At the heart of the Speculations in Sound network is an extended series of bilateral exchanges, residencies, research projects, and reciprocal funding agreements, leading to a variety of publications, hardware & software development, performances, and compositions. These exchanges often begin with traditional guest lectures, but then extend to include longer-term projects, collaborations, and partnerships.

The complete list of exchange residencies and featured publications/outputs since 2015 is given below.


Prof Tyshawn Sorey (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
9 March 2021

Guest lecture, via Zoom, discussing Prof Sorey’s recent work as a composer and improviser.

Seth Parker Woods (University of Chicago, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
10 November 2020

As a continuation of 2019’s Speculations in Sound 3, which examined issues of New Music & Social Change, the CeReNeM community in the autumn 2020 term is focusing on issues of New Music & Race. That series includes a roundtable discussion on race, representation, identity, and curation, bringing together cellist and curator Seth Parker Woods (University of Chicago), Chikako Morishita (CeReNeM alumna and independent artist), Anahita Abbasi & Niloufar Nourbakhsh (Iranian Female Composers Association), and Ross Karre (International Contemporary Ensemble, New York, USA).

Prof Vijay Iyer (Harvard University, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
27 October 2020

Guest lecture, via Zoom, discussing Prof Iyer’s recent work in improvisation and embodiment.

Bryn Harrison, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, & Kristina Wolfe (University of Huddersfield, UK) 
Alex Mincek (Northwestern University, USA)
Sam Pluta (University of Chicago, USA)
Alice Teyssier (NYU, USA)

Huddersfield Contemporary Records (UK)
25 September 2020

A third Huddersfield Contemporary Records (HCR) release linked to the Speculations in Sound network, Smoke, Airs features performances by New York’s Wet Ink Ensemble, including contributions from two researchers from the Speculations in Sound network, in works by CeReNeM staff Bryn Harrison and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Marie Skłodowska- Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Kristina Wolfe, and Charmaine Lee. The recording was produced in partnership with hcmf// 2019, with support from Horizon2020.

As part of the project, Dr Alice Teyssier (Clinical Assistant Professor of Performance, NYU) contributed an article discussing the four compositions and the collaboration and development process with the performers of Wet Ink: “ECHOES OF ECHOES: Memory, Perception and Contemplations.”

Prof Georgina Born (University of Oxford, UK)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
21 January 2020

‘Between electroacoustic music and sound art: on music, sound and space’

A paper arising from ethnographic work Prof Born has undertaken on electronic music cultures, including at the University of Huddersfield.

Prof Cat Hope (Monash University, Australia)

University of Huddersfield (UK), in partnership with hcmf//
19 November 2019

Prof Hope discussed the evolution of her work with the Decibel ScorePlayer, a unique music notation programme that produces animated scores presented across networked tablet computers, and presented excerpts from her award-winning opera, Speechless

Prof Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (University of Huddersfield, UK)
Jeff Snyder (Princeton University, USA)

Princeton University (USA)
29 September 2019

Collaboration and workshop consultancy with instrument-builder and coder Jeff Snyder (of Snyderphonics, maker of the Manta and MantaMate) on a new ‘electrobass‘.

Prof Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (University of Huddersfield, UK)

CHIME Festival, University of Chicago (USA)
2 May 2019

Fluid Corpus Manipulation: blurring taxonomies through creative convergences of practices 

In this presentation, I will introduce my different musical biases and their converging consequences in my latest works, and in my research group’s project, Fluid Corpus Manipulations (flucoma.org). This is a space where inter-disciplinarity is embraced as frontier research by bridging gaps, through knowledge exchange and tool development. I will present some results on how the team is empowering composers with recent developments of signal processing and machine learning algorithms to be used and abused, to enable new discussions around large corpus manipulations in creative manners for techno-fluent musicians.

Dr Alex Harker (University of Huddersfield, UK)

CHIME Festival, University of Chicago (USA)
2 May 2019

FrameLib—Music and DSP in Slices of Time

Traditionally, realtime environments for audio programming such as Max and SuperCollider have modelled time as a continuous flow of samples, broken into blocks simply for convenience of processing. However, this model is ill-suited to processes that operate on meaningful frames, such as frequency domain processes. Access to multi-rate processing in such environments has been limited and often unwieldy.

