The SEAMUS Electro-Acoustic Miniatures series is an annual album release of fixed-media works addressing a specific theme. The theme for 2013 is Negative Space. The 2013 adjudication committee chose a theme meant to inspire a rich diversity of interpretations and approaches. The following examples were provided for reference: Salient --> latent. Latent --> salient. Common practices --> uncommon practices. Assertions --> questions. Commands --> invitations. Objects, stories --> atmospheres, contexts. Hamlet --> Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. Molto serioso --> foo. Either-or --> both-and. The 2013 adjudication committee members were Ted Coffey (chair), Paula Matthusen, and Scott Barton. In addition to devising the theme, the members of the committee evaluated the submissions and each included their own realization of the theme. Submissions were evaluated based on the following criteria: Adherence to the theme Creative and coherent exploration of thematic possibilities Musicality Technical quality The following composers are included on SEAMUS Electro-Acoustic Miniatures 2013: Negative Space Ioannis Andriotis Scott Barton Ted Coffey Joshua Harris C.R. Kasprzyk Panayiotis Kokoras Colby Leider Alex Lough Paula Matthusen James Moses John Nichols III Campbell Payne Sean Peuquet Elise Roy Dimitris Savva Kyle Shaw Braxton Sherouse Jerod Sommerfeldt Ben Sutherland Ben Taylor Jeremy Van Buskirk Jaeseong You Panayiotis Kokoras Magic Piano (2010-13) duration: 1.35 program notes and composer bio The material for Magic Piano was initially created during a residency in the summer 2010 at the ZKM studios in Karlsruhe, Germany. Later on, I used those recordings to compose Magic Piano. The piece is based entirely on piano sounds. The challenge was to explore piano’s musicality working with new sonorities and virtuosities. Panayiotis Kokoras studied classical guitar and composition in Athens, Greece and York, England. His works have been commissioned by institutes and festivals such as the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard), IRCAM (France), MATA (New York), Gaudeamus (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), IMEB (France), Siemens Musikstiftung (Germany) and have been performed in over 400 concerts around the world. His compositions have received 56 distinctions and prizes in international competitions, and have been selected by juries in more than 130 international calls for scores. He is founding member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and from 2004 to 2012 he was board member and president. Kokoras’ sound compositions develop functional classification and matching sound systems written on what he calls Holophonic Musical Texture. As an educator, Kokoras has taught at the Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, and, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Since fall 2012 he has been appointed Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas. www.panayiotiskokoras.com Campbell Payne Field (2013) duration: 2.32 program notes and composer bio Field takes its name from both the picture field and electromagnetic field of a Cathode Ray Tube. Prior to being turned on, the CRT’s drab face is a canvas waiting to become awash in form. Field invites the listener to explore the inaudible sounds of forgotten screens that quietly occupy familiar non­places. Back alleys, loading docks, landfills, and the side of the road are all the domain of the unwanted CRT television. Field is composed of various recordings made from one such television. The electromagnetic field of the television was recorded with an induction coil microphone. Additional sounds were recorded using the audio and video outputs of the television. A. Campbell Payne is an audiovisual artist and performer based in Allston, MA whose work meditates on chance, pattern, the mundane, and the transcendental. Jaeseong You Remix_Dance Music 9 (2013) duration: 2.58 program notes and composer bio Dance Music is an ongoing project, in which the present composer experiments with the stylized notion of dance music. In “Remix_Dance Music 9,” compositional means and musical materials are greatly reduced to leave only two options for each domain, so, throughout the compositional process, the composer can deal with numerous binary choices with the theme of ‘either-or’ and ‘both-and’ constantly in mind. The initial musical materials are constrained to two samples – low-pass-filtered impulse and high-pass-filtered click. Then two compositional means, the control of amplitude and the control of delay, are employed to form various contexts for the two types of sounds, which in return define dynamic relationships among the individual samples. Every musical idea resides simultaneously in both positive and negative space, and the music continuously repeats the process of thesis-antithesis- synthesis. Jaeseong You is a New York City-based composer. Earning his B.A. in Music and Political Science from New York University and en-route M.A. in Music Composition from City University of New York Graduate Center, he is currently a doctoral student of Music Composition at New York University, Steinhardt, working extensively with Tae Hong Park. You’s academic interests lie in audio-based music/sound analysis. Having studied with David Olan, Richard Carrick, Douglas Geers, Arthur Kampela, and Tae Hong Park, You actively composes both electronic and acoustic music. For his acoustic work, You was a finalist for both the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards 