Listening Guides as Compositional Devices: Textual and Formal Strategies in Les Dispartions
Sébastien Roux
This article examines the notion of the listening guide, considering it not as an external device accompanying a work, but as an operator integrated into the very form of the sonic experience. It is based on Les Disparitions (ambiantes et acousmatiques), a project taking the form of a listening session with spatialized sound, organized around the idea of sound disappearance within the context of field recording. The project articulates two complementary modes of listening guidance. The first relies on a text-based guide synchronized with the music and delivered to the audience via their mobile phones, momentarily orienting auditory attention. The second is embedded within the sonic form itself, where the progressive exposure and subsequent disappearance of a target sound bring about a transformation in listening modes. Based on a research protocol grounded in listening interviews, this article shows how these strategies of disappearance foster a transition from causal listening toward a mode of listening oriented toward the sonic properties themselves.
© Marielys Lorthios
Sébastien Roux
Sébastien Roux (b. 1977, Lyon) is a sound artist and PhD candidate in research-creation at IRCAM
(Paris), where his doctoral project investigates the composition of auditory attention through
protocol-based approaches. His practice spans experimental music, sound art, and installation, often
engaging with psychoacoustics, cognitive science of music, and listening practices. His projects
frequently take participatory forms, involving audiences directly in processes of perception.
sebastienroux.net
Living Audio Scores: Designing Listening-Based Notation in Nada Sfera Playground
Ainolnaim Azizol | Faculty of Music Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia
Nada Sfera playground is a web-based live soundscape installation in which environmental audio streams are transformed into musical form through active listening and real-time interaction. Rather than positioning sound as a fixed material to be reproduced or annotated, the system invites visitors to engage with sound as a dynamic, evolving process. Participants shape the sonic outcome by manipulating parameters such as real-time granular synthesis, spatial direction, sound diffusion, and acoustic intensity, allowing each interaction to generate a unique realisation of the work. As the sonic environment is continuously variable and non-linear, performers and visitors require a form of guidance that supports interpretation without prescribing exact outcomes. In response, this paper proposes the concept of living audio scores as a listening-based notational framework for Nada Sfera Playground. These scores function as perceptual roadmaps rather than visual or symbolic representations, guiding musical form through attention, spatial awareness, and textural listening. Where visual or symbolic elements are present, they operate only as secondary orientation cues and do not function as a visual score. By articulating macro-structural trajectories while allowing micro-level sonic variation, living audio scores enable coherent yet open-ended performances within a live soundscape context. The study situates Nada Sfera Playground within contemporary discourse on sound as score, non-visual-focused notation systems, and ecological listening, arguing that listening-based notation offers a viable alternative to reading-oriented score paradigms in web-based and installation-based sonic practices.
© Ainolnaim Azizol
Ainolnaim Azizol
Ainolnaim Azizol (b. 1987) is a Malaysian contemporary classical composer, sound artist, and
researcher whose work spans electroacoustic music, soundscape composition, and
interdisciplinary sonic arts. His compositions have been commissioned and presented
internationally at platforms such as the Acht Brücken Musik Festival (WDR3, Germany), Asian
Composers League (Japan, 2nd Prize), New Recorder Music Festival (Switzerland, 3rd Prize),
MA/IN ~ Spaziomusica (Italy), Linux Audio Conference (Stanford University, USA), Bristol
Loudspeaker Orchestra (UK), Bristol New Music Festival (UK), and the New York City
Electroacoustic Music Festival, among others. His artistic research focuses on eco-cultural
soundmarks as a catalyst for articulating Malay identity through sound art practice, bridging
listening, environment, and cultural memory. Ainolnaim was awarded the MARA Scholarship for
his PhD in Sound Arts at the University of Bristol in 2019 under the Graduate Excellence
Programme (GrEP). He is the curator of the SPECTRA Electroacoustic Music Festival
(2014–present) and SoundBytes Recital series, as well as the founder of the Malaysia
Electroacoustic Music Lab (MEMLab) and SPECTRA Collective. He currently serves as a
Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Music, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Vice President of the
Malaysian Composers Collective (MCC), Founding President of MEMLab, and Head of the
Interactive Computer Music and Musical Acoustics (i-COMMA) Research Interest Group at
UiTM.
ainolnaim.wordpress.com
