This paper discusses technical and conceptual approaches to incorporate 3D spatial movement in electroacoustic music. The Ambisonic spatial audio format attempts to recreate a full sound field (with height information) and is currently a popular choice for 3D spatialization. While tools for Ambisonics are typically designed for the 2D computer screen and keyboard/mouse, virtual reality offers new opportunities to work with spatial audio in a 3D computer generated environment. An overview of my custom virtual reality software, VRSoMa, demonstrates new possibilities for the design of 3D audio. Created in the Unity video game engine for use with the HTC Vive virtual reality system, VRSoMa utilizes the Google Resonance SDK for spatialization. The software gives users the ability to control the spatial movement of sound objects by manual positioning, a waypoint system, animation triggering, or through gravity simulations. Performances can be rendered into an Ambisonic file for use in digital audio workstations. My work Discords (2018) for 3D audio facilitates discussion of the conceptual and technical aspects of spatial audio for use in musical composition. This includes consideration of human spatial hearing, technical tools, spatial allusion/illusion, and blending virtual/real spaces. The concept of spatial gestures has been used to categorize the various uses of spatial motion within a musical composition.

In Part I of this thesis, I examine the use of Latin American rituals, ceremonies, and traditional folklore as conceptual and compositional material; studying and re-contextualizing concepts, cultures, and ideologies, and introducing them to foreign audiences. I explore issues such as laptop improvisation, interaction with other performance forces, and the utilization of the social elements of non-western celebrations, as explored in Clestrinye, a work for live and fixed electronics, mixed ensemble, dancers, and painters.

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In this text, I aim to provide a critical account of a practice-based process where I composed the pieces: No Future, Futuribile No.2, celycib~, and radiocib~. In this iterative process, practical explorations provided foundations for theoretical development, which in turn, guided the following iteration of the practical work. In addition to this, I will critique the concept of the post-acousmatic, using the theoretical insights that emerged from the iterative process. In presenting the artistic results, I will describe the compositional intentions, the process, the aesthetical decisions I made, and a critical reflection on the results. The outcomes of my compositional journey might be regarded as heterogeneous in terms of musical results, and I strongly regard this occurrence in a positive manner. Despite the heterogeneity of the artistic outcomes, a conceptual framework emerges from the critical reflection on the works, linking them together. The conceptual basis of my work is related to two main aspects: one linked to my interest in political issues, the other to artistic and aesthetic matters. I see the artistic space as an opportunity to stage a potential socio-political scenario, in which different possibilities can be prototyped and explored, showing that a broader horizon of possibility can exists, even if in the confined boundaries of the stage. The artistic and aesthetic matters are related to my interest in acousmatic music. In this text I will show how I frequently make use of acousmatic techniques in a post-acousmatic context, which will be described in the Critical Reflection. The description and the critique of the works will highlight how such techniques contribute to this idea.In this text I will frequently make use of the term acousmatic. I am aware of the ambiguity of using this term, which in my understanding, might refer either to a phenomenon or a music genre (see The Post-Acousmatic section). However, I find it a useful tool to address a set of intentions and compositional strategies, aesthetics, and communities. My political and artistic stands relate to each other through my belief that an experimental approach to arts can contribute, to some extent, to the socio-political context. I regard the compositional approaches developed in relation to the acousmatic condition as the most interesting development in new music of the last century. Nevertheless, in the last decades, a standardized way of composing has emerged from the acousmatic communities. My belief is that this led to a speculation over self-referential aesthetics, and consequently, excluded new audiences to get access to it. On the other side, the absence of acousmatic music is noticeable in the programmes of venues, or the online listeners communities, and therefore, the everyday life of people. My belief is that an experimental approach towards arts, including acousmatic music, might be beneficial for contributing to a less hierarchical society: an experimental attitude in arts is the way to explore a broader horizon of possibility.

