Yannis Patoukas & Mathijs Leeuwis

Yannis Patoukas’ & Mathijs Leeuwis’ duo investigates how the analog studio can be
used as a compositional tool in a setting of free improvisation. Their artistic practice is
rooted in a deep historical and technical understanding of electroacoustic music. Behind this lies the conviction that seemingly outdated techniques and compositional ideas are still valuable today. In a world that often prefers control and predictability over creative instability, something essential is lost: imperfection, which reflects the human condition.

Through their improvisational approach to analog music production and composition
techniques, Patoukas and Leeuwis embrace the unforeseen. In a series of residencies
at various analog studios, material is developed using the instruments, techniques, and
archives available on site. By using multiple studios as a source for musical material,
Patoukas and Leeuwis focus on the specific possibilities of the different studios. They
will work exclusively with the materials available at each location. On the other hand,
the material from all residencies will be brought together in one album, creating a
broader context that shows how free improvisation and the analog studio influence each
other and can produce new, contemporary, urgent music.

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.

Mathijs Leeuwis is a sound artist, composer and founder of sound collective Het
Concreet. His fascination lies with co-creational instability within the realm of analogue
electronics. Since 2018, he has been working exclusively with analogue sound
techniques, specialising in no-input and feedback systems. Improvisation and exchange
with human and non-human actors has played an increasing role in his sound works.
Within Het Concreet, he is facilitator of an intersectional practice that connects
composers, musicians, students, writers and thinkers. He has collaborated with HIIIT,
the Residentie Orkest and the Netherlands Chamber Choir and his work has been
performed at Roadburn, November Music and Rewire, among others.