Integra Lab

Integra Lab was founded in 2009 by Jamie Bullock and Lamberto Coccioli as part of the exit strategy of the first phase of the €3.1m EU-funded Integra – Fusing music and technology project (2005-2012).

The Lab is actively supporting artistic practice in composition, production and performance, and sustainability of music with live electronics, modernising works from the past. Since 2014 we have collaborated with composers - among them Luca Francesconi, Philippe Hurel , Philippe Leroux, Hilda Paredes, Kaija Saariaho – and music ensembles - Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Den Nye Opera Bergen, FontanaMIX Ensemble, Icarus Ensemble, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Court-circuit, Hard Rain SoloistEnsemble, Das Neue Ensemble and others.

Over the past ten years our team has collectively secured over £2m in grants and research funding. In 2020 Integra Lab hosted the New Interfaces for Musical Expression International Conference (NIME), cementing its place as a reference in the field of music interaction design research.

Integra Lab recent activity includes the £485k AHRC-funded Augmented Vocality – Recomposing the Sounds of Early Irish and Old Norse in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and three new music ensembles in the UK and Germany, and the development of the web app Synesthesia, to allow users to create music by painting sounds on a canvas, inspired by the pioneering work of composer Iannis Xenakis and his UPIC machine.

Core themes:

Carry out research on musician-centred interaction design, including development of new technologies to support and enhance the creative process in composition and performance and the sustainability of the live electronics repertoire.

Objectives:

• Explore novel ways of supporting and enhancing human creativity and musical expression through technology.
• Develop inclusive technologies for computer-assisted composition and live electronics performance.
• Develop software tools to enable the design of meaningful music interactions.
• Restore and maintain the repertoire of live electronic music that uses obsolete technologies.
• Support the composition and performance of works that include live electronics and mixed media.

People:

• Lamberto Coccioli, Professor of Music and Technology (lead): composition and performance with electronics, music interaction design, philosophy of technology
• Dr Simon Hall, Head of Music Technology: electronic music recording and live production
• Richard Cornock, Head of Technical Production RBC: systems engineering and sound spatialisation
• Dr Joe Wright, Lecturer in Music Technology: music interaction design, programming
• Dr Edmund Hunt, Post-doc Research Assistant: computer-assisted composition, live electronics

External:

Yixuan Zhao, visiting scholar from Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing (composition with live electronics and generative AI)