SYNTHPOSIUM

The many synth artists and experts who have presented or contributed to Synthposium!

Contributors to the Interpreting the Synthesizer: Meaning Through Sonics publication

Nino Auricchio is a senior lecturer is electronic music and production and course leader for the BSc Applied Sound Engineer course at the University of West London. He studied music composition and electronic music under Professor Simon Emmerson at City University before moving into industry. He worked for Sony, BMG and numerous dance music labels as a composer, producer and arranger, while performing in UK funk act Funkshone and live electronic act d’Voxx. Nino is currently undertaking a PhD in composition processes and aesthetics using modular electronic music instruments.

Paul Borg is a Senior Lecturer in Music Technology at the London College of Music. He is a double platinum award winning Producer/Composer/Engineer and academic who began his career at the famous Roundhouse Recording Studios, London. Across three decades he has enjoyed chart success with artists including Busted, sugababes, Mory Kante, James Brown, Shola Ama, Urban Species, MC Solar, Al Greene, The Four Tops, KLF, Yazz, Rebel MC and United-Future-Organisation.

Rikki-Paul Bunder lives in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, and has been a professional photographer for 15 years. After many years as a commercial advertising photographer he made the transition into education and working on my own fine art projects. He currently teaches at CollArts.

Warren Burt was involved in setting up the Music Department at La Trobe University after moving from the US in 1975. He has been involved in electronic music and music technology since the 1960s, composing and performing on nearly every major electronic music and computer music system since, also building his own hardware and software. He was an early member of the Serge Modular Music Systems team, and for the past 18 years has been associated with Algorithmic Arts in the development of composing software such as ArtWonk, MusicWonk, SoftStep and BankStep. His music has been performed internationally. He is currently co-ordinator of the Master of Music (Contemporary Practice) and the Master of International Music Business degree programs at Box Hill Institute. He reviews new software for soundbytesmag.net.

Tim Dalton has several decades of experience in the international music industry as an audio engineer, tour manager, record producer, artist manager, music entrepreneur and consultant. Over the years Tim has worked with artists as diverse as Faith No More, Keith Emerson, Beastie Boys, Primus, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Transvision Vamp, Simple Minds, Elvis Costello, Kirsty McColl and Atomic Kitten. Tim has lived and worked in Hull, Nashville and Liverpool, now happily residing in Melbourne, Australia. Tim was the Program Leader in Entertainment Management at the Australian College of the Arts (CollArts) and Senior Lecturer at John Moores University in Liverpool, UK. He is now Business Development Manager for Moon Mother Productions and active in campaigning for assistance to the music industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ian Dixon is Associate Professor of Screenwriting at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His PhD Doctorate examines the films of John Cassavetes. He has directed television for Neighbours and Blue Heelers, also winning Director’s Commendation at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2000 for SBS TV’s Wee Jimmy. Ian’s debut feature film Crushed screened at Cinema Nova in 2009. He spent over twenty-five years as an actor with roles on stage, such as the lead in Grease, and on television, where his work can be seen in Underbelly: Squizzy, Rush, City Homicide, Guinevere Jones, Martial Law, Blue Heelers, Stingers, Heartbreak High and Shadows of the Heart. Ian is currently editing a new book on the acting work of David Bowie.

Michail Exarchos (Stereo Mike) is an award-winning artist, a Hip-Hop musicologist, and an educator specialising in music production. He is the winner of MTV’s Best Greek Act award, and a nominee for six MTV Video Music Awards. He is a Senior Lecturer in Music Technology at London College of Music (University of West London) in the UK. His album XLI3H has been included in the 30 Best Greek Hip-Hop albums of all time and his research focuses on the effect of vintage production techniques on contemporary Hip-Hop. His forthcoming publications include articles for Popular Music journal, the Journal of Popular Music Education and Routledge. He has presented at international conferences such as the Art of Record Production, Innovation in Music, and the Australian and New Zealand Musicological Societies.

