This article seeks to explore the proposed notion of ‘context-based composition’ by examining the nature of ‘real-world’ context. It does this by studying the way in which listeners interpret sounds, working towards a deeper understanding of what it is that we mean by ‘real-world’ sound and context-based composition. These discussions are then utilised to explore the concept of what it means to compose context-based works and suggests that new potentials are opened up by a closer examination of the definition of context-based composition, one which liberates itself from a concern over an absolute physical nature of sounds and which embraces the use of both abstract and referential sounds. This journey highlights the importance of memory and experience within processes of interpretation and the creation of context-based compositions, and questions divisions between the virtual and the real.

This article proposes the audio reality effect as a meaningful translation of Roland Barthes’s literary reality effect to the sonic realm. This refinement of transcontextuality and source recognition is applied to electroacoustic music and soundscape composition using the works and writings of Emmerson, Truax, Wishart, Smalley, Fischman, Young, Norman and Field. Lastly, this study mimetically analyses 2 seconds / b minor / wave by Michael Pisaro and Taku Sugimoto in order to demonstrate the relevance of mimesis and the audio reality effect for understanding current musical practice.

The years since the turn of the millennium have seen an increasing number of sound artists engaging with contemporary environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, sustainability and climate change through their work, forming a growing movement of environmentally concerned sound art; however, their work has yet to achieve the recognition enjoyed by comparable environmentalist practices in almost every other art form. This article argues that this increasingly significant area of sound arts practice should be recognised as a distinct field in its own right, and proposes that it be termed ‘ecological sound art’, reflecting its equivalent in the visual arts. After establishing its current absence from both ecocritical and sound arts scholarship, it proceeds to outline some of the core approaches which characterise works of ecological sound art, as the first step towards its establishment as a coherent field of practice. The final section draws from key works of contemporary ecological theory, examining the fundamental accord that exists between the new modes of thought they propose and the ways in which we experience and relate to sound art, demonstrating that ecological sound art represents not only a significant new field of sound arts practice, but also a powerful ecological art form.

This article aims to investigate the ways in which context-based sonic art is capable of furthering a knowledge and understanding of place based on the initial perceptual encounter. How might this perceptual encounter operate in terms of a sound work’s affective dimension? To explore these issues I draw upon James J. Gibson’s ecological theory of perception and Gernot Böhme’s concept of an ‘aesthetic of atmospheres’.

Within the ecological model of perception, an individual can be regarded as a ‘perceptual system’: a mobile organism that seeks information from a coherent environment. I relate this concept to notions of the spatial address of environmental sound work in order to explore (a) how the human perceptual apparatus relates to the sonic environment in its mediated form and (b) how this impacts on individuals’ ability to experience such work as complex sonic ‘environments’. Can the ecological theory of perception aid the understanding of how the listener engages with context-based work? In proposing answers to this question, this article advances a coherent analytical framework that may lead us to a more systematic grasp of the ways in which individuals engage aesthetically with sonic space and environment. I illustrate this methodology through an examination of some of the recorded work of sound artist Chris Watson.

In this article I outline the idea of an empirical/experiential reconnection to the natural non-human world through the practice of deep listening. I believe that the aesthetic experience is central to a more ecological positioning of the human being on earth and that aesthetic experience should involve a ‘rewilding of the ear’. To discuss this concept, I build an argument from Edgard Varèse’s music as ‘organised sound’ and approach it from a perceptual point of view. This leads to the discussion of other concepts, such as David Dunn’s ‘grief of incommunicability’ (Dunn 1997) and Jean-François Augoyard and Henry Torgue’s ‘sharawadgi effect’ (Bick 2008). Further to this I discuss parallels between Truax’s continuum (Speech–Music–Soundscape) and Peirce’s semiotic system. Taking points from these theories, we can discuss the possibility of the re-tuning of our ears to the wider sound palette of the world. I consider George Monbiot’s concepts of ‘rewilding’ and ‘rewilding of the human life’ (Monbiot 2014), in order to create a parallel to our relationship with the soundscape.

Instrumentally oriented and individualistic approaches dominate the current perspectives on musical interaction and technologically oriented composition. A view that focuses on the broad aspects of creativity support is proposed as a viable theoretical and methodological alternative: ubiquitous music practice. This article summarises several findings in ubiquitous music research, pointing to new theoretical frameworks that tackle the volatile and distributed creativity factors involved in musical activities that take place outside of traditional venues, involving the audience as an active creative partner. A new definition of ubiquitous music is proposed encompassing four components related to the human and the material resources, the emergent properties of musical activities and the design strategies involved in supporting distributed decision making. We highlight the application of embedded-embodied cognition in creative practice, arguing for the adoption of an ecologically grounded framework as an alternative to the mainstream anthropocentric and disembodied acoustic-instrumental paradigms. We discuss the relevance of the new materialist concepts of ecologies and meshworks within artistic creative practice, highlighting the implications of the emergent creativity support methods for context-based composition.

