In TrajSynth, created for 32-channel diffusion, I explore the use of artificial intelligence as a generative tool - not for producing entire sound materials directly, but for sonifying the dynamic numerical processes that AI methods inherently generate. These constantly evolving numbers, often ignored in mainstream AI-music platforms, carry a latent energy that I find highly effective for sound creation. Rather than rely on derivative outputs, I tap into the internal workings of AI - neural networks, training loops - and translate their dynamics into sound and spatial gestures. With a system like Jean’s, the massive data streams generated by AI find a perfect spatial counterpart. One neuron per channel might be a dream for the future... but even now, the creative potential is vast.

And this, I believe, is only the beginning.

Special Thanks To Jean Voguet, for giving me the opportunity to work on CRANE lab's 32.2 volumiphonic device in 06/07/2025 and for inviting me to participate in his Curated By series on Sounding Future. And to Fränk Zimmer, for organizing the project and guiding us through the process, offering the opportunity to present our works on the Sounding Future platform for 3D Audio Space.

TrajSynth, for 32-channel fixed media (stereo version) (2025)

How can form  evolve under a nowadays psychological framework? Is it more difficult to compose long or short pieces and is there any morality in it that serves as a proof of the composer’s skills? My musical interests are focused on a personal composition method that started from my late integrated masters years in Thessaloniki and which eventually was the subject of my PhD research in York. It used to serve as a preliminary stage for an instrumental composition; however, since 2017 the “Selective Subtraction of tone and rhythmic material” composition technique serves as a tool to create but mostly to sculpt the tone and rhythmic material of the instruments that will interweave with the electronics. As its name signifies it is based on a subtractionprocess that gives a certain amount of material. This material forms the basis for an evolutionary process where finally, all these elements are combined in order to give the final piece. Under the scope of electronics it incorporates computational methods like Csound software, Ableton Live and MaxMasp (Sound Synthesis private patch library) in the direction of finding new ways of pattern development and thus evolution of the form.

For examples of the Selective Subtraction of tone and rhythmic material” composition technique enter here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/alutmo3h0ue30ec/AAC-LmZExoUMBr6lVgabz1YOa?dl=0

Sound Synthesis private maxmsp library: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvxYMmv9_S-sgfRtKB-Vq4t2l1PE_g?e=o8BN6A 

PhD thesis: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/20111/
Website: https://manolisekmektsoglousite.wordpress.com/
email: ekmektsoglou8@gmail.com 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Manolis Ekmektsoglou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied composition at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, with Dimitri Papageorgiou and in the University of York, UK (PhD) with Thomas Simaku. He also spent a year at Hannover Musikhochschule studying acoustic and electronic music with Joachim Heintz, Gordon Williamson and Ming Tsao. He is an Assistant Professor of Instrumental and Electronic/Computer music Composition at İTÜ, Center for Advanced Study in Music (M.I.A.M.).

Manolis participated in the “Labor Beethoven 2017-2020” project, funded and organized by the Berlin Academy of the Arts. He received the third prize in the Karol Szymanowski composition competition 2023 with the work Motion, in Two, for solo violin.

His pieces have been performed by many ensembles in several festivals in many countries such as Greece (OutHear Week, DissonArt ensemble, Off Borders Festival), Germany (Neues Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Earth, Sky, Space festival, Hitzacker 2018), Italy (Soundiff project), Turkey (MIAM 20 year-Gala), Iran (Reza Korourian Awards electroacoustic music festival 2017), Hong Kong (AMGA ensemble) Spain (Mixtur festival 2016), Austria (NAMES ensemble, Synaesthesis ensemble, Crossroads festival, KUG), the UK (Resonance FM 104.4, Kinetic nights festival, Manchester, Gallois trio, Diotima Quartet, Psappha ensemble, Resonance FM, RNM Call 2022), France (Viberation#2, Réseau inDREAM Network), the USA (MISE-EN festival, NYCEMF, Impulse festival 2024), Argentina (Atemporánea festival 2022), Romania (EELISA 1st conference, 2023) and Switzerland (UMS n’ JIP).

An upcoming publication by Manolis in the MIT Computer Music Journal (Volume 48, Issue 4) explores the impact of emerging AI technologies on music composition and performance. It also proposes an alternative approach to generating textural and timbral transformations in mixed-media composition through the use of a dynamically trained neuron.

Musical Practices in the Contemporary World is his first book, where he tries to sum up what has happened in New Music after the 70s, making meaningful connections with the past and providing suggestions from contemporary repertoire. 


For a detailed CV follow this link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ph47cs1c2geuni87r4yhp/CV.pdf?rlkey=eejehdl2u0fc9kgdxcenlhsij&st=6rjxtt9z&dl=0