List of contemporary composers working (almost) exclusively in SC

Small digressions:

I always wonder why Radiohead has a song called supercollider… maybe?

There is an album by Oneohtrix Point Never (Daniel Lopatin) which sounds like SC procedures… maybe?

I think Cecil Taylor used SuperCollider. If it wasn’t him, then at least one of his collaborators did.

Certainly not. You might be thinking of Anthony Braxton. @carltesta would know if there are recordings of those works.

Sam

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Ah yes I was, and I was also thinking of Carl Testa as the collaborator.

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Yeah Anthony did. I was told about it, but never heard the music.

If I take the definition of academic art music to mean music which is aimed at an academic audience, then my music would not fit that, as the music is aimed at a general audience (which happily includes academics). However, in terms of ideas, like many people using Supercollider, I came to the software because commercial software no longer allowed me to realise my ideas. They could be considered academic, but to my mind they’re just ideas.

This album was made exclusively in Supercollider and mixed/mastered in Logic The Code | Dom Aversano

My observation, as a trend, but not a rule, is that most people who create inspiring music use only a few tools. Something as powerful as Supercollider can be used exclusively in the compositional process (for mixing and mastering, it would not be my tool of choice). I am not suggesting it should be, but it’s more than possible, which is exactly what I did with the aforementioned album and found that very liberating.

When I see a personal studio full of equipment or a laptop rammed full of plugin, I immediately question why the person feels a need to use so much equipment. Surely it’s better to become expert with a few tools than to be mediocre on many.

Sorry all, just seeing this conversation. Braxton has his Diamond Curtain Wall Music which uses Supercollider for the electronics. There are plenty of examples of these electronics in recordings. Including 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 | Anthony Braxton | New Braxton House and his most recent 10 Comp (Lorraine) 2022 | Anthony Braxton | New Braxton House.

I’ve worked with Braxton to create a SuperCollider-based system to implement his Echo Echo Mirror House Music which originally used iPods to generate the sound collage. That SC-based system is documented here: Carl Testa and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe on EEMHM — Tri-Centric Foundation and here: SA16: Echo Echo Mirror House Music

Finally, Braxton’s recent Thunder Music uses an interactive electronic system that I designed for the playback and manipulation of thunder sounds and pre-recorded instrumental sounds. Thunder Music - Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt No recordings of that are available at this time that I’m aware of.

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