This commentary and portfolio of works documents my compositional research into algorithmically driven synthesis and feedback systems. The foundation on which all my work rests consists of self-reference, feedback, emergent properties and algorithmically mediated interaction. Feedback is the lowest common denominator in this process and is for me an essential part of evolution and life and provides a means to create organic sonic forms that generate complex behaviours and phenomena. The predominant approach taken to realise such behaviours is by means of sound synthesis. The preference for sound synthesis is also a means by which compositional elements can interact with each other in a purely sonic manner. To me working with synthesis is like working with organic and living material instead of piling static sounds on top of, or next to each other. In order to work with complex synthesis in an intuitive and direct way I have investigated and developed new methods to control the large number parameters required. To achieve this my main tool has been algorithmically mediated interaction in combination with simple input devices such as a joystick. When sound files are utilised in a piece they are means to engender a way of working that is outside of my comfort zone. This ‘painting oneself into a corner’ is an important practical and aesthetic choice and is demonstrated in a number of documented instances in the creative portfolio. Even though a large part of my work consists of solo work my main source of inspiration comes from working with other people whether it is performing, composing, rehearsing, or building sound installations. All the collaborations I have been part of have been of great importance for me but I have chosen to discuss those that have been significant in the development of my aesthetics, my performance and studio set-up as well as my working methods.

The techniques which I developed for my work between 2009-12 are a consequence of my own unique mix of synaesthetic sensibilities. I have sought to investigate these innate impulses in order to formulate a deeper understanding of my compositional process and define technical strategies that I have termed generative transcriptions. In this thesis I focus on CANTO MORPH, ‘an opera of the self’, a project in multiple parts exploring processes of embodiment, association and dissociation. It is realised through the media of recorded improvisation, a 45-minute scored composition, a virtual architecture, a media installation, a video installation and a sculptural libretto. This project as ‘an opera of the self’ is located in an experiential process comprising several stages: 1/ I perform a series of improvisations in a trance-like state using various instruments and my own voice to create multi-layered recordings – trance improvisation mix. 2/ These recordings are subjected to analytical transcription which I understand as a process of reverse engineering akin to the process that architects employ whereby complex 3-dimensional structures of buildings are analysed and explored diagrammatically in order to discover what kind of essence might be contained in the blueprint of its built form. I cite Xenakis’ Philips Pavilion and the dual nature of composition/architecture that is embodied within this design. This process inspires my own methodology, where mimetic scripts are created from the trance improvised mix and then refined and further manipulated into a score that can be performed. 3/ The improvisation-analysis-composition process which can broadly be conceived as an ‘embodiment of self’ is subjected to another stage in which I create a new body – a re-embodiment in which to site the work architecturally. In exploring the multi-modal approach that is represented by the CANTO MORPH, I have underpinned a novel and multi-facetted way to approach a compositional practice, where through synaesthetic empowerment, a myriad of forces enable an emergent compositional method of generative transcriptions.

Distinct challenges are posed when conveying Contemporary Metal Music’s(CMM) sounds and performance perspectives within a recorded and mixed form. CMM often features down tuned, heavily distorted timbres, alongside high tempi, fast and frequently complex subdivisions, and highly synchronised instrumentation. The combination of these elements results in a significant concentration of dense musical sound usually referred to as ‘heaviness’. The publications for this thesis present approaches, processes and techniques for capturing, presenting and accentuating heaviness, as well as intelligibility and performance precision which facilitate the listener’s clear comprehension of the frequent overarching complexity in the music’s construction. Intelligibility and performance precision are the principal requirements for a high commercial standard of CMM, and additionally can enhance a production’s sense of heaviness. This synoptic commentary defines heaviness from an ecological perspective, by highlighting invariant properties that shape the embodied experience of being human. Heaviness is primarily substantiated through displays of distortion and, regardless of the listening levels involved, the fundamentals of this identity are ecologically linked to volume, power, energy, intensity, emotionality and aggression. In addition to distortion, a vital component of heaviness is sonic weight, which refers to CMM’s low frequencies being associated with large, intense and powerful entities. CMM’s heaviness is also considered in terms of the perceived proximity of activity, apparent size of performance environment, and level and type of energy being expended. In particular, CMM provides the listener with the sense of utmost proximity to the band, usually without any significant perspective of depth. Production strategies for achieving a high commercial standard in CMM are then presented. This is followed by a reflective commentary on the portfolio of productions, which includes discussion of the author’s transition from emulative to professional level of production and considers originality within this body of work. By presenting the subject as an important, valid and authentic scholarly discipline, this work bridges the gap between the worlds of academia and music production practice for this style.

