School of Music Visiting Artist
"Anabolism" for soprano saxophone and live biofeedback-driven electronics
A composition of electroacoustic biofeedback music by composer/performer Andrew Raffo Dewar for modular synthesizer-based live electronics and soprano saxophone. Developed during a residency at the EMS electronic music studios in Stockholm, the piece translates the performer’s sound and aspects of their biological functions (brainwaves and muscle movements) into control signals that affect the live electronics, such that the form of the music itself is partially generated and manipulated through biofeedback processes largely outside the performers’ control.
Andrew Raffo Dewar (b.1975 Rosario, Argentina) is a composer, soprano saxophonist, ethnomusicologist, educator, and arts organizer. His work has been performed throughout North America, Southeast Asia and Europe, and he has studied and performed with avant-garde jazz legends Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, and experimental music composer Alvin Lucier. He has also had a long involvement with Indonesian traditional and experimental music, in particular the Minangkabau music of West Sumatra. Dr. Dewar is an Associate Professor in New College and the School of Music at the University of Alabama.