acousmatic studio composition - roeland luyten

hooks

music for dance - roeland luyten
study on guitar trash density and horizontal musical tension

bendmachine

cyclages

study on musical time feeling and silence

pulse

"Decyclage" is a composition wherein various types of noise are explored. During the production of this piece I put in question: When we hear a lot of sounds together, from which point onward do our brains start to perceive a noise and give up hearing the sounds separately. For example: When a few people clap their hands, we hear each clap separately, when lots of people give applause, we perceive that as one sound, a noise. Decyclage explores the gray zone between these two auditory perceptions.

Different short sound clips, e.g. recordings of cutting fingernails, are precisely organized and spread out over sample banks and then loaded into a sampler. Each grain within a certain range of the sample bank is separately triggered with algorithmic composed MIDI scripts. These algorithms control the amount of the triggered samples in time. Other ways to generate noise were applying reverberation effect with an extreme long feedback tail and granular synthesis. 

With "Decyclage" I graduated in 2004 for composition of electroacoustic music with Prof. Joris De Laet at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. During the production of this work I developed different techniques to produce sound. At that time I already knew I would continue experimenting with these methods and 'recycle' them for future compositions. From there, the title "Decyclage" arose.
Decyclage premiered on the concert "Electro-Belge" in 2005 in Brussels (Musiques & Recherches), was played on the 35th festival "Synthèse" in Bourges (IMEB) and received 3rd prize at the "5th International Computer Music Competition, Pierre Schaeffer 2005" in Italy.

decyclage

The intention for this piece is to create a quantum planetary universe of splintered sounds. This can easily result in just chaotic randomness. Therefore I clot seperate short soundclips into groups. In turn, those new groups clot into bigger clusters. This way I gain massive individual soundobjects with high granular density. Polyrhythmical structures are enclosed by repeating short granular patterns, like frozen mechanisms. These loops connect the bigger soundobjects in time. Some things are too big to control, others too small. In between I compose.
"Helena" received a special mention on the competition "Métamorphoses 2014" (Brussels), was finalist on the competition "Città di Udine - TEM 2014" (Italy) and won first prize on the 7th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music Composition, Category Acousmatic, of The Foundation Destellos  (Argentina) in 2014.

Helena (march 2014)

"Gritscape" is a sonic exploration of textures and timbres of matter. The modern states of matter, the grain size of particles, and how they are held together by forces in a lattice or how they evaporate into the ether, was the initial source of inspiration for this work. This piece is composed in stereo in my home studio in 2023.

Gritscape

Crystalline sound splinters melt into moldable amorphous sound mud. Rhythmically organized figures grind against spectral sustains and create a stuttering continuation of the sound. This piece is composed from the inside out. From point to shape, from shape to layer. Little randomly generated patterns made out of short percussive sounds are selected and linked together and branch out to bigger clusters. 
"Knars" is an octophonic electroacoustic composition realized at the studio of Musiques et Recherches in 2018 and won the first prize & public prize ex aequo on the 10th biennial acousmatic composition competition "Métamorphoses 2018" in Belgium.

knars

Roeland luyten (Leuven, Belgium, 1977). By watching science-fiction and horror movies as a young boy he comes for the first time in contact with electroacoustic sounds. At the age of 8 he starts to study flute at the music academy in Louvain. During high school, he learns to play the electric guitar as an autodidact and starts to experiment with effects pedals. During his study of classical flute at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, he finds his real passion in the studio for composition of electroacoustic music with Joris de Laet. Since then Roeland composes regularly new pieces and works as a composer and sound engineer along with various theatre and dance productions in Belgium and abroad. His music is played and has recieved prizes throughout the whole world.


Roeland Luyten

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