Dr Adam Stanović
Department of Music
Honorary Research Fellow
Full contact details
Department of Music
2.06
Jessop Building
Leavygreave Road
Sheffield
S3 7RD
- Profile
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I started composing electronic music some twenty years ago. At that time, early experiments with tape machines and a four-track mini-disc recorder led me to discover the potential of recorded sounds, and I quickly started using computers as a tool for music-making. Ever since, I have considered the fixed medium as a canvass for my works which, although mostly acousmatic, are sometimes accompanied by instruments, electronics, film, and animation. In all cases, my music explores ways in which both pitch and noise coexist within recorded sound, with musical form often delivering one from the other.
My music has been heard in over 400 festivals and concerts around the world. My works are available on 12 different CDs, including solo CDs on the Sargasso and empreintes DIGITALes labels. Most of my recent works have featured in composition competitions around the globe, including winning prizes and mentions, including: IMEB (France); Metamophoses (Belgium); Destellos (Argentina); Contemporanea (Italy); SYNC (Russia); Musica Viva (Portugal); Musica Nova (Czech Republic); KEAR (USA); Musicacoustica (China). Further to this, I have worked in studios at the IMEB (France); Musiques et Recherches (Belgium); VICC (Sweden); EMS (Sweden); LCM (UK); CMMAS (Mexico); Holst House (UK), Mise En Place (USA), Bowling Green (USA); Sydney Conservatorium (Australia).
I am regularly invited to talk about electronic music; in the past few years, I have given talks at institutions around the globe, including Harvard University, New England Conservatory, Swedish Royal College of Music, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Sydney Conservatorium, Bowling Green Ohio. In 2016, I co-founded the British ElectroAcoustic Network (BEAN), alongside James Andean, with the intention of representing British electroacoustic music overseas. I am currently directing a number of MA programmes, and supervising a group of PhD students, at The University of Sheffield, UK.
- Research interests
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My research focuses upon electronic music, combining both theory and practice.
In theoretical terms, I have developed a novel work-concept that is responsive to contemporary music; rather than accepting the prevailing philosophical paradigm, which rarely gets beyond 18th century notions of the music work, I have argued for an updated account that acknowledges the many ways that music is now created, performed, produced and experienced.
My various talks, papers and book chapters serve to demonstrate some of the many ways in which contemporary music may extend beyond traditional conceptions of works and their performances, highlighting potential links with art philosophy more generally whilst suggesting ways in which analytical philosophy might be used to explain how contemporary music exists. Overall, my theoretical work has addressed: compositional methods; analytical approaches to electronic music; the nature of performance interpretation and authenticity; the nature of digitised music; various philosophical paradoxes that electronic music seems to produce.
In practical terms, I compose and perform electronic music. My recent compositions explore the relations that hold between pitch and noise; rather than viewing them as opposites, however, my compositions address some of the many ways in which pitch and noise coalesce, planting one within the other whilst exploring continua that connect the two. I have a long-standing interest in exposing false binaries of this kind; previous pieces have explored gesture and texture, micro and macro, mimesis and abstraction, among others.
For some considerable time, I have argued that there is a compositional ‘telos’ pointing at performance; although this is well-known in other musical fields, the idea has received insufficient attention in the world of electronic music. My music is intentionally composed with performance in mind and, crucially, this helps to direct acts of performance and interpretation. Although it is common for composers of electronic music to perform their own works, I maintain that these roles are distinct, uphold performance as a separate aspects of my creative practice.
- Publications
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Edited books
- Sound Art and Music: philosophy, composition, performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Journal articles
- Composing the North: a musical study of identity, transformation, and reflection. Nordlit(46).
- Composing the plastic city : a reflection on methods, motivations and meanings. Sonic Ideas/Ideas Sonicas, 11(21), 13-21. View this article in WRRO
- Musical works, recordings and their digitizations: new philosophical types. Swedish Journal of Musicology, 99, 125-144. View this article in WRRO
- Review. Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 8(1), 95-100.
- The Acousmatic Sound Sculpture: an ontological account of works, performances and the centrality of space. Sound Spaces and Audiovisual Spaces: Creation, Representation and Design.
- Compositional methods in electroacoustic music. Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 6(3), 251-254.
- Between Plasticity and Performance: an ontological account of electroacoustic music. Emille: the Journal of the Korean Electro-Acoustic Music Society, 11.
- Tracking production strategies: Identifying compositional methods in electroacoustic music. Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 6(3), 323-336.