FrameLib is an extensible open-source library for flexible multi-rate processing that can be hosted environments such as Max, SuperCollider and pd. Frames of arbitrary length and timing can be handled in a single DSP network, with timing and frame lengths varying between nodes.. It aims to handle low-level concerns so that users can focus on more creative and sonic outcomes. In this talk I present the motivations and features of FrameLib, along with some possible applications.

Chaya Czernowin (Harvard University, USA) 
Liza Lim (University of Sydney, Australia)
Rebecca Saunders (Honorary Doctorate, University of Huddersfield, UK)

Huddersfield Contemporary Records (UK)
15 March 2019

A second Huddersfield Contemporary Records (HCR) release linked to the Speculations in Sound network, Speak, Be Silent features performances by London’s Riot Ensemble in works by Chaya Czernowin, Liza Lim, Rebecca Saunders, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, and Mirela Ivičević.

Jeff Snyder (Princeton University, USA) 
Sam Pluta (University of Chicago, USA)

University of Huddersfield, Electric Spring Festival
23 February 2019

Performance by modular synthesiser improvisation duo ‘exclusiveOr’ (Sam Pluta & Jeff Snyder). Part of the Electric Spring festival for electronic music.

Jeff Snyder (Princeton University, USA) 

University of Huddersfield, Creative Coding Lab Symposium
23 February 2019

Unusual Embedded Instruments

Jeff Snyder talks about his work creating physical electronic instruments as Snyderphonics, and introduces the LEAF (Lightweight Embedded Audio Framework) audio library that he has been developing in his lab along with Mike Mulshine, and his hardware DSP board platform, the Genera.

Presented at the Creative Coding Lab Symposium, Electric Spring Festival 2019

Prof Monty Adkins (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Dartmouth College (USA)
13–20 February 2019

Guest Lecture and Masterclasses: Exploding Stillness—the influence of visual art on my creative practice

This lecture will examine the application of techniques from the visual arts to electroacoustic composition. Artists and movements discussed will include J.W. Turner, the Futurists, to Gerhard Richter. Whilst I will use examples from my own work to illustrate these techniques I am interested in how such examples also suggest novel approaches to form and structure that can be applied more generally. 

Dr Bryn Harrison (University of Huddersfield, UK) 

Harvard University
3 December 2018

Columbia University
28 November 2018

Brooklyn College, CUNY
27 November 2018

Wesleyan University
26 November 2018

Guest Lecture

This talk discusses aspects of time, memory and repetition in my compositional output, drawing in particular on works such as repetitions in extended time (2008), Vessels (2012), Receiving the Approaching Memory (2014) and the recent Piano Quintet (2017).  I will demonstrate my approach to cyclical pitch structures and illustrate how these have been applied to works of extended duration.

Prof Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (University of Huddersfield, UK)

New York University, Feldstein Immersion Room
November 2018

Preconcert talk

Dr Sam Pluta (University of Chicago, USA) 
Dr Chris Mercer (Northwestern University, USA) 
Prof Aaron Cassidy (University of Huddersfield, UK) 
Katherine Young (PhD, Northwestern University, USA) 

20 April 2018
Huddersfield Contemporary Records (UK) 

Phantom Images. The first commercial publication stemming from CeReNeM’s International Research Network, a collaborative exchange between Huddersfield and our two Chicago exchange partnerships.

Prof Miller Puckette (University of California San Diego, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
22–27 March 2018

Creative Coding Lab Residency
Composition Masterclass

Prof Chaya Czernowin (Harvard University, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
20 February 2018

An impossible continuum? Space–presence–nuance–color–movement–gesture–drama–song
Guest Lecture & Composition Masterclass

Prof Hans Tutschku (Harvard University, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
6 November 2017

Technology: The expressive extension of my artistic sensibility
Guest Lecture

Dr Mary Bellamy (University of Huddersfield, UK) 

Université de Montréal
21 September 2017

Beneath an Ocean of Air

Mary Bellamy’s music is focused on a search for new sound structures. It is essentially an exploration of sound quality, which is shaped by a desire to extend instrumental sound resources. Many of her works are composed through close consultation with the performer and often bring the player-instrument relationship to the fore through their musical content. This colloquium will be a discussion of three solo works written between 2010-2012 and a new work for piano quintet written in 2016-17 examining how the musical language in each piece explores specific qualities of the instruments.

