Shared music improvisation constitutes a formidable vector for intersubjective connection. Improvisation is a space of non-semantic communication that allows for putting oneself at risk and requires mutual trust and listening, as well as dialogical qualities. This article investigates the intersubjective dimension of improvisation in electronic music praxis, focusing on how the electronic medium can be used to foster mediation between musicians. The article builds on a practice-based enquiry in duo format, conducted in three successive technological settings, with a methodological entanglement of aesthetic and design aims. Systematic video documentation and participant observation provide an analytical counterpoint to an immersion in the improvisatory praxis. A set of design strategies for fostering intersubjective connection in shared musicianship emerges from the research. The findings provide the basis for a dialectical consideration between musical and intersubjective aesthetics. The discussion points to the diversity of social functions of music and their respective aesthetics. Electronic instruments’ inherent plasticity allows for reconfiguring the social space of music-making, and thus opens perspectives for devising synergetic music systems that emphasise an ethos of shared agency over the production of musical objects or performances.

In this article I describe the development of a performance practice with a new electroacoustic instrument – the FAAB (feedback-actuated augmented bass). Drawing on a background in improvisation, I discuss how the feedback-induced behaviour of the instrument sets it apart from an acoustic bass and how the implementation of operationally closed digital signal processing algorithms facilitates greater systemic autonomy. In identifying resistance as a key feature of improvisation, I propose the term ‘diachronic mastery’ as a way of addressing the equilibration of sensorimotor schemes in the context of developing a performance practice with a complex hybrid system such as the FAAB. Through a discussion of the term ‘agency’ as it appears in recent literature, I develop a preliminary framework for addressing both the immediate experience of agency emerging in performance ecosystems and the biologically informed definition of the term that may be useful in the design of increasingly autonomous instruments and performance systems.

Contemporary thought is moving away from the notion that the human is a clear-cut concept. In particular, non-anthropocentric views are proliferating within the interdisciplinary area of critical post-humanism, with emphasis on non-dualistic views on relations between human and technology. This article shows how such a view can inform electroacoustic and computer music practice, and sees improvisation linked with composition as a fruitful avenue in this. Following a philosophical preparation and a discussion of relevant music discourse, two computer music works created by the author are discussed to demonstrate a model of music-making that merges composition and improvisation, based on the concepts of cognitive assemblages and intra-action, following the writings of N. Katherine Hayles and Karen Barad, respectively. The works employ techniques related to artificial intelligence and cybernetics, such as machine learning algorithms, agent-based organisation and feedback systems. It is argued that acousmatic sound is an important aspect of this practice. The research is thus situated not only in the frames of improvisation practice and music technology but also within spatial acousmatic composition and performance.

The use of live electronic processing to extend, modify or transform an acoustic musical instrument has its roots in the recording and broadcast technologies that were developed in the first few decades of the twentieth century. In the second half of the century these tools were adopted by composers and musicians in many musical genres and have become commonplace and in some musics, ubiquitous. The perceived musical relationship between instrument and its electronic ‘other’ has been discussed largely from the point of view of listener and composer. This paper focuses on the performers’ perspective through reflection on and discussion of the author’s working methods in improvising duo contexts. The author suggests ‘estrangement’ as a term to describe and understand aspects of the performer’s experience of live transformation and discusses how this estrangement might influence the relationship between musicians and the resulting musical interaction in improvisation, and finally offers ‘co-estrangement’ as a description of his shared experience in such improvising duos.

This article documents the processes behind our distributed musical instrument, Ambiguous Devices. The project is motivated by our mutual desire to explore disruptive forms of networked musical interactions in an attempt to challenge and extend our practices as improvisers and instrument makers. We begin by describing the early design stage of our performance ecosystem, followed by a technical description of how the system functions with examples from our public performances and installations. We then situate our work within a genealogy of human–machine improvisation, while highlighting specific values that continue to motivate our artistic approach. These practical accounts inform our discussion of tactility, proximity, effort, friction and other attributes that have shaped our strategies for designing musical interactions. The positive role of ambiguity is elaborated in relation to distributed agency. Finally, we employ the concept of ‘feedthrough’ as a way of understanding the co-constitutive behaviour of communication networks, assemblages and performers.

This article reflects on how personal digital musical instruments evolve and presents an augmented violin developed and performed by the author in improvised performance as an example. Informed by the materialism of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, an image of ‘flows of inhomogeneous matter’ provokes reflection on a mode of production common to artisanal craftmanship and digital lutherie alike, namely the pre-reflective skilfulness negotiating the singularities of inhomogeneous matter with the demands of the production – a process which itself may be thought of as im-pro-visation (‘un-fore-seen’). According to Gilbert Simondon, all technical objects develop in this way: functional interdependency emerges when abstractly ideated elements begin to enter into unanticipated synergistic relationships, suggesting a material logic dependent on unforeseen potentialities. The historical development of the acoustic violin exemplifies such an evolution, with, like all technical objects, additional latent potential. Digital artists can work like artisanal craftsmen in tinkering with technical elements, teasing out their synergies through abductive, trial-and-error experimentation. In the context of developing digital musical instruments, model-free design of real-time digital signal processing symmetrising action and perception yields highly refined results. Like musical improvisation – constrained by time – improvised development of these instruments turns the material obstacles into their very means of realisation.

This paper describes the background and motivations behind the author’s electroacoustic game-pieces Pathfinder (2016) and ICARUS (2019), designed specifically for his performance practice with an augmented drum kit. The use of game structures in music is outlined, while musical expression in the context of commercial musical games using conventional game controllers is discussed. Notions such as agility, agency and authorship in music composition and improvisation are in parallel with game design and play, where players are asked to develop skills through affordances within a digital game-space. It is argued that the recent democratisation of game engines opens a wide range of expressive opportunities for real-time game-based improvisation and performance. Some of the design decisions and performance strategies for the two instrument-controlled games are presented to illustrate the discussion; this is done in terms of game design, physical control through the augmented instrument, live electronics and overall artistic goals of the pieces. Finally, future directions for instrument-controlled electroacoustic game-pieces are suggested.

