Organised Sound - Current Issue

Volume 13 Issue 01

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01

Organised Sound is an international peer-reviewed journal which focuses on the rapidly developing methods and issues arising from the use of technology in music today. It concentrates upon the impact which the application of technology is having upon music in a variety of genres, including multimedia, performance art, sound sculpture and music ranging from popular idioms to experimental electroacoustic composition. It provides a unique forum for anyone interested in electroacoustic music studies, its creation and related developments to share the results of their research as they affect musical issues. An accompanying CD/CD-ROM/DVD is sent to subscribers annually.

New aesthetics and practice in experimental electronic music

Editorial
Leigh Landy,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 1-3

Abstract

Just what is it that makes today's noise music so different, so appealing?

Research Articles
Paul Hegarty,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 13-20

Abstract
This article explores how uses its influences, how it refers to them, and what occurs formally, when using influence self-consciously and formally. Specifically, it takes two artists, Nurse With Wound and The New Blockaders, that emerged at the same time as , and through different strategies, incorporated visual art influences into their work, to the point where influence as question is raised. Referring to Harold Bloom, the article notes that influence is not linear, nor is it fixed. The article begins with some general considerations about what noise is and how it works when in contact with music; it then looks in detail first at some works by Nurse With Wound, then at works by The New Blockaders. In so doing, it also pays attention to the material presentation of those works, which is a key part of the formal work of these artists. It concludes with some thoughts about how we can not only apply Bloom to experimental music, but that can provide itself as a theorisation of influence.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff

Research Articles
Daniela Cascella,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 21-29

Abstract
For over twenty years, Swedish artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956 in Link he has done so, also by organising exhibitions such as the 2nd G teborg Biennial in 2003. His audio production, using devices such as oscillators, tone generators, microphones attached to electricity circuits, is inextricably linked to his visual and conceptual research, always addressing issues of borders, interior/exterior, liminal states and hidden fluxes of energies. At the forefront of international experimentation, his work has been featured in some of the most important exhibitions and museums in the world, and his audio pieces have been published by the most remarkable avant-garde labels.

Sounds of the system: the emancipation of noise in the music of Carsten Nicolai

Research Articles
Adam Collis,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 31-39

Abstract
In contrast to general perceptions of noise as undesirable audio phenomena, consideration of the objective acoustic properties of and the functional aspects of noise in Information Theory are used to show how, rather than an impediment to communication, noise can aid in increasing communication. A review of noise in music of the twentieth century and beyond shows how this has become increasingly understood by composers, and that the greater use of noise as a sound source has arisen out of developments in audio technology. This article argues that the music of Carsten Nicolai (alva noto) represents a consolidation of this process. The Autorec CD and the track Impulse are cited as examples of how noise is used as part of a new practice in electronic music. By looking at the structural features of the cited musical examples, it is seen how this new practice follows neither the electroacoustic nor the commercial dance music mainstreams but manages to synthesise references to both traditions.

Communicative contract analysis: an approach to popular music analysis

Research Articles
Thomas Shave,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 41-50

Abstract
Communicative contract analysis constructs an analytic methodology, taking musical semiotics as a theoretical basis, to look at the ways in which pieces of popular music define themselves generically, and how they make reference to other genres. By taking the different components of a sound as referential to parent genres or foreign genres, one can tease out these references in hybrid musical forms. The method is then applied to three contemporary works, The Kaiser Chiefs' Ruby, Hadouken!'s That Boy, That Girl and Bjork's Joga, and the pertinent issues raised in these works are discussed.

The tip of the iceberg: laptop music and the information-technological transformation of music

Research Articles
Rolf Grossmann,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 5-11

Abstract
Understanding laptop music requires more than a new perspective on the configuration of a as a musical instrument for performance. It combines the strategies and traditions of electronic media-related music composition of the twentieth century, like reproductive music, electronic music, computer music and Net music in a single, digital, multi-purpose device originally designed for business and multimedia applications. Consequently, what we hear is mostly not a genuine laptop music, but one facet of the information-technological transformation of music that has been the result of the digital integration of these established traditions. This article gives an overview of the aesthetic implications of these traditions and with respect to laptop performance and musical style.

Microsound in public space: compositional methods to enhance site-specific sound

Research Articles
Sven Anderson,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 51-60

Abstract
This article documents the resolution of a problem encountered during the design of a semi-permanent interactive sound and video installation currently being installed at a tram station located in Dublin, Ireland. This artwork generates video and multi-channel sound output in real time, responding to changes in traffic patterns on an adjacent street. While the visuals are composed from pre-recorded content, the sound environment explores the use of site-specific sound within public urban space by sampling and processing sounds that occur naturally in and around the station. Regulations involving the artwork's volume resulted in the sound output being reduced to a level at which it was too subtle to be noticed amidst the busy activity of the station. It was therefore necessary to strengthen the artwork's aural presence without interfering with the subtleties of the site-specific sound environment. A dynamic field of sine tones and rhythmic glitches was composed to augment the more subtle sounds of the installation. This juxtaposition of site-specific sound with compositional structures associated with the popular musical genre known as microsound proved to be effective, calling attention to the mediated sound environment even at low volume levels and balancing the artwork's presence with the other functions of the site.

statics : a C++ implementation of functional iteration synthesis

Research Articles
Stephen F. Lilly,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 61-76

Abstract
statics is a non-standard sound synthesis program that uses functional iteration to both generate sound events and organise them temporally. This paper gives a brief history on the use of functional iteration in music composition and then describes how it is implemented in statics. Also discussed is the conception of program design as compositional process. Since statics was designed by a composer with musical goals in mind, the program is itself is a collection of compositional decisions. Furthermore, the unique timbres and structures created by statics are a direct result of these decisions. Accordingly, I discuss my compositional process in two stages: those choices that are embedded into the program (general decisions) and those choices that occurred post-design (specific decisions). Using as examples the three individual compositions created with statics (congruent, convergence and cyclian), I delineate the effects of both types of decision on the compositional process and then describe how these three compositions embody different characteristics of my implementation of functional iteration.

Contemporary trends in the use of space in electroacoustic music

Research Articles
Felipe Otondo,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 77-81

Abstract
This paper describes a survey of contemporary approaches towards the use of spatial design in electroacoustic music, focusing on the type of spatial systems used by a sample of composers and the way they conceive the use of space in their music. Comparing the results with information gathered from seventeen articles by composers written on the topic in 1997, it is shown that composers nowadays are more used to working with different types of spatialisation systems than before. There is also a considerable increase in the use of surround 5.1 as well as four- and eight-channel systems and a decrease in the use of stereo. The compared results also show that, in general, composers nowadays seem to be less concerned with performance and interpretation issues as well as technical aspects of spatialisation. Further studies could consider a more detailed investigation of how the new spatialisation tools have shaped the aesthetical character of the music composed in recent years.

Andrew R. Brown, Computers in Music Education: Amplifying Musicality . Routledge, New York, 2007. ISBN 978-0-415-97851-4

Book Reviews
Mathew Adkins,
Organised Sound, Volume 13 Issue 01 , pp 83-84

Abstract