Dr Stephane Aubinet (University of Oslo, NOR) 
Dr Olivier Malay (Univeristy of Louvain, BEL)

University of Huddersfield
4 September 2017

Democracy and Ecological Transition in Belgian Folk Bals

At a time when democracy is the subject of intense discussions throughout Europe, the project of transition has emerged as one possible way of answering the urgency of social inequalities and ecological disasters. While this movement has been enhanced by numerous academic works, little attention has been paid to musical activities that partake in the same project. We argue that such a connection between transition and music is exemplified by the ‘European folk dancing’ movement. The present paper focuses on ‘folk bals’, as they are practiced in the regions of Wallonia and Brussels (Belgium). Historically rooted in the 1970s folk revival, folk bals consist of parties where participants engage in neo-traditional dances more or less inspired by the pre-WWI peasant celebrations. The Belgian musicians and dancers have developed a common repertoire made of both local and nonlocal, traditional and modern practices. The project of ecological transition was theorised by authors such as Rob Hopkins, Dominique Bourg, and Dominique Méda and aims at: (1) fostering equity in the distribution of wealth, (2) increasing well-being and social cohesion, and (3) adapting the economy to the ecological limits of the ecosystems. Through the structure of the dances, the roles attributed to the audience and musicians, the material aspects of the events’ organisation, the public they gather and their relation to the musical industry, folk bals transgress a series of social norms and boundaries, thus opening 6 the participants to other forms of sociality that resonate with the project of social and ecological transition. The account presented in this talk is based on semi-directive interviews with dancers and musicians and on a personal commitment of the authors in the organisation and animation of folk bals in Wallonia (Belgium).

Presented at Finding Democracy in Music symposium.

Prof Georgina Born (University of Oxford, UK) 

University of Huddersfield
4 September 2017

Imagining New Musical Democracies – For Audiencing, Aesthetic Judgement and Curation

In his paper ‘What can democracy mean for music?’, Robert Adlington summarises thus the composer Elliott Carter’s conception of the democratic nature of his music: ‘the idea of democracy that prevails in Carter’s ruggedly egalitarian musical textures, in which (as Carter says) “each member of a society maintains his or her own identity”, is not unconditionally extended to his listeners, who are expected to receive instruction in a particular mode of attentiveness prior to participation as democratic citizens’. Carter’s conviction that music’s democratic potential can best be modelled via the analogical potential of musical materials points to more general observations. If democracy has been ‘found’ in music, it has invariably be in one of two ways: as a quality of musical textures, which are treated as social allegories, as when Carter writes of his 4th String Quartet as ‘mirroring the democratic attitude’; or in attempts to reconfigure the social relations of performing ensembles, as when theorists of jazz and improvisation take the musical-and-social interactions in 2 their creative practices, the negotiation of individuality and collectivity, to exemplify democracy. It is the latter paradigm that has perhaps become ascendant in recent decades, in that a range of ensemble musics – improvised, experimental, progressive, networked – have been understood to experiment with the musical division of labour (composer-performer, performer-performer, conductor-performers), fashioning new modes of musical interaction that negate former hierarchies in favour of democratic values of equality, liberty and even deliberation. Both these directions have been productive, and in my previous work I too have attended to democracy in the guise of musicians’ attempts to politicize and reimagine the social relations of musical performance and practice.

Presented at Finding Democracy in Music symposium.

Prof Aaron Cassidy (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Northwestern University (USA) 
16 May 2017

Writing blind—The wreck of former boundaries

Prof Miller Puckette (University of California San Diego, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
28–31 March 2017

Roles for scores for electronic music

Electronic music over the past century has developed at a rate that far outpaces our ability to develop suitable notation systems for it.  At least since the early 1950s, composers have tried to find ways of organizing electronic sounds using marks on paper, and since the 1970s researchers have been trying to design a flexible way to represent electronic scores graphically using a computer. (The Pure Data software system that I currently develop started out as one such attempt).  In this talk, I’ll try to show why the problem has proved so difficult.  One central reason is that any such score system must simultaneously serve two purposes: to show the musical structure of a piece in a way that a composer can use to organize musical ideas, and also as a data structure that can be transformed by the computer into musical sound, possibly incorporating live, real-time inputs from musicians.  These considerations often come into tension with each other, and with limitations imposed by the physical interface that a computer presents to a user, and by the inability of an image to accurately represent a sound.  I’ll assess the current situation and make some suggestions for future work in this area.

