Presentation: The Act of Patching: Musicking with modular systems

When: Thursday November 20, kl. 18.00-20.30, 2025
Where: Elektronmusikstudion, Söder Mälarstrand 61, Stockholm
Fee: No fee
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Language is Swedish/ English.

Welcome to a presentation with Mattias Petersson.
The presentation is based on Petersson’s doctoral thesis, focusing on his practice as a composer and musician, and on the modular and metastable nature of the live electronic instrument.

Mattias Petersson is a composer and performer based in Stockholm. He is part of the vibrant computer music scene with a personal take on live coding and modular synthesis. His music has been performed worldwide and released on labels like Hallow Ground, Moving Furniture Records, CODEPENDENT, IDEAL Recordings and Fylkingen records. He works primarily with electronic music but has also written chamber music, a number of operas and music for dance performances. He moves seamlessly between electroacoustic music, drone and noise with a rhythmically driven pulse. Mattias holds a diploma in electroacoustic composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and since 2006 he works there as a senior lecturer in this subject. As an artistic researcher, he is also part of GEMM))) – a research cluster at Luleå University of Technology, focusing on Gesture, Embodiment and Machines in Music. Petersson has been working with various computer music tools and analog modular systems since 1999 and is particularly interested in how the instrument can manifest itself as a composition, and how digital and analog technology can aid in realtime explorations of such compositions. 

In June 2025 Petersson defended his doctoral thesis “The Act of Patching: Musicking with modular systems” at the Piteå School of Music at Luleå University of Technology. The dissertation focuses on a composer-performer oriented exploration of live electronics understood as metastable, modular musicking systems. In applying such an understanding, it seeks to gain knowledge in the transformative process found within the acts of composing and performing with such systems. At the core of the practice lies how instruments can be designed and customised to fit aesthetic and technological aims as well as how existing tools and mindsets inform the musician’s agenda. Utilising traditional patching techniques in combination with live coding, both as concepts and actual practices, the research aims for a deeper understanding of when, how and why instrumental setups change and co-evolve together with him as a composer-performer.

For inquiries please contact the Education Coordinator at Elektronmusikstudion: lisa.stenberg@elektronmusikstudion.se