"Assemblance(s)", published as a CD/download of acousmatic compositions.
- Submitting institution
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De Montfort University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 33008
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- empreintes DIGITALes
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘Assemblance(s)’ is a solo CD of eight acousmatic compositions from a seven-year period, including four composed since 2014, which are submitted for assessment: ‘Hyvät matkustajat’, ‘Valdrada’, ‘Psygeío’, and ‘Spores’. The latest and largest in scale of these is 2018’s ‘Valdrada’, representing the culmination of the compositional trajectory begun with the other works on the CD. The publisher is Montreal label ‘empreintes DIGITALes’, the leading publisher of electroacoustic music today.
These works represent both the subject and the outcome of my research into sonic narrative, discussed in ‘Sound and Narrative: Acousmatic composition as artistic research’ (Journal of Sonic Studies), and ‘Narrative Modes in Acousmatic Music’ (Organised Sound).
These compositions mark my search for a way forward for acousmatic music, attempting to break out of what I call the ‘spectromorphological cul-de-sac’. In recent decades, acousmatic music has developed an increasingly refined approach, resulting in a decrease in variety and an increase of predictability, both detrimental to the longevity of the genre. My approach has been to return to some of the material qualities and compositional strategies prioritised at an earlier point in the genre’s development – and then to forge a new branch, forking off in a new direction for aesthetic development and exploration. These works move away from refined timbres and abstract spatiomorphologies, and instead develop a more visceral language, marked by rougher sound materials, more transparent connections with sources and imagery, and an unapologetically emotive, almost expressionistic, compositional language.
The works on this CD have been recognised by awards from the Matera Intermedia Festival (2019) and the Sonic Arts Awards (2014), and have been performed at concerts and festivals around the world. They are intended as a significant contribution to aesthetic debate in our field. The more recent works are increasingly explicit in developing and exploring this research trajectory.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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