Professor John Young

Department of Performance and Digital Arts

Professor of Composition

Contact Details: 
Telephone: 0116 207 8220
Email: jyoung@dmu.ac.uk

John Young is a composer working in the field of electroacoustic music. His output includes works for multi-channel loudspeaker environments, music for instruments and electroacoustic sounds and electroacoustic documentary conceived for radio. 

John‘s music explores the use of sound recording as a creative tool, which he uses to bring sounds from natural environments into the studio where he transforms and refashions them with digital audio tools.  This involves merging sound-images of the real world with more abstract sonic materials, creating elaborate designs that challenge traditional notions of musical materials and form but also invite the listener to enter imaginative worlds where familiar objects and environments are given new meanings.

John received his PhD in musicology from the University of Canterbury in 1990, and in the same year was appointed Lecturer in Music at the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) where he was also Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios.  He joined DMU in 2000 and in 2009 became Head of Research for the Faculty of Humanities.

His recent work includes a 16-channel composition for the Radio France cycle of electroacoustic music performances, given in the Salle Olivier Messiaen in Paris, an audiovisual work created with photographer Lala Meredith-Vula and a piece for piano and electroacoustic sounds for Xenia Pestova.  His work is published principally by the Montréal Empreintes Digitales label, with whom he has released two solo discs: La Limite du Bruit (2002) and Lieu-Temps (2007.
http://www.electrocd.com/en/bio/young_jo/discog/

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

• Composition (electroacoustic and instrumental/vocal) particularly ‘acousmatic’ electroacoustic works focusing on recorded environmental sound sources and digital signal processing
• Construction of narrative in music
• Spectral composition
• Use of historical sound sources in electroacoustic music
• Multi-channel approaches to electroacoustic composition
• Analytical approaches to electroacoustic composition, especially the role of source recognition and the relationship between realistic sound-imagery and spectromorphological transformation
• Form in electroacoustic music.

John welcomes postgraduate and research students with interests in any of the above areas.

Research and Publications 

Photograph: © Ina