DESCRIPTION:
For Small Ensemble and live Electronics - EEG headset and Neurogranular Sampler

Vln, B.Cl, Tbn, Cb. EEG, NGS

First performed by the 'Red Note Ensemble' featuring Pete Furniss, The Jam House Edinburgh, 2012 as part of the 'Inventor-Composer Co-Action'. My thanks to Panos Mavros for his amazing technical work and the support of the University of Edinburgh

This piece explores the combination of music neurotechnology for sound synthesis and Electroencephalography (EEG) as a control device. Both non-sound-producing gestures and cognitive instructions are integrated into the score. The Neurogranular sampler (NGS) invented by John Matthais et al. features a spiked neuronal network model (originally developed by Eugene Izhikevich), whereby when a neuron fires, a sample from a delayed audio buffer is played. This instrument produces a cloud-like cluster of ‘sound grains’ that vary in intensity depending on the activity in the network. It is possible to set various parameters of the NGS including; network activity, network size (1-1000 neurons), synapses per neuron, thalamic input and maximal axonal delay as well as grain length on the granulator side.

computer-brain interface (CBI)
BioMusic


http://emusicology.org/article/view/4348