Yannis Patoukas
At EMS 9–15 June 2025

Yannis Patoukas is an electroacoustic composer, improviser, and musicologist based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is currently a docARTES PhD candidate at Leiden University (ACPA). His research explores the concept of “studio improvisation” through a creative investigation of studio practices from 1960s experimental rock and the field of electroacoustic music. Since 2020, Yannis has been a research associate at the Institute of Sonology, where he has also taught courses on analogue studio composition and techniques. As an electric guitar improviser, he regularly performs with the Sonology Electroacoustic Ensemble and collaborates with various improvising musicians both in the Netherlands and internationally, presenting his work in a diverse range of venues and spaces. When inside a recording studio, he usually follows a more improvisational workflow; welcoming mistakes, trusting random or open processes and always making the most of the physicality of any device in the vicinity. He is attracted by the “technical limitations” found in analogue technology and enjoys the performability of tape machines, mixing desks and voltage-controlled modular systems alongside other devices or instruments.