2013 and the Intimacy of Creativity 2014. His acoustic works have been performed by renowned ensembles like MIVOS Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, and American Modern Ensemble among many others, As an active participant in Electro-Acoustic music scene, You reviewed works for ICMC 2013, and his electronic works and research papers have been featured in important festivals and conferences including SEAMUS 2013 and 2014, SEAMUS Electro-acoustic miniature 2013, NIME 2013, IEMF 2013, USF New Music Festival 2014, N_SEME 2014, and Mise-En Music Festival 2014. You is currently Editorial Manager of Journal SEAMUS. Ben Sutherland Shimmering Between Spaces (2013) duration: 2.34 program notes and composer bio Equal parts study and song, investigation and fantasy, celebration and critique, Shimmering Between Spaces explores the byproducts - the sonic detritus - of the mp3 perceptual encoding process. Beginning with spectrally rich, dense source material, rife with sharp, high, tinkling transients, all of the sounds heard in the work – with the exception of three brief uncompressed fragments (two expository and one closing) - are the “left overs,” the sonic remainder, of the cancellation of mp3 encoded files with their time-aligned, inverted, uncompressed counterparts. (SourceMaterial * -1.0) + mp3Doppelgänger = NegativeSpace Ben Sutherland (b.1971) is a composer, computer music specialist, scholar, and performer, whose work stretches across genres and media. His compositions have been performed by the Pacifica String Quartet, the Contemporary Chamber Players, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, among others. His compositional, research, and performance interests find a nexus in his work with interactive computer music systems. He holds music degrees from Oberlin College (B.A.) and the University of Chicago (M.A. and Ph.D.), and he is Assistant Professor of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago. Scott Barton Figure <-> Ground (2013) duration: 2.39 program notes and composer bio Figure <-> Ground interprets the idea of negative space in the context of rhythm and time. In one formulation, the subjects are percussive sound points and the negative spaces are the durations that connect those sound points. As the piece progresses, the elements that constitute a sound point are increasingly displaced in time, filling adjacent negative spaces. The original metric positions and rhythmic identities become more ambiguous as a result, inviting us to both find boundaries between a subject and its negative spaces and to superimpose remembered structure on an increasingly diffuse texture. The idea of negative space is also explored in rhythm by sonifying sound points and silencing intermediary durations, and then sonifying intermediary durations and silencing sound points. Negative space is further interpreted in the context of rhythmic stylistic conventions. The rhythmic configurations in the latter half of the piece are beat-based but also convey quickly-changing meters, syncopations, cross-rhythms and an avoidance of repetition on smaller time scales. This sort of rhythmic expression inhabits a space between subject-points defined by contemporary Western art music and popular music. Scott Barton is an Assistant Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who composes, performs, and produces (electro)(acoustic) music. His interests include: rhythmic complexity, auditory and temporal perception, musical robotic instrument design, human-robot interaction in composition and performance, and audio production. He co-founded Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI, expressivemachines.com), a collective focused on designing and building robotic musical instruments. He studied music and philosophy at Colgate University, received his Master of Music in Composition from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and completed his Ph.D. in the composition and computer technologies program at the University of Virginia. scottbarton.info Ioannis Andriotis Shades of Life: Negative Space (2013) duration: 3.00 program notes and composer bio Shades of Life (2013) is a suite of five autonomous pieces for fixed media. Each piece exploits a particular aspect of life or daily scene, while projecting several forms of human interaction in an abstract manner. Negative space is the third piece of the Shades of Life series. It represents an imaginary site where the unconscious clashes with reality. It is the place where our true desires, thoughts, and feelings fight for domination over daily strains in an effort to be heard. The result of this virtual battle determines our decisions and actions on a daily basis, and eventually, it leads to a better understanding of our selves. Ioannis Andriotis (Greece, b. 1983) is a DMA candidate at the University of Oklahoma - USA. As both a person and a contemporary artist, he aims to expand his academic and cultural knowledge in order to better understand the role and importance of art in today’s society. His works examine and emphasize human relationships/interaction, as well as the unique cultural qualities that every individual carries. For the artist, the journey through sound and silence functions as a means of self-exploration, and serves as an elegant communication between him and the audience. Jeremy Van Buskirk counter-motive (2013) duration: 2.57 program notes and composer bio Composers work hard to create the best piece possible every time they compose. I am no exception. I want to use the best sounding