Arca woodblocks 👌

An article I wrote about electronic music in the home has just been published by Organised Sound Ambient Machines: synthesis in the domestic sphere www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"Tomorrow, let's not use our thumbs and live like foxes" (overheard at the kids' half-term sleepover).

Eccy Road freezer music in the guardian: www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f... #sheffield

Today is the last day of research leave working on the Composing (with) Systems project. I'm spending it tidying up transcripts and being amazed by the wonderful people I've spoken to and how generous they've been with their thoughts and time.

Really enjoying Does Spring Hide Its Joy + the hum of the dehumidifier this afternoon. kalimalone.bandcamp.com/track/does-s...

Surprisingly the Leeds Autechre gig was a bit of a retrospective.

Really excited about this month's Sound Junction concert featuring the music of some amazing recent graduates as well as @loubarnell.bsky.social, Jake Parry / Unperson and Stephen Carley. A great all-sheffield lineup. performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/sound-...

Rode into the sunset last night, first ride in the dark for a while, felt like returning to an old haunt, like the darkness was a place.

The childminder's doorbell doesn't work because of the AWS outages 💩

It's Éliane Radigue weekend in Sheffield thanks to @musicintheround.bsky.social musicintheround.co.uk/events/elian... musicintheround.co.uk/events/sound... musicintheround.co.uk/events/sound...

In the latest episode of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, journalist @reveleth.com joins @alexhanna.bsky.social & @emilymbender.bsky.social to talk about how tech bosses love science fiction novels, but can't seem to understand them! Listen here: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis...

"Yes! What a pleasure to play and be part of a dynamic musical cybernetic process! To explore catastrophy hyper-surfaces in the relative safety and comfort of involvement with one's friends and neighbors" (Bischoff et al. 1978: 28).

I will never not jump out of my skin at the end of this beautiful album. kevindrumm.bandcamp.com/album/imperi...

The writings and liner notes of The League Of Automatic Music Composers / Hub are such a joy to read.

Treat yourself: youtu.be/Oueh9jtf2w4?...

Mark Fell & Okkyung Lee in Sheffield this weekend performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/mark-f...

Finally got round to reading Explorers We archive.org/details/Fant... farmersmanual.bandcamp.com/album/explor...

What's your favourite Autechre album and track? Favourite track doesn't have to be from favourite album. Explanations welcome but not necessary. Happy Friday.

Government giving off strong Carphone Warehouse vibes. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Rather than a 'productivity boost' or enhanced creativity, musicians are having to spend time cleaning up AI slop: www.bbc.com/news/article...

my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...

I appreciate the implicit critique of scale in this, but I can't get over how such an intensive process produces yet another folder of snare samples to sift through while circumventing all the pleasure in learning the hows and whys of synthesis. github.com/crlandsc/tin... | youtu.be/m6Eh2srtTro?...

Embracing AI will revolutionise the creative industries, making it possible for bots to access your account on a streaming service that pays you pittance, steal your identity and fill it up with absolute slop.

He's never called a telephone chat bot has he www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Solstice Sprint. 1000km in 55hrs & 6 minutes. Only very minor hallucinations in the woods after Tintern Abbey. The heat was ridiculous, the company was excellent, the scenery was beautiful.

Not exactly news but I keep coming back to the clear messaging that cuts to DCMS while putting aside 2bn to invest in synthetic media generators gives out, and the idea that it's IP that is holding back creative practice.

Today's imaginary paper title: System and Fermentation in Experimental Electonic Musicking

Preparing for an AI training session with this gift from @emilymbender.bsky.social "we recommit to our mission of training students to be critical thinkers across disciplines, who can critically consider sources of information and locate them within their context..."

The new Beatrice Dillon is excellent. beatricedillon.bandcamp.com/album/basho

Finally got round to playing @exeunt.press Exclusion Zone Botanist, a VanderMeer inspired zone exploration game focused on mutations. A nice simple core loop gives it a good pace, with slower and more focused subroutines for generating monstrous plants. www.exeunt.press/shop/p/exclu...

Saw a post here to the effect that trans people have done so much invisible and thankless work to allow cis people like me to be far, far less straightjacketed by gender norms than we were 20 or 30 years ago.

Alexander, Notes on The Synthesis of Form. Diagram and system as tools for composition.

An evening in the otoacoustic sweet spot with Evan Parker.

Music Is Rotted One Note and Budakhan Mindphone are the best Squarepusher records.

Schedule, abstracts and bios for Composing (with) Systems is available via the link on this page: performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/compos...

Went to see Pat Thomas and Mark Fell play at work last night. Felt compelled to get @dr-goblin.bsky.social fanclub t-shirts printed in celebration of the rare and wonderful music they help make possible.

Testing updates. Mutation tables, consignments, encounters, distance units, environmental variables. A solo ttrpg inspired by Vandermeer, Cronenberg and dot watching designed to be played anywhere with just the contents of a pencil case and paper.

Performances include multi-channel electroacoustic works by Simon Emmerson, live-coding duo Epiploke and Trevor Wishart’s Hieronymus Bosch inspired piece The Garden of Earthly Delights. performancevenues.group.shef.ac.uk/event/compos...

Spent the afternoon scheduling Composing (with) Systems and getting very excited about it. www.sheffield.ac.uk/music/univer...

"Why does the house smell like drains!?" First batch.

Lontano always puts me back on Byker bridge.

James McCartney (@asynth.bsky.social), author of SuperCollider, a language that changed the landscape of computer music, has just released a new audio programming system called sapf or, "sound as pure form". I am looking forward to this weekend! github.com/lfnoise/sapf?

Dusting off a copy of Negative Dialectics in the library and found this lovely DIY bookmark (presumably from a student many years ago).

Morning reading: @ben-carey.bsky.social's metastable inventions which maps the composition of and with modular systems onto Simondon's framework for conceptualising the ontogenesis of technological objects. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Le Guin's 9 Lives: more ideas elegantly folded into a handful of pages than many manage in whole novels.

Finally finished reading Ned Bauman's Venomous Lumpsucker, set in an unnervingly close future in which an Extinction Industry has arisen in response to the runaway collapse of life on Earth.

The cat is not a fan of pulsar synthesis.

Couriers, generative landscapes, zones, mutations. This was a Christmas break project.

Systemic Pessimism In the late 18th century system came to be understood as synonymous with institutionalisation and regulation by way of an established order (Siskin, 2016, 151-2). This perspective on system’s relationship with institutionalisation, order ... willschrimshaw.net/2025/01/09/s...