James Gardner is a freelance composer, broadcaster, performer and lecturer based in Auckland. He spent much of the 1980s in London as a synthesiser player/programmer and in 1990 co-founded the electronic music group Apollo 440. After moving to New Zealand he established the ensemble 175 East, which he directed from 1996 to 2010. James was the inaugural Creative New Zealand/Victoria University composer-in-residence from 2004-2005 and holder of the Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange residency in 2005/2006, during which he worked with new music ensemble ELISION. His 6-part series on electronic music history, These Hopeful Machines was broadcast on Radio NZ Concert in 2013. James lectures at the University of Canterbury, where he is an Adjunct Senior Fellow. He is currently working on a comprehensive history of Peter Zinovieff’s EMS studio.

David Prescott-Steed is a writer, field recordist, walker and urban explorer living in Melbourne, Australia, and is a Teaching Fellow (art history and visual culture studies) at the Academy of Design. Born in 1975 in Devon, UK, he grew up in Western Australia where he studied Visual Arts at Edith Cowan University, completing a PhD in 2007. Since moving to Melbourne in 2008, David’s creative practice has shifted focus to improvisation, experimental music and field recording. A regular contributor to the Kinokophonography project, David has participated in sound art and new music festivals in Northern Ireland, Finland, Poland, England, The Netherlands and Australia. His audio work has been released internationally, and was included in the Melbourne Now exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Pol Signerson put together the design and layout for the Interpreting the Synthesizer front cover.

Nick Wilson has been working in the field of electronic music and sound art for the last 25 years. He is the Label Manager for Australian electronic arts collective Clan Analogue, producing several acclaimed compilation albums, including the recently released Coordinate: Beyond the Algorithm, and managing the Gear Shift series of electronic music jam sessions. As well as playing in several electronic music ensembles, his sound art works has been regularly presented in the Next Wave and Melbourne Fringe festivals. He has also worked as a community artist for the Yarraville Community Centre and Mornington Peninsula Regional Council. Nick has composed music for local contemporary music ensembles and been a Nillumbik Council artist-in-residence. Currently he lectures in electronic music production at SAE Institute, Melbourne.

Presenters at the 2016 Synthposium (not otherwise listed above):

Les Craythorn studied Alto/Tenor Saxophone with Brian Brown and Broadcast Communications in the late 60s before spending a year studying Industrial Electronics at RMIT. In March 1975 he commenced employment as Senior Technical Officer managing the studio facilities at the University of Melbourne’s Music Conservatorium until retirement mid 2015. In ‘84/85 Les took study leave and completed his post-graduate studies as a Tonmeister at the University of Surrey. He engineered a dozen vinyl albums, approximately 30 CDs and about 2,000 live sound mix/record recordings including the University of Melbourne’s release in 1980 of ‘Electronic Music’, a collection of electronic music compositions realised on the conservatorium’s EMS Synthi-100. He recently restored this synth to original working condition and performed with it at the Melbourne Recital Centre. His current research focuses on the technical achievements of EMS and their contribution to experimental electronic music.

Robin Fox  is a leading Australian audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art projects and designs for contemporary dance.  His laser works which synchronize sound and visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space have been performed in over 50 cities worldwide, including his recent work Sky Light which was the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival Keynote Project.  His groundbreaking work with Chunky Move Dance Company has contributed to the work Mortal Engine receiving a Helpmann award for best visual production and an honourable mention at the the illustrious Prix Ars Electronica 2009. His recent sound work Interior Design: Music for the Bionic Ear in association with ANAT and the Bionic Ear Institute, was shortlisted for a Future Everything award in the UK 2011 and selected by the Paris Rostrum of Composers in 2012. His interactive installation CRT;Hommage to Leon Theremin received an honourable mention in the National New Media Art Award 2012 and has been acquired by the Australian Synchrotron. Public art projects include designing and building a Giant Theremin for the City of Melbourne, a seven metre tall interactive musical sculpture; the White Beam project commissioned by Dark Mofo which shot a high powered white laser beam through the trees on Salamanca lawns; developing a hybrid sound/dance work A Small Prometheus with Stephanie Lake involving fire powered kinetic musical sculptures which had a sell-out seasonat the 2013 Melbourne International Arts Festival and sound/light design for Lee Serle’s SYNC at the Lyon Opera Ballet. A new work ‘Transducer’ for microphones, speakers and percussionists co-composed with Eugene Ughetti was recently premiered at Totally Huge New Music Festival in Perth. Robin is a director of the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio (MESS) Foundation. He holds a PhD in composition from Monash University and an MA in musicology which documents the history of experimental music in Melbourne 1975-1979.

