While the term electroacoustic does not have a single definition, it has been described as music in which acoustic sounds have been transformed into electronic signals that are not limited by the physical constraints of the source (Truax 1992: 379-380). The term also connotes a set of genres that are rooted in the use of music technologies to experiment with sound in a way that places specific emphasis on spatialization and exploring the corporeal components of a sound source (e.g., through software that can synthesize or deconstruct the acoustic components). Certain areas within electroacoustic music practice, for example, soundscape composition, might foreground the use of recording equipment in order to highlight acoustic properties or add cultural context to naturally occurring sound sources, while others build meaning through sonic abstraction.
Acousmatic music stems from the mid-twentieth-century musique concrète works of Pierre Schaeffer and the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. The term was initially used in relation to electroacoustic music to compare the experience hearing compositions with recorded sounds divorced from their source to the way in which students of Pythagoras, a group known as the Akousmatikoi, would listen to his teachings separated by a curtain (Camilleri 2024: 73). Later contributions by Group de Recherches Musicales members establish a firmer stylistic grounding, linking the term acousmatic to refer to electroacoustic music for playback using loudspeakers – where the compositional development is more dependent on the spatial trajectories and morphology of sound material. The way in which the composer conceals or refers to the actual or possible causal identity of their source material has evolved over the progression of this genre. This has led to the adoption of the term post-acousmatic for artworks and writings that criticize or explore various degrees of sonic abstraction, including using musical instruments as a source for works that are presented as fixed media.
The incorporation of electronic and digital technologies as a component or extension of the guitar's traditional instrumental body contributes to its identity as a uniquely electroacoustic instrument, unlike other concert instruments in which the use of pickups or embedded effects processing alongside acoustically resonating materials is not a standard feature. Rather than simply acting as tools to capture or replay performances, audio technologies have become idiomatic in the presentation of the sounds that naturally emanate from this instrument. They have also contributed to the cross-pollination of playing and lutherie techniques between what might be initially presented as acoustic or electric versions of the guitar. Foregrounding the use of found objects and extensive effects processing by musicians such as David Toop and Christian Fennesz has given the guitar an especially broad instrumental identity. In addition to creating pieces for playback with loudspeakers, my own work in electroacoustic improvisation involved capturing and then manipulating the sounds from a prepared guitar. In 2002, the sound artist and activist Bob Ostertag wrote about the electric guitar as the most successful electronic instrument to date, describing how physical control of the vibrating strings on a resonant body pair with amplification to uncover latent acoustic sounds (2002: 14).
Obsession is an original electroacoustic music composition for playback over loudspeakers. It includes recordings of my own improvisations at the guitar, along with a substantial amount of sound samples that use both early and contemporary techniques to model the sounds of the instrument. The use of these sound sources is meant to both historicize the use or simulation of instrumental sounds in electroacoustic music, while at the same time exploring trends such as the prioritization of sonic abstraction in acousmatic music. This project also builds on the idea of music composition as an artistic research methodology. The composer James Andean writes about the value of composition-based artistic research being held in the composer's ability to interrogate 'the narrative poiesis of their own works as well as the narrative esthesis of the works of other composers' (Andean 2014). Ming Tsao argues that a trend towards speculative music composition highlights expressive possibilities beyond music's resemblance to language (Tsao 2017).
Obsession continues an important facet of my creative practice, where explorations of digital audio glitches, inspired by writings such as Kim Cascone's Aesthetics of Failure manifesto, intersect with the use of musical instruments as sound sources, rather than exploring the threshold between digital audio artifacts and more conventional electronic sounds. The process of making this piece led me to investigate perceptual breaking points between musical instruments' sounds and noise. Obsession is structured around three sections that involve a gradual progression from actual guitar recordings that are edited to form abstract textures to an ending in which the foreground material consists of synthesized gestures that, while artificial, produce more discernably guitaristic sounds, conveying a clearer sense of rhythm, melody, and harmony, despite being realized using evolving patterns in an algorithmic composition software.
Here, music composition serves as a methodology to address the following research questions:
- How can aspects of digital liveness inhabit electroacoustic music that is written for fixed media?
- What are the connections between the simulation or alteration of instrument sounds and digital liveness?
- How does composing with software reinforce the idea of the guitar as an electroacoustic instrument?