This article introduces the concept of ‘situated composition’, examining it in relation to developments in mobile sound production technologies and practices. Situated composition draws attention to the specific circumstances in which sound production and compositional activity take place. With mobile devices and apps offering heightened mobility and ease-of-use, ways of working with sound increasingly may be undertaken in a wide range of contexts outside of controlled environments specifically designed for sound work such as studios. Situated composition emphasises the interconnections between the situation in which composition unfolds and the process of composition, approaching composition as inherently distributed and collaborative in multiple ways. This article begins by considering how to situate mobile audio production apps, then moves on to elaborate the concept of situated composition and investigate specific practices. Drawing primarily on interviews carried out with fourteen composers, sound artists, musicians and producers who use mobile devices and apps in their sound work, as well as on podcasts, forums and my own work as a sound artist, I identify seven approaches to using mobile interfaces, focusing particularly on practitioners’ relationships with the surroundings where compositional activity unfolds.

This article concerns context-based live electronic music, specifically performances which occur in response to a particular location or space. I outline a set of practices which can be more accurately described as site-responsive, rather than site-specific. I develop a methodological framework for site-responsive live electronic music in three stages. First, I discuss the ambiguity of the term site-specific by drawing on its origins within the visual arts and providing examples of how it has been used within sound art. I then suggest that site-responsive performance might be a more helpful way of describing this type of activity. I argue that it affords an opportunity for music to mediate the social, drawing on Small’s idea of music as sets of third-order relationships, and Bourriaud’s relational aesthetics. Third, I suggest that with the current renewed trend for performances occurring outside of cultural institutions, it is important to be mindful of the identity of a particular site, and those who have a cultural connection to it. I make reference to a series of works within my own creative practice which have explored these ideas.

This article describes two site-specific sound installations conceived as part of interdisciplinary collaborations which aimed to explore different acoustic and perceptual features of urban and rural landscapes. The creative process involved in the design and implementation of both installations is described, focusing on the organic montage techniques based on spatial and temporal features of field recording methods. Future developments of the works will consider ways of developing further spatial-temporal sampling methods to assess particular features of soundscapes by panels of trained listeners.

This article is an analysis of two sound art performances that took place in June 2015 in outdoor public spaces at the social housing area Urbanplanen in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two performances were On the Productions of a Poor Acoustics by Brandon LaBelle and Green Interactive Biofeedback Environments (GIBE) by Jeremy Woodruff. In order to investigate the complex situation that arises when sound art is staged in such contexts, the authors of this article suggest exploring the events through approaching them as ‘situations’ (Doherty 2009). With this approach it becomes possible to engage and combine theories from several fields. Aspects of sound art studies, performance studies and contemporary art studies are presented in order to theoretically explore the very diverse dimensions of the two sound art pieces. Visual, auditory, performative, social, spatial and durational dimensions become integrated within the analysis in our pursuit of the most comprehensive interpretation of the pieces possible.

Witnessing a sound installation in person offers an opportunity to experience the qualities and elements of a work first hand and in full, multisensory effect. A thorough documentation of an exhibition and the work that goes into it is at the essence of preserving important information for future generations. Though information can be gathered from archives, some works of sound art are only marginally presented in the literature, making it difficult to fully grasp aspects of an artist’s technical, organisational and, most particularly, creative ways of working. Instead, already existing information is often reproduced. Previous documentation regarding Bill Fontana’s Sound Sculpture Distant Trains, exhibited in Berlin in 1984, offers an example of the possible loss of key details. This article aims to present new research findings that will examine and illuminate the full scope of this artistic project.

In 1977, a large group of musicians performed David Dunn’s Sky Drift while moving slowly across a Southern California desert, documenting the concert with four stationary microphones. A year later, Dunn presented the work in New York as a ‘performance/documentation’, playing back the audio recording for a seated audience. This article explores issues of ‘liveness’ in recorded sound, ‘transparency’, ‘aura’ and ‘the work itself’ in order to examine the consequences of this act: what does it mean for a recording of an outdoor performance to be shared at an indoor concert event? Can such a complex and interactive experience – with widely dispersed musicians and mobile audience members – be successfully converted into a fixed document? What does a recording capture and what must it exclude? Because Sky Drift constantly shifts the physical relationships between musicians and audience across a vast outdoor landscape, each listener’s experience represents an equally valid sonic perspective on the piece. As a result, it is unclear how a satisfying recording might be made or what it might even mean to ‘hear the music’ at all. When relocated – away from its original outdoor context – Sky Drift is deprived of much of its potential to communicate meaning.

The design of sonic environments is in need of more active strategies, taking into account not only the physical but also the social and sensorial aspects of a place. This implies abandoning traditional, mono-disciplinary responses in favour of interdisciplinary methods and approaches. In this study we explored the possibility of inserting context-sensitive sound textures to improve the experience of an activity-based office workplace. For this purpose, we developed the concept of the ‘sound bubble’ – a micro-space in which the user is embedded by a semi-transparent added sound environment that will operate as a subtle sound mask, attracting the attention without needing to hide the disturbing environment. This should help users (the workers) to stay in an ‘everyday listening’ mode. This means, not focusing on the environment in particular but on their tasks, while preserving the link with the surrounding space and activities.