Ehsan Gelsi is a Melbourne-based synthesist with a rich history of projects and experimentation across a wide range of synthesis disciplines. From acid techno, to club tunes, bringing flavours to rock and pop productions, through to deep experimental electronica. Through more than a decade of professional and creative projects Ehsan has developed a deep expertise and knowledge of the world of synthesizers, both old and new, and the many ways to incorporate them together into musical projects – both in the studio and especially live – bringing spontaneity and exciting analogue flavours from the smallest dark club corners to the largest festival stages. Ehsan has performed with many live electronic acts, including Digital Primate, Metals, T-Rek, Bubble’n’Squeak and his current project Oolluu. In his spare time he works as the IDM specialist at Innovative Music.

David Haberfeld is a lecturer in Interactive Composition with over two decades of experience as an electronic dance music artist, producer, composer, performer, DJ, academic and educator. He is a multidisciplinary artist with a deep understanding of pop, funk, disco, punk rock through to contemporary and experimental electronic genres, including expertise and collaborations across media arts. He is best known for his productions and live performances under the artist moniker Honeysmack. In 1999 he was an ARIA finalist nominee for Best Dance Music Release for “Walk On Acid”. As an electronic dance music artist he has published music internationally on various record labels since the early 1990s with his work exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2002 as part of Variable Resistance: Ten Hours of Sound from Australia.  David is a confirmed PhD candidate in Music Composition and is currently completing his research titled Composing Real-Time Machine Music: An exploration of electronic dance music real-time composition and how it contributes to a larger musical discourse.  

Martin K. Koszolko is a Polish-born, Melbourne based sound producer and academic known for his creative work under the KOshowKO and Philosophy Of Sound monikers. Martin has extensive experience as a composer, music and video producer and performing musician and has been teaching sound production and other music industry-related disciplines at RMIT University and Melbourne Polytechnic. He has produced and contributed to releases on a number of labels, including Discotexas, Emerald & Doreen and Clan Analogue. His music performances utilise interactive technology and have been seen by international audiences. Martin’s academic research explores various aspects of computer sound production, including mobile music making and interactivity in electronic music performance and his practice-led PhD project investigates the impact of remote music collaboration software on music production.

Joshua Young is a former neuroscientist and the creator of the AUUG Motion Synth – a product that transforms the iPhone into a motion-based musical instrument. Millions of people worldwide have now seen the Motion Synth in action due to its appearance in a global Apple TV campaign for the iPhone 5s (2014) and on Shark Tank Australia (2016).

Presenters at the 2015 Synthposium (not otherwise listed above):

David Carbone cut his synthesizer teeth in Melbourne’s techno scene of the 1990s with Future Sound of Melbourne, later working with artists such as Carl Cox. He now runs School of Synthesis and production company s:amplify with Josh Abrahams. Shortly he will release his first synth plugin Carbon Electra.

Shags Chamberlain is an LA-based synth session player originally hailing from Melbourne. He has played on countless sessions in Melbourne’s underground indie-rock scene, including for Sophie Brous, Pikelet, Lost Animal and Laurence Pike.

Andrew Duffield was a leading figure in Melbourne’s late 70s post-punk scene, playing synthesizer in legendary bands Whirlywirld and the Models, for whom he wrote some of their biggest hits. Since then he has pursued a successful career composing for advertising and film.