The Sonic Arts Summer Academy (SASA) is an international meeting hub for composers, researchers and students interested in electroacoustic music and music technology, sonic arts and soundscapes, immersive sound environments, interactive music and improvisation.
The Academy consists of series of workshops, seminars, lectures and a Music Festival of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts. It takes place during the months of May, June or July. The Academy is part of the Undergraduate and Graduate Program in Sonic Arts and Technologies, Electroacoustic Music Composition and Music Production of the Music Department of the Ionian University in Corfu, Greece.
Since 2005, the Acade
my offers the opportunity to students as well as to composers, researchers and educators to explore advanced techniques related to Electroacoustic Music and music technology.
The Academy highlights its international character by collaborating occasionally with international festivals, among which the Espace du Son Festival (Brussels), the NYCEMF (NY), the CMMAS Festival (Mexico City, Morelia) and the Echoes Around Me Festival (Vienna).
Ιn the last 20 years, a great number of artists have taught in the workshops of the Academy, among which Denis Smalley, Simon Emmerson, Annette Vande Gorne, Trevor Wishart, Jonty Harrison, Curtis Roads, Andrew Bentley, Cort Lippe, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Karlheinz Essl, Nicholas Collins, Joel Chadabe, Esther Lamneck, Ronald Herrema, Francois Delalande, Luc Ferrari, Hildegard Westerkamp, Barry Truax, Murray Schafer, Julio d’Escrivan, Stefan Schramm, David Rosenboom, Wilfried Jentzsch, Jens Blauert, Alessandro Cipriani, Gregorio Jimenez, Francesco Giomi, John Richards, Leigh Landy, Rodrigo Sigal, Scott Wilson, Richard Elen, Ricardo Climent, Steven Miller, Andrei Smirnov, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Volkmar Klien, Enrique Tomas, Peter Batchelor, Brona Martin, Thomas Gorbach.
The SONIC ARTS SUMMER ACADEMY – SASA 2025 consists of the following intensive daily workshops:
1. Open space/field recording session
Description: We will record and collect sonic material from selected open space locations. The sonic material will be used for the assignments of the 3-D audio and the Hybrid soundscape compositions workshops.
Student requirements: A mobile digital recorder (optional)
Main instructor(s): Volkmar Klien, Enrique Mendoza, Martin Kaltenrbunner, Enrique Tomas, Theodoros Lotis, Philippos Theocharidis
2. Hybrid soundscape compositions for multichannel sound system.
Description: The workshop will explore artistic strategies for augmenting our soundscape. Using field recordings (as well as any other promising sources), the participants will compose sound-layers to be smuggled back into the wild using the DodekaOTTO spherical speaker setup. To be able to do this, we will be looking into the following topics: location recording, sonic interventions, soundscapes, re-synthesis, ambisonics diffusion systems & strategies.
Student requirements: Laptop with Reaper+headphones
Main instructor(s): Martin Kaltenbrunner, Enrique Tomas, Volkmar Klien, Enrique Mendoza
3. Sonic and electroacoustic music creation in 3D audio
Description: Students will create innovative auditory experiences through exercises in binaural spatialisation using new immersive technologies and their practical applications in spatial music, sound design, sound art, audio-visual installations and other sonic arts where space takes a relevant place and offers new meanings to take advantage of three-dimensional elements and technologies. They will present their 3D audio exercises on the multichannel system to compare the technologies and their possibilities.
Session 1. Listening sounds in space
Session 2. Beyond stereo and surround systems
Session 3. Practical Ambisonics – Template
Session 4. Sound spatialisation, montage and Renders
Student requirements: Laptop, Headphones, Reaper (DAW), IEM Plugin Suite.
Main instructor(s): Enrique Mendoza, Volkmar Klien, Enrique Tomás, Martin Kaltenbrunner
4. Performance of electroacoustic improvisation
Description: The intensive workshop is aimed at performers interested in electroacoustic music improvisation. It introduces the technique of “conduction,” a code taught and transmitted to musicians (both acoustic and electroacoustic) to enable them to freely improvise a musical work in real time.
In addition to conduction, the workshop will cover the technical setup for electroacoustic improvisation, focusing on Ableton Live for live processing and sound manipulation. To prepare for the workshop, there will be two online preparatory sessions.
Student requirements:
INSTRUMENTS
Amplified acoustic instruments (any type)
Amplified voice
Analog electronic instruments and tools (synthesizers, radio, small devices, contact
microphones, etc.)
Digital electronic instruments (computers with controllers, mp3 players, etc.)
Main instructor(s): Simone Faraci, Pasquale Citerta
5. Expanded Listening and Sonic Performance
Description: This workshop is a sonic exploration of the imperceptible and an experiment with the limits of the unheard. It focuses on musical creation by uncovering the latent sound potential of our natural and artificial environment.
Using DIY microphones we will listen to microscopic and underwater sounds, chemical processes, and changes in states of matter as well as geophysical and anthropogenic radio waves. We will focus on their characteristics and how they can define collective ways of musical interaction through graphic and verbal scores, improvisation, rule-based systems, and group compositions.
The workshop will conclude with the presentation of a hybrid performance/installation.
Student requirements: –
Main instructor(s): BLIP [Yorgos Stenos, Yorgos Stavridis]
6. Generative Sound/Generative Space: Techniques for Multichannel Composition
Description:In this workshop we’ll explore how to effectively set up your DAW for composing in large multichannel environments, including strategies, templates, and best practices using Ableton Live and Cycyling74’s set of Max for Live devices “Audio Routes”. We’ll also dive into the world of generative sound, chaotic systems, and complex modulation—examining how generative techniques can be used to create new sonic material, develop variation and form, and shape sound over time. We’ll also explore how these same techniques can shape not only the generation of sound but its spatialization and diffusion as compositional elements.
Ultimately, the goal is to make the process of multichannel composition more agile, intuitive, and open-ended. Embracing the paradigm of process music, we take on the role of a creator who designs systems, sets rules and conditions, and then listens, observes, accepts—and sometimes intervenes—to shape the sonic outcome.
Session 1: Template analysis, intro to Audio Routes, basic generative techniques for sonic creation and diffusion.
Session 2: Advanced processes and concepts in generative composition and diffusion.
Student requirements: Laptop, Headphones, Ableton Live 11/12 – Max for Live Audio Routes https://www.maxforlive.com/library/device/5830/audio-routes
Main instructor(s): Georgios Mizithras (MIZI)