Designing electronic music instruments

Of the many roles that computer and electronic technology can play in music making (production tool, composer’s assistant, improvising partner, and so on), the one that I think is giving rise to the most interesting new music today is that of the musical instrument. This could encompass both the use of electronics to enhance the sonic or other possiblities afforded by an existing instrument or developing a new musical interface (and starting from scratch learning to play the thing). Its instrumental behavior could take the form of directly mapping performance gestures into parameters of sound generation or, alternatively, affect the fate of an existing sound stream.  Using two recent instrument designs of my own as examples, in this talk I’ll try to shed light on where I see new possibilities to explore and what design principles I’ve arrived at in my own attempts.

Dr Sam Pluta (University of Chicago, USA) 

University of Huddersfield (UK)
22–25 November 2016

Information as Beauty in Music Software Design
in association with hcmf// 2016

Dr Chris Mercer (Northwestern University, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK) 
20 February 2016

Electric Spring: Chris Mercer performs The Spring Box, Evolving Choruses, and The Syntax of Constellations 

Electric Spring Event 5 – Diemo Schwarz / Chris Mercer, Phipps Concert Hall

Prof Liza Lim (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Columbia University (USA) 
25 January 2016

Guest Lecture

Stanford University (USA) 
12–15 January 2016

Collaboration with Séverine Ballon, violoncello
Guest Composition Lecture

Prof Aaron Cassidy (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Columbia University (USA)
2 December 2015

Harvard University (USA)
30 November 2015

Gestural modelling and compositional constraints: the articulation of accident as creative method

This presentation discusses my approach to topographical mapping, boundary spaces, and physical modeling in  works employing a newly developed, unified multi-parametric notation system. In particular, it examines the ways in which limited collections of physical action types can “push against” constructed, dynamic, multi-planar bounding windows. The friction between these two forces is at the heart of the sonic and physical gestural material of my recent work and encourages unusual, unexpected, and often unpredictable materials to emerge. Works discussed include And the scream, Bacon’s scream, is the operation through which the entire body escapes through the mouth (2005-2009), Second String Quartet (2010), and the first public presentation of the complete version of the extractable work for multi-channel electronics from The wreck of former boundaries, a work in progress for two trumpets, ensemble, and electronics, to be premiered in late 2016.  

Prof George Lewis (Columbia University, USA)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
21 November 2015

Guest Lecture, in association with hcmf// 2015

Prof Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Princeton University (USA)
4 November 2015

Guest Lecture
Workshop with PLOrk (Princeton Laptop Orchestra)

Prof Peter Ablinger (University of Huddersfield, UK)
Prof Winfried Ritsch (Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik, Graz)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
18–31 October 2015

Electronics in Performance
Computer Piano and Robotic Instruments Workshop

“The robot as a mirror of the human. It takes over the human and makes it better, more efficient, especially more persistent. The human loves to watch machines at work. The question of what makes the use of robots in music necessary …” 

Prof Peter Ablinger (University of Huddersfield) and Prof Winfried Ritsch spent a week introducing CeReNeM postgraduate students to their computer-controlled/robotic piano, RHEA, concluding in a concert presentation of the works developed through the week. 

Prof Robert Normandeau (Université de Montréal, CAN)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
18–31 October 2015

Studio Residency

Guest Lecture: The Medium is Space
20 October 2015

Prof. Robert Normandeau (Université de Montréal) gives a presentation on his recent work, entitled ‘The medium is space’, part of a artistic residency he held in Huddersfield between 18-31 October 2015, where he worked on a new composition in the university’s studios.

Dr Alex Harker (University of Huddersfield, UK)

NoTAM  | Norwegian Centre for Technology in Music and the Arts
Residency: 10–25 August 2015

A residency to collaboratively develop creative sound processing tools for generating texturally and spatially rich, immersive materials for 3D sound environments

A large body of work in the area of 3D sound exists concentrating on possibilities of spatial trajectories and accurate localisation. This residency will focus on a different approach, in which multiple components strands, derived from recorded source materials are spatialised to make a complex sonic environment, prioritising spatial diffuseness and complexity over accurate localisation. The residency will draw on technical expertise at NOTAM, as well as my programming skills, but focus on the creative and aesthetic potential of such approaches, with a set of short study examples/pieces forming a focus for addressing artistic questions and effectively supporting future larger compositional work. 