Jag drar mig för att ta beslut. I detta arbete vill jag se förbi min spontana reaktion att avfärda obeslutsamheten som ett oskick, för att istället se vilka möjligheter som infinner sig när något får lämnas öppet. Genom att se musikskapandet som något som sker i framförandesituationen, blir det musikaliska verket något mer än en förutbestämd entitet som drabbar en publik. Musiken uppstår i ett intrikat samspel av aktörer, innanför och utanför scenrummet, som tillsammans utgör framförandesituationen. Med detta synsätt som utgångspunkt kommer jag att beskriva tre kompositionsprocesser med sinsemellan ganska olika resultat, med tonvikt på hur jag på olika sätt bemött, använt och/eller strävat mot öppenheten inför framförandesituationen i dessa processer. Dessa erfarenheter kommer jag sedan att ställa mot ett pågående arbete med ett själv-resonerande vibrotaktilt instrument – en feedback-kontrabas. Efter en presentation av instrumentet kommer jag genom analys av videoinspelade improvisationer beskriva några av feedback-kontrabasens affordanser i en solokontext. Jag avslutar med en beskrivning av hur jag använt dessa erfarenheter i solostycket FYR.

Starting in the mid-2010s VR's high cost of entry became low enough for consumers and artists to explore and experiment with the technology. There have been a few VR operas developed by medium to large sized teams such as Michel Van Der Aa's Eight (2018) and Alexander Schubert's ⁂ASTERISM⁂ (2021), but no widespread work has been produced by a small team comprising only a librettist and composer. Vessels engages in this process with a libretto written by Bea Goodwin and music, audio processing, visual design, and programming by Christopher Poovey. The first step in the process of creating Vessels was the creation of the song cycle Songs from Vessels for soprano, extended tenor, flute, bass flute, A clarinet, viola, contrabass, percussion, and live electronics. These songs are the basis of the micro-opera Vessels which presents recordings of the songs with live processing alongside two songs exclusive to the opera in a VR environment with immersive projections and audio. The development of an ensemble and electronic work along with a VR micro-opera necessitates the implementation and creation of software. Both the Grainflow and cpDelayNetworks packages for Cycling ‘74 Max are pivotal to audio processing in both versions of the work. In addition to these packages and other programming done in Max, the VR opera version of the work relies on custom scripts and implementations of tools for VR interaction, networking, spatial audio, and procedural animations to create an immersive environment to be shared between a VR participant and their audience.

In this master’s thesis, a sound-based notation system is explored and developed in the composition and performance of a musical work for live electronics. My approach builds on existing systems for electroacoustic music analysis, most notably Dennis Smalley’s (1997) theory of spectromorphology and the symbolic language of Lasse Thoresen &amp; Andreas Hedman (2007) based on Pierre Schaeffer’s typo-morphology, as well as Mattias Sköld’s (2023) adaptation of this system for composition and transcription (Sound Notation).  By separating the compositional processes from the interpretational process in the creation of a mixed work for live electronics and acoustic instruments, the notation could be explored as an isolated activity in the writing of sound objects, later realized in a studio environment in the form playable instrument patches. This resulted in two performances of the piece Sonic Mechanics (2022) where the author performed the electronics part together with musicians from the ensembles Norrbotten NEO in Piteå (Sweden) and Ensemble mise-en in NYC (USA).  The thesis shows how symbolic notation does not need to be dismissed in live electronic performance, but that a sound-based score can complement the compositional and interpretational processes of instrument design and improvisation. The project thus demonstrates the plausibility of composing electronic music using a reduced sound- based notation system (spectromorphological reduction) and provides an example of how a sound-based score can be executed by an electronic performer, as well as investigating the affordances that this approach has for both the compositional and interpretational process. For composition, the affordances of sound-based notation are that it becomes a technology for thinking about sound and musical structures themselves, without interaction with audio technology. For performance, this approach enables different interpretations for other electronic instruments and setups. / <p>Artistic outcomes are presented in their entirety through the accompanying Research Catalogue Expositions:</p><p>https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=2012206</p><p>https://www.researchcatalogue.net/profile/show-exposition?exposition=2241923</p>

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