Chapters
- The Methodology Mythology: reconsidering compositional practice in acousmatic music In Stanovic A, Dack J & Spinks T (Ed.), Music and Sound Art: Composition, Performance, Philosophy
- Beyond the Fixity Fallacy: rethinking the work-concept in an age of electronic music In Dogantan-Dack M & Dack J (Ed.), Music and Sonic Art: Practices and Theories. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Between Plasticity and Performance: an Introduction to Acousmatic Art In Tseng Y (Ed.), Digital Art Criticism: Sonic Arts Taiwan: Foundation of Digital Arts.
Compositions
- Exchanges of Pace.
- We are the Voices of the Wandering Wind.
- Inja.
- Helix: Circle of Fifths.
- Ten Billion.
- Would be to Seek.
- Inam.
- Ctrl c.
- One Byrd, Two Stones.
- Twin Cities.
- Foundry Flux.
- Metallurgic.
- one times one.
- Point of Departure.
- Fractions.
- Escapade.
- Parenthesis.
- Sound Art and Music: philosophy, composition, performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Research group
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Current PhD students
- Rees Archibald – sound installations, process, chance and agency
- Chris Bevan – acousmatic composition
Recently completed PhD students
- Alejandro Albornoz – acousmatic composition
- Vanessa Sorce-Levesque – acousmatic composition
- Mark Summers – human+computer music performance and improvisation
- Awards, mentions and commissions
- Finalist in Category A, Musica Nova, Czech Republic. Piece: Baltazar’s Adventure through the Great Machine. Nov 2019
- Commission from the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM), Paris, for a new work to be performed in May 2020. July 2019
- Commission from the Kelham Island Museum and Arts Enterprise, Sheffield, for a new work performed in July 2019. May 2019
- Shortlisted in Sound Spaces 2019 Composition Competition, Hertzbreakerz, Malmö , Sweden. Piece: Helix. April 2019
- Winner of degree II (Electroacoustic Composition) in Category B (professionals) at the International Festival/Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia “>SYNC.2018”, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Piece: Commuter Flights. Nov 2018
- Winner of degree II (Electroacoustic Composition) in Category B (professionals) at the International Festival/Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia “>SYNC.2018”, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Piece: Helix. Nov 2018
- Honourable Mention in MusicAcoustica International Composition Competition, Beijing, China. Piece: Would be to Seek. Oct 2018
- 2nd Prize in the Eleventh International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition and Visual Music, Destellos Foundation, Argentina. Piece: Foundry Flux. May 2018
- Winner, Klingler ElectroAcoustic Residency (KEAR) at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, Dec 2017
- Selection in the Tenth International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition and Visual Music, Destellos Foundation, Argentina, Sept 2017
- Winner, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis, The 11th International Festival for New Music, Switzerland, May 2017
- Finalist in Category A, Musica Nova, Czech Republic, Nov 2016
- Nomination in the Ninth International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition and Visual Music, Destellos Foundation, Argentina, August 2016
- Honourable Mention, Musica Viva 2016, Miso Music, Portugal, May 2016
- 2nd Prize at the International Festival/Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia “>SYNC.2015”, Yekaterinburg, Russia, Oct 2015
- Commission from Sheaf Prospects: soundmapping Furnace Park – a public engagement project supported by Arts Enterprise funding, Sheffield, May 2015
- Commission from Thomas Gorbach and The Electro Acoustic Project for a stereo, acousmatic work to be premiered at the Electroacoustic Music Festival Vienna, 19th June 2014
- Escapade one of two compositions selected by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISMC) (pre-selected by the British Panel) to represent the British entry for the ISCM World Music Days 2012, July 2011
- Commission from Erik Bosgraaf for an alto-recorder and tape piece; Premiered May 2012.
- First Prize in the Third International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition and Visual Music, Destellos Foundation, Argentina, Sept 2010
- Finalist in VIII International Competition for Composers “Città di Udine”, August 2010
- Shortlisted Composer for the 2010 MATA Commission, New York, June 2010
- First Prize in International Competition of Acousmatic Music “Métamorphoses” Category A, Belgium, June 2006
- Residency Prize at the 33rd International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art / Bourges 2006, June 2006
Selected studio residences
- Guest Composer, Sydney Conservatoire, Australia, July 2018
- Klingler Resident Composer, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, March 2018
- Composer in Residence, Ensemble Mise En, New York, March 2018
- Composer in Residence, Holst House, Aldeburgh, UK, April 2017
- Guest Composer at CMMAS, Mexico, June 2016
- Guest Composer at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Sweden, June/July 2011.
- Composer in Residence at Visby International Centre for Composers (VICC), Sweden, June 2010.
- Composer in Residence at Musique et Recherché, Belgium, June 2009.
- Composer in Residence at the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB), France, Oct/Nov 2008.