Music Research Seminar: Sean Williams

Sean Williams (The Open University) will join us to present on their recent work

Precarity of evidence for recent music practice: Software, hardware and media archiving and recreation in 1990s dance music production

This work in progress outlines my attempts to reconstruct some of the electronic dance music (EDM) that I produced in the mid to late 1990s for performance at 2 festivals over the summer of 2024. This process raised questions about how the music was produced originally: i.e. software, analogue and digital hardware, recording media; what kind of archives I had kept; what levels of compatibility there might be between software and media; and how 'live' performance was, is, and can be conceived of in this context.

Key factors that arose were the material nature of certain media and the hardware required to use them - specifically DAT tapes and the lithium grease used in the mechanisms of DAT players. Unexpected results were the ease with which the data from Atari ST floppy disks could be transferred for use on an up-to-date Macbook Pro.

Another aspect of this work was how well/badly certain older pieces of hardware and software worked, and the change between the kinds of practices and approaches to technological music production between 25-30 years ago and today. Economic factors are also relevant, with one of the most interesting elements being the market evolution for analogue synthesizers.

Location: Lecture Theatre 2, School of Music

This event is part of the 2024/25 Music Research Seminar Series.

This will be a hybrid event. The guest speaker will be present with us in the School of Music, and colleagues and other guests are encouraged to join us there. But if you are unable to do so then please consider joining us via Zoom.

No booking is required. Those wishing to attend online should contact series convenor Dr Ellis Jones (e.n.jones@leeds.ac.uk).