Harmonic Horizons presents my research regarding the structuring of harmonic material in my music written between 2011 and 2013. The selected work, the oratorio Johannes Uppenbarelse, illustrates how I have established and developed my harmonic language and how this is implemented chordally, melodically and structurally. The goal of this research is the development of my strategy to create a new kind of functional harmony, which utilises notions of relative consonance and dissonance within its own defined boundaries.

In the mid-1970s, my approach to popular music was shaped by aesthetical categories developed in the fields of Euroclassical music and continental philosophy. In fact, my interest in the avant-garde movements of the 20th century predated my involvement with popular music. In 1980, however, when I completed my philosophy thesis on Arnold Schönberg at the “Università degli Studi” in Milan, Italy, I had already been working for years in the field of rock, jazz, and folk music. Now that the borders between musical languages have become more porous, my double background in classical and popular music would not be unusual. In late-1970s Italy, it was. Yet in my mind, the two worlds co-existed and have co-existed since. From this dual commitment to the intellectual reasons of criticism and the raisons du coeur of passionate involvement with all genres of music, four themes have emerged in my scholarly production: Section A. The 1977-1982 sociological phase now revived thanks to the new edition of my first book and the volume on music and society in Italy I have edited in 2015. Section B. Articles written mostly in the 1980s and up to 2004, in which I combined post-romantic aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and hermeneutics in a parallel analysis of contemporary minimalism and the “music of the spheres” theme. Section C. Writings on Bob Dylan and American culture (1998 to now), in which I also found the way to expand on the “poetry and music” theme dating back to my Schönberg thesis. Section D. Articles on songwriters and songwriting in which I have combined different critical approaches such as historical survey, “portrait-of-an-artist,” and in-depth analysis of specific songs and of their cultural relevance. Conclusions. An excerpt from my current work on descriptive categories that I intend to apply to the study of popular music.

Almost Human is an investigation of interdisciplinary performance through music that looks to the self to try to further understand subjective performance practices in expression, gesture and sonic output. This text presents experimental methods of examining and creating music through kinaesthetic and electronic-assisted means within instrumental, dance and interactive works. The extraction of affective, performative and sonic properties from these works aids in unlocking the relationship between the choreographic, physical and conceptual object. The first part of the text explores and illustrates multimodal approaches to analysing, capturing, measuring and archiving the moving musician and dancer in an assortment of performative settings. It focuses on a series of works for solo cello, as well as interdisciplinary pieces which positions movement and embodied expressivity at the forefront of the discussion. The second part is dedicated to the aesthetic, conceptual and utilitarian content of a new interactive work for cellist/mover, and a prosthetic digital spine. Here, relationships are combined to showcase the permeability of the body, as well as its expressive content. The conceptual object, The Spine, serves as a generator to help expand musical and artistic possibilities. Its inclusion in the work aids in refocusing my relationship to movement and sound for creation and performance, but also aesthetically, it adds to the growing canon of experimental ventures in conceptualising expressivity. Beyond the text, the portfolio of Almost Human includes an auditory and visual chronicle of the process between the years 2012-14, which is used to assist the reader in further understanding the performative practice and findings.