source material. It must be recorded with the best equipment I can get my hands on. I pour over the recording extracting the most interesting sonic and music material. I love every minute of the process. In counter-motive, I turn many of these practiced working habits upside down. I recorded the source material using my computer microphone while sitting in my living room. The midday traffic roared noisily by the window. I extracted the unintended sounds – the thumps, sniffs, and mistakes. These normally unwanted sounds became my starting point. Eventually, as the piece developed, the entire source recording became musical material. Who needs to worry about finding a few seconds of the best sounds when the entire initial recording has its own shape, direction, and character? Jeremy Van Buskirk is the director of the Longy Computer Music Studio at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. His music has been programmed by organizations such as Alea III, Lorelei Ensemble, The Fourth Wall Ensemble, Vento Chairo, EMM, 60x60, Soundcrawl Nashville, SEAMUS, and ICMC. Jerod Sommerfeldt Crystalline (2013) duration: 3.00 program notes and composer bio Crystalline is a short, fixed media work for stereo playback: From a lightly ringing introduction to a short burst of rhythmically frenetic material, the piece reveals a clearer core of ambient, high frequency content that gradually builds upon itself to its eventual close. Jerod Sommerfeldt’s music focuses on the creation of algorithmic and stochastic processes, utilizing the results for both fixed and real-time composition and improvisation. His sound world explores digital audio artifacts and the destruction of technology, resulting in work that seeks to question the dichotomy between the intended and unintentional. Dimitris Savva Blow (2013) duration: 3.27 program notes and composer bio ‘It was always a process of blowing and always a process of trying to break free from what it has been blown…’ Dimitrios Savva was born in Cyprus, 1987. He received his Bachelor degree (distinction) in music composition from the Ionian University of Corfu and his master degree in Electroacoustic Composition from the University of Manchester. He had contemporary composition courses with Joseph Papadatos and Dimitra Trypani and electroacoustic composition courses with Andreas Mniestris, Theodore Lotis and David Berezan. He has attended to electroacoustic composition seminars with Steven Miller, Leigh Landy , Tim Ward, Andrew Bentley and Simon Emmerson. He participated in live electronic concerts with the EPHMME student ensemble. His compositions have been performed in Greece, Cyprus, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and France. His acousmatic composition Erevos won the first prize ex aequo in the student category of acousmatic composition competition Metamorphoses 2012. In 2013 he received the three-month residency award from the Weimar Electroacoustic Composition Master Classes 2013. Kyle Shaw Wall Flower (2013) duration: 2.59 program notes and composer bio “Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the ‘real’ subject of an image.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space). On the dance floor, the subjects might be the dancers; the negative space might be the wallflowers. In this piece, the subjects might be the most interesting sounds; the negative space might be the kitsch ones. Or maybe the subjects are the elaborate manipulations of sine, triangle, and saw waves, the negative space being those waves presented in their raw form. Or maybe it was the other way around all along… Kyle Shaw (b. 1987) writes music. Some people think it’s good (the 2013 Vera Hinckley Mayhew Contest, the 2013 Iowa State University Carillon Composition Competition). His primary teachers have included Carlos Carrillo, Michael Hicks, Steven Ricks, Christian Asplund and Neil Thornock. He holds a BM from Brigham Young University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He lives with his wife Tess and daughter Audrey in Urbana, IL, where he is a master’s student and teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. C.R. Kasprzyk Eagle River Study (2013) duration: 1.57 program notes and composer bio Eagle River Study explores the sonic potential of sounds within Chugach State Park (Alaska) and beyond. Timbral connections drive the piece in an aural environment of equality. C.R. Kasprzyk is a composer who also works with electronics, saxophone, video, and in free-improvisation. His electronic and acoustic works often defer to the musical path of his observed surroundings, acknowledging the interconnectivity of our fragile planet. Kasprzyk’s work has garnered performance credits including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), and others throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Alongside informal study with Alvin Lucier, Tristan Murail, Kaija Saariaho, Hans Tutschku, and Trevor Wishart, he holds degrees from Grand Valley State University and the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He has written for Computer Music Journal (MIT Press), and is a former faculty member of Morgan State University and Bluefield College. Currently, Kasprzyk is a doctoral candidate at Bowling Green State University. More information is available at crkasprzyk.com. John Nichols III The Lot (2013) duration: 2.22 program notes and composer bio The Lot (2:22) was composed in 2013. The composition positions two vocalists within shifting contexts. One voice was recorded approximately five feet closer