Case-Specific Electroacoustic Systems
(2022)
author(s): Alejandro Montes de Oca
published in: University of the Arts Helsinki
This composition-based project of artistic research introduces the term Case-Specific Electroacoustic Systems to describe a set of electric, digital, and acoustic devices that are interconnected in a particular way to embody a specific sound work. The artistic research states that when the sound composition process occurs in tandem with the electroacoustic system configuration and design process, a particular creative practice is engendered. The main research questions are how the development of such a system becomes another parameter of sound creation, and how this influences the artistic ideas and process elaborated around a specific sound work. In the course of the doctoral trajectory five new sound works were created and presented, thus forming the artistic portfolio of this doctoral project. Each work included the composition, design, and creation of a case-specific electroacoustic system. An introduction to the concept of Case-Specific Electroacoustic Systems, its contextualisation, and an analysis of the artistic practice and the outcomes of each of the five artworks are presented in this written thesis. The complete scope of this doctoral project, including the media material of the artistic portfolio and this artistic doctoral thesis, is contained within the exposition Case-Specific Electroacoustic Systems, published and archived in the Research Catalogue online database.
Source Signals 2
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Kees Tazelaar
connected to: KC Research Portal
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Source Signals is an album with music I recorded between 1981 and 1985. The album showcases a transition from pop-oriented guitar tracks to experiments with electronics in which the guitar was the main sound source. Several bass guitar overdubs and one guitar overdub were made before the album was released in 2019. My rediscovery of these tracks and the decision finally to release them also triggered a renewed interest in the guitar as a musical instrument.
After the LP Source Signals was released, I had been playing guitar at home almost on a daily basis, initially without a concrete plan. Gradually, however, an idea developed to compose an acousmatic multichannel work in which guitar playing would be the only source. This became Source Signals 2, an acousmatic eight-channel composition of almost 28 minutes.