Prof Aaron Cassidy (University of Huddersfield, UK)

University of Chicago (USA)
18 May 2015

Northwestern University (USA)
19 May 2015

Gestural modelling and compositional constraints: the articulation of accident as creative method

This presentation discusses my approach to topographical mapping, boundary spaces, and physical modeling in  works employing a newly developed, unified multi-parametric notation system. In particular, it examines the ways in which limited collections of physical action types can “push against” constructed, dynamic, multi-planar bounding windows. The friction between these two forces is at the heart of the sonic and physical gestural material of my recent work and encourages unusual, unexpected, and often unpredictable materials to emerge. Works discussed include And the scream, Bacon’s scream, is the operation through which the entire body escapes through the mouth (2005–09), Second String Quartet (2010), and the first public presentation of the complete version of the extractable work for multi-channel electronics from The wreck of former boundaries, a work in progress for two trumpets, ensemble, and electronics, to be premiered in late 2016. 

Dr Robert Burke (Monash University, AUS)

University of Huddersfield (UK)
28 April 2015

Analysis and observations of pre-learnt and idiosyncratic elements in improvisation: a reflective study in jazz performance

This paper examines influences, processes and idiosyncrasies in musical improvisation in a jazz context, identified through analysis and observation of selected, recorded performances by the author. It is a practice-based research project with two objectives, the first to uncover degrees to which pre-learnt skills and idiosyncratic creations occur and interact in music-making, and the second to contribute to the body of knowledge in spontaneous improvised music research: an area of the art which at this time is beginning to invite intense enquiry. 

Dr Julio d’Escriván (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Stanford University (USA)
15 April 2015

Ayayay! Concerto for pianola

Stanford Symphony Orchestra accompanying Rex Lawson, pianola and Julio d’Escriván, iPhone / computer. Recorded at Bing Concert Hall

Prof Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Columbia University Computer Music Center (USA)
17 April 2015

On Blurring Taxonomies: a Constructive Convergences of Practices

In this presentation, Pierre Alexandre will introduce his musical biases on improvisation, composition, studio, liveness, techniques and collaboration; then he will highlight their converging consequences in his latest works (chamber mixed music for concert hall and/or jazz club, and fixed media pieces), and in his Huddersfield studio lab’s projects (thehiss.org). This will be followed by discussions, questions and hands-on examples if appropriate. 

Dr Philip Thomas (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Cornell University (USA)
25 March 2015

Christian Wolff Birthday Recital
Doctoral Workshops

Philip Thomas presented the North American premieres of three new works composed for him in honour of leading experimental composer Christian Wolff’s 80th birthday year. Wolff’s latest work for solo piano ‘Sailing By’ was performed alongside Howard Skempton’s ‘Oculus’ and Michael Finnissy’s 50-minute epic ‘Beat Generation Ballads’. The following day Philip led workshops and tutorials with the doctoral students in performance and composition. Cornell is increasingly active in the field of experimental music, with Professor Benjamin Piekut being one of the leaders internationally in new musicological approaches to experimentalism in music.  

Prof Michael Clarke / Dr Frédéric Dufeu (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Stanford University (USA)
2–4 March 2015

TaCEM project

Michael Clarke and Frédéric Dufeu visited CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics) at Stanford University from March 2nd to 4th, 2015. Their primary goal was to visit composer John Chowning, whose emblematic work Stria is featured as a case study within the AHRC-funded TaCEM project. Research and discussions with the composer enabled them to fine-tune preliminary research, to gather unpublished documentation that led to the opportunity to reconstruct Chowning’s entire algorithm as used to compose Stria in 1977, and to record filmed interviews that are to be integrated in the TaCEM software.  

Prof Monty Adkins (University of Huddersfield, UK)

Université de Montréal (CAN)
28 January 2015

Nodalism and Creative Practice

This paper proposes the notion of Nodalism as a means describing contemporary culture and of understanding my own creative practice in electronic music composition. It draws on theories and ideas from Boden, Lacan, Deleuze, Guatarri, and Gochenour et al to demonstrate how networks of ideas or connectionist neural models of cognitive behaviour can be used to contextualize, understand and become a creative tool for the creation of contemporary electronic music.