than the other voice. The variety of additional non-vocal timbres suggests an examination of the role that the human voice occupies throughout the composition. In general, the vocal element progresses from pure vocal tones, to extended vocal techniques, to processed voice. I am thankful for the many performers who contributed to this composition; in particular, I am grateful for the talents of lyric soprano Yoo Sun Na, and jazz vocalist Olivia Flanigan. I also wish to thank Dr. James Beauchamp for allowing me to record his Putney VCS3, and Dr. Sever Tipei for DISSCO; both were utilized as sound sources in this composition. Besides the aspect of physical negative space around the voices, the work reflects a dualistic idea of life, where we have fleeting moments of love, and everything else is negative space. Currently studying at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, John Nichols III composes music that stimulates listeners’ imaginations with a diversity of sonic effusions that have been melded into a coherent form. His works have been recognized at various national and international events. Braxton Sherouse filter, glisten (2010, rev. 2013) duration: 3.01 program notes and composer bio filter, glisten gets in a muddle, mixing signal processing metaphors. Braxton Sherouse is a composer and programmer pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Huddersfield. He writes music for solo musicians, small groups of sound enthusiasts, and for loudspeakers. In all cases, I prioritize articulate sounds, representational play, and iterative, audible forms. Ted Coffey Petal (2013) duration: 2:56 program notes and composer bio Petal is a study in filigreed material, info.-rich syntactic endurance, and miniaturized denouement looped in perpetuity. Ted Coffey makes acoustic and electronic chamber music, sound art, and songs. He is Associate Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses in composition, music technologies, critical theory, and pop. Paula Matthusen lullaby (2013) duration: 2.15 program notes and composer bio Having long been interested in the localizing aspects of ambient sounds, "lullaby" attempts to eavesdrop on the unintentional sounds present in domestic spaces at disparate locations. Specifically, "lullaby" draws its sonic material from "Sleep", one of the tremendously popular "virtual choirs" spearheaded by Eric Whitacre. While the number of participants these projects involve is impressive, the localizing aspects of household noises – the whirl of computer fans and chirping of nearby appliances – are systematically removed. With this in mind, all sonic material for "lullaby" was drawn from youtube video submissions for "Sleep", with the voices removed using noise reduction software. The original SSAATTBB voicing of the choir is preserved, as the spaces and technology that records them sing together. Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies. Her music has been performed by Dither, Mantra Percussion, The Bang On A Can All-Stars, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), orchest de ereprijs, The Glass Farm Ensemble, James Moore, Kathryn Woodard, Terri Hron, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster, Jody Redhage, Nicole Canham, and Nina de Heney. James Moses Arp Pond (2013) duration: 2.44 program notes and composer bio I recall when I was young, fresh from the factory, and could hear the critters in the wee hours... The critters that populate Arp Pond were all made on an Arp 2500 analog synthesizer. The organic sounding rhythms were generated on the Arp using sequences and square waves with layers of modulation. Individual critter sequences were captured to computer and computer was used for editing, mixing, and additional spatialization. Thanks to the Brown University Department of Music and M.E.M.E. (Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments) program. Arp pond also exists as an installation using fixed or generated (but never looped) playback. James Moses is a composer, audio producer, sound designer, engineer, and musician. He has worked extensively in electro-acoustic music, radio broadcasting, theatrical sound design, and live and studio music production. He currently is technical director and lecturer at the Brown University Music Department and MEME program. Élise Roy bas-relief (Flutescape I) (2013) duration: 3.00 program notes and composer bio The Flutescape series reflects my fascination with the ethereal nature of processed flute sounds devoid of their source and manipulated in space. I produce all of the vocal and flute sounds used in these pieces myself, which gives a distinct reminiscence of a performer — despite its distant electroacoustic medium. As the first installment in my Flutescape set, “bas-relief” explores negative space through the expressivity of silence and disembodiment. Élise Roy is an active flutist, improviser, and composer who strives to find a unique and modern voice for the flute, which is ultimately the source of her musical expression in all of her various roles. As a performer-composer, Élise is fascinated with expanding the expressive possibilities of the flute -- often through the novel convergence of extended techniques and electroacoustics. She currently studies in the D.M.A. program in contemporary music at Bowling Green State University. Élise also holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and California Institute of the Arts. Joshua Harris Delaze (2010) duration: 2.52 program notes and composer bio Delaze (2010) is a mostly live