic students and I hope to return at some point in the future.
I am very excited that Escapade has been included in the British Panel Selection for the ISCM World Music Days 2012. Since being selected by the panel, Escapade has been send to the ISCM international jury, along with the following pieces:
Thomas Ades – Three Mazurkas
R.D. Bentall - Cyan
Louise Harris – Fuzee
Jonathan Harvey - Sringara Chaconne
Colin Matthews – Turning Point
Adam Stansbie – Escapade
For more information, see here: http://www.soundandmusic.org/artist-area/opportunities/2011/iscm-world-music-days-2012-flanders-british-section-call
Fractions, my new piece, has just been published by Elektramusic; you can buy a copy of the CD here: http://www.elektramusic.com/music.html where you also find information about the various other featured composers:
Book Chapters:
Between Plasticity and Performance: an Introduction to Acousmatic Art - Digital Art Critcism, due Dec 2012
Journal Papers:
Recent Talks:
Through Thick and Thin: The Ontology of Tape Music
The ontology of music is a lively and much debated branch of metaphysical philosophy. However, most of the available literature focuses upon works of the Western classical tradition; as a result, the various challenges posed by tape compositions are either marginalised or ignored. Coupled with this is the familiar claim by some musicologists and philosophers that such works cannot be described as musical; one such philosopher, Linda Ferguson, claimed that tape compositions are ontologically distinct from scored musical works and, as a result, are “in search of their metaphysics” (Ferguson, 1983). This paper will address such claims through an investigation of the ontology of tape music. It will be argued that such works share their metaphysical status with scored compositions and that the various differences can be ascribed to the “extent, depth, and saturation of their work-determinative properties” (Davies, pp. 26-27, 2004). Ultimately, it will be noted that there are some significant differences between these two art forms. However, tape music is not “in search of its metaphysics”; it is merely lacking an accurate philosophical assessment.