This article describes my own way to improvise with space using a computer-based tool implemented in SuperCollider. The objective of this spatial performance tool is to have an ergonomic spatio-temporal and spectral control over numerous sound objects in real time, in order to alternate between spatialised polyrhythms and textures. After a brief review of spatial audio context, the spatial performance tool is summarised and detailed here by focusing on one of the core parameters: the playback speeds, which can act both on rhythm and space and enable among others the spatio-temporal articulation of the performance. As well as discussing the word ‘comprovisation’ and my conception of human–computer improvisation, the possibilities and approach of the tool in terms of improvisation and controllerism are illustrated through the use and combination of different controllers (computer keyboard, tactile interfaces, force touch sensors). Whereas some controllers are more dedicated to the selection and triggering of streams of spatialised sound events, others have their own mappings and ways of acting on some parameters (depending on the temporality of the sounds: playing or future events).

This article presents the possible proximity between the philosophical tradition of pragmatism and the present-day practice of free improvisation, a musical activity that enjoys its ambiguous nature of not being clearly defined, that is, however, of value to examine as a practice in its own rights. It is used in educational and compositional contexts as a tool, as well as being an established independent performance practice, albeit for a relatively small body of audience. The discussion is led through three concepts that are utilised by pragmatists, but which resonate with the concerns of free improvisers: experience, expressive object and gesture. Outlining these key ideas, the article sheds light on John Dewey’s and Giovanni Maddalena’s thoughts on aesthetics, which provide a perspective for examining these inherent issues of free improvisation. Through a philosophical examination, the article seeks to enlighten the performance processes of the musical phenomenon of free improvisation.

The adoption of playback media – such as vinyl and the compact disc – by performers as a means of sound creation and manipulation sees our perception of these media ‘elevated’ to the status of an instrument. As this practice develops, improvisers push these devices further in pursuit of new sounds, including actively exploring the sonic potential of failure and destruction. This article argues that when pushed to the point of failure, playback media begin to function as an improviser, exhibiting musical agency over the performance that mirrors that of human improvisers. This article will identify how failing playback functions within a performance, and explore the ways in which it can be understood to improvise, discussing how failing playback media can engage in a dialogical back and forth with human improvisers as well as the ways it can directly influence and determine the structure and musical content of a performance.

This article discusses the affordance of headphone listening as a sensory experience within a responsive, interactive and improvisational site-specific audiowalk. The intention here is to elucidate how correlational and dialectic tensions between improvisation and listening have informed an approach to creating the geolocative project: Audiowalk – St Enda’s Park. Initially using the concept of soundwalking, as both a touchstone and a springboard, I explore some of the theoretical and dialogic underpinnings that have grounded this process-orientated work. The discussion is then extended into a phenomenological application of improvisational listening and walking in this form of somatic art, and particularly how this can impact the immersive experience for the participant/performer. The theoretical grounding and telos are explored in terms of the improvisational ‘flow’ state and how this accentuates and engenders an awareness of a soundscape through contextual and ethnographic aural histories. Critical reflection and analysis will be discussed throughout in attaining greater epistemological efficacy dealing with concepts of place and memory within this site-specific work.

Electronic systems designed to improvise with a live instrumental performer are a constant mediation of musical language and artificial decision-making. Often these systems are designed to elicit a reaction in a very broad way, relying on segmenting and playing back audio material according to a fixed or mobile set of rules or analysis. As a result, such systems can produce an outcome that sounds generic across different improvisers, or restrict meaningful electroacoustic improvisation to those performers with a matching capacity for designing improvisatory electroacoustic processing. This article documents the development of an improvisatory electroacoustic instrument for pianist Maria Donohue as a collaborative process for music-making. The Donohue+ program is a bespoke electroacoustic improvisatory system designed to augment the performance capabilities of Maria, enabling her to achieve new possibilities in live performance. Through the process of development, Maria’s performative style, within the broader context of free improvisation, was analysed and used to design an interactive electronic system. The end result of this process is a meaningful augmentation of the piano in accordance with Maria’s creative practice, differing significantly from other improvising electroacoustic instruments she has previously experimented with. Through the process of development, Donohue+ identifies a practice for instrument design that engages not only with a performer’s musical materials but also with a broader free improvisation aesthetic.

Drawing on François-Bernard Mâche’s writings as well as interviews and analyses by musicologists, this paper tries to describe how his music may be described as ‘sacred’ music, however devoid of any religious aspects, and what this implies for us as listeners and/or as artists. To Mâche, the sacred is the consideration of a specific relationship to the world as the object and as the subject, as the ‘why’ and as the ‘how’ of music. Musical examples from his mixed music and acousmatic music illustrate how Mâche goes from his theories to more practical aspects of his compositional technique and listening behaviours.

This article invites reflection on the ambiguity of sonic temporalities as the lines between physicality and immediacy become increasingly blurred. Through the notion that digital technologies are haunted by analogic process, I foreground the concept of Palimpsestic Listening to explore the musical qualities and critical resonances of sonic acts and objects in hybrid physical/digital systems that evoke layered temporalities that are ‘historically distinct nonetheless linked’. I also seek to illustrate the significance of engaging practically with this concept by discussing the methods behind my composition D/ta Ro} – A Dialectical Trash Heap, a sound installation that interrogates the relationship between sonic materiality and digital audio processing and how acts of erasure and time-stretching might influence the layering of disparate sound materials.