In my music I try to control the chaos inside and outside me. I try to write in the freest way and to realize it in the most consequential manner. Hence, I try to fnd a balance between the material and its implicit existential possibilities, focusing on the clarity of its elements and the variety of its possible complex temporal evolutions. In this sense, my pieces could be reduced, in most cases, to a set of contrasting original elements that are embedded in the thematic character of the structure of the material. However the theme is at the same time the starting and the fnal point of the composition, a journey in the discovery of the poetical and formal proprieties of the musical idea. Te theme is the frst and the last element. I reduce the musical material to a limited number of elements that are developed following a limited number of more abstract categories that allow a control of musical complexity. Tis double bond through an opposition with the material reveals my abstract compositional categories. Tis makes the process of composition a process of dialectic personal awareness of my subjective limits refected through the manipulation of the musical material. In this sense, my music results from an intimate and subjective confrontation with the realization of the musical idea. For this reason the notion of the thematic idea is central. It resumes the pure temporal character of the musical idea and refers to the semantic element of linear profles that I craft in my compositions. Te following analysis highlights the dialectics between the material and the abstract categories that derive from it. In the conclusion I explain my compositional position from the perspective offered by this analysis.

This commentary will consider how I have developed and applied a number of compositional techniques, particularly in the area of rhythm and pulse, which I situate in relationship to postminimalism. In chapter 1 I contextualise my music by considering some manifestations of postminimalism, give the background to the development of my present aesthetic approach, and look at some definitions of postminimalism in order to clarify my own position in relation to both American and European (primarily Dutch) postminimal composition. In chapter 2 I examine the main aspects of my musical language, focussing on technical considerations in relation to the wider aesthetic context. In chapter 3, I will demonstrate how specific techniques, particularly rhythmic and permutational techniques, are applied in particular compositions, and how these techniques have developed over the last four years. Additionally, I consider how my work is informed by a social/political awareness, and how this has informed my choice of particular compositional strategies.

This thesis delineates the theoretical and conceptual background of the compositions that constitute the accompanying portfolio. Underlying principles regarding structure, materials and aesthetic decisions are outlined with special focus on their relationships with certain philosophical and scientific concepts. The thesis endeavours to demonstrate an active critique of identity and fixity within compositional practice and thought. It does this by defining and consequently applying the concept of non-identity – understood as continuous non-fixity structure – as a compositional principle. This involves a certain exploration of separation and inseparability, as well as instability and stability within and between these strata: structure, physicality and sound. The concept of nonidentity is essentially accumulative, meaning it gradually incorporates more and more concepts (such as nonlinearity, pure movement/difference, desiring-machines, etc.), which consequently become active within the compositions. This means that the identity and fixity critique gradually gains strength and breadth as the thesis progresses and eventually affects all aspects of my compositional thought, i.e. each compositional element (ranging from instrumental material to form) becomes subjected to the nonlinear, de-territorial, non-fixed and continuous character of non-identity. This results in a new perspective on what structure in music can mean and a new definition of the relationships between conductor, score and performers, as well as their individual function. Each chapter corresponds to a year of research, thus the thesis follows the investigation according to its chronological development. Throughout the thesis, the discussions are mainly contextualized through the philosophy of Deleuze, Bergson and Laruelle, as well as with examples from contemporary music compositions.

The following portfolio and commentary concerns music and performance works created between 2008 and 2012, and an exposition of the research, ideas, aesthetics and techniques that connect these works. I will discuss in detail the role that archaeoacoustics has played in my composition of fixed and mixed media works and how it has influenced me aesthetically in my approach to live performance. I will also explain in each instance any actual data used from various research sources, and my metaphorical interpretation of various archaeological sites and acoustic phenomena. Similarly, I will discuss the concepts of shamanism, ritual and transcendence that have influenced me, and how these concepts are expressed in my instrumental works, fixed media and live performance pieces.