recording of a mostly improvised performance using only a laptop computer—the computer itself tripling as a percussion instrument, a microphone, and a Pure Data control interface for digital signal processing. As such it symbolizes the fairly recent swallowing up of every aspect of electroacoustic music production into the personal computer. This short piece directs its gaze squarely at the empty studios that were once crammed full of the voluminous accoutrements of audio production, whose processes are now approximated by more space-saving plug-ins. Joshua Harris (b. 1977) composes music grounded in a fascination with visual art, textures, sound spectra, and extreme temporal manipulations. His work displays the strong influence of the studio techniques of electroacoustic composers. It has been performed throughout the United States as well as South Korea, and has been commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the Nova Ensemble (Elizabeth McNutt, director), and others. Joshua holds degrees from Appalachian State University, Brigham Young University, and the University of North Texas. When not composing or teaching he enjoys writing about art and music, traveling with his wife and two daughters, and thinking about the formal structure of television shows. Alex Lough What's Left Behind (2013) duration: 3.00 program notes and composer bio The theme “Negative Space” inspired a new compositional process, one in which the composer starts with a large sonic sample and removes material, similar to the creative process of a sculptor. What’s Left Behind is an attempt to create what can be thought of as a “sonic sculpture.” First, the composer sampled an octave of a bowed piano, recording each note individually as a long drone. Then, the large collection of drones was carved and shaped using chance procedures, systematically removing bits of sonic material. In effect, the negative space created by removing slices of sonic material in What’s Left Behind is what allows the listener to readily interpret the remaining sonic texture as perceived melody, harmony, and rhythm in an entirely new context. Alex Lough is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University. He composes electronic and acoustic works that are characterized by his use of drones, feedback, repetition, minimalism, and chance procedures. Much of his work primarily focuses on the intersections of tradition and technology, inspired by his diverse education in Sacred Harp singing, North Indian Classical music, Irish traditional music, and experimental composition. Colby Leider Beach-Street-Goat-Lava (2013) duration: 3.18 program notes and composer bio Beach-Street-Goat-Lava considers some of the sonic irony and awkward juxtapositions on Isabela, the largest of the Galápagos Islands, in 2013. Waves crashing on beaches, together with finches chirping, form a counterpoint to a handful of motorcycles and children playing in the unpaved streets. Feral goats contrast the sound of rocks thrown in newly formed lava tubes. Colby Leider teaches and composes in Miami, Florida. Sean Peuquet Less Than What's Not There: Courtney (2007) duration: 3.02 program notes and composer bio Less than What’s Not There: Courtney presents a conversation in which a generic computer text-to-speech synthesizer replaces the voice of composer and installation artist Sean Peuquet. The work forefronts the subtraction of personal sonic signifiers—the imagined timbral, intonational, and articulative nuance inherent to Sean’s missing voice—without altering the semantic content of the dialog. It is a self-negating move, a minimal intervention thats reflects an absent self that is now somehow less than itself. The unique signature of the untouched female voice (Courtney Brown) accentuates Sean’s absence to reveal the void between the subject who speaks (the enunciation) and the subject of the dialog (the enunciated). The conversation's digressions into absurd topics, such as wizards, tepees, drunk girls, etc., ring with an air of distance, loss, and illusion beyond the historical, beyond those past events and their discussion. Underneath the surface-level conversation, the listener encounters and identifies that which is not present, as that which never wholly is. Sean and Courtney recorded this piece one afternoon as graduate students at Dartmouth College. Currently, Sean teaches in the Digital Arts program at Stetson University and just completed his Ph.D. in composition from the University of Florida. Ben Taylor inflected dreams (2013) duration: 2.44 program notes and composer bio Inflected Dreams investigates the negative space between pitches during a transition from 7-limit tuning to a diatonic just intonation. The work articulates and processes coincidences arising from the interaction of the two tuning systems, developing patterns, melodies, and forms. Inflected Dreams aims to illustrate overlooked corners of reverberant space, where latent resonances from these two tuning systems may overlap and become audible. Ben Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist and composer specializing in web art and internet performance practices. He received an M.F.A. in Electronic Music from Mills College and has studied networked music and sound art with John Bischoff, Chris Brown, James Fei, Brian Harnetty, and Pauline Oliveros. He has recently presented his work at Pixilerations New Media Festival, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Leaders in Software and Art, and others. He teaches networked arts at Goucher College.