Workshop and Concert summary Kuala Lumpur (19.-22.11.2025)
Written on December 5th, 2025 by AH
Photo: Études for Live-Electronics team performing together with Cedrik Fermont at KlPac (Photo: Ainolnaim Azizol)
Workshop Report: The Art of Latent Space Navigation in Music – Investigating acoustic properties, playing techniques and live-electronics potential of traditional Southeast Asian musical instruments
From 19.-22.11.2025 we gave a live-electronics workshop in Kuala Lumpur with students from the University of Malaya (UM) and the University of Technology Mara (UiTM). Workshop presenters were:
- Cedrik Fermont aka Kirdec aka C-drík, guest composer, musician, researcher (BE, CD)
- Tim-Tarek Grund & Alex Hofmann (mdw); project staff
The participants of the workshop were students in music composition, musicology and sound engineering. They had experience with musicology research, some had experiences with different DAWs including Cubase, Ableton Live etc.. Starting with the text “The Art of Noise” by Luigi Russolo (1913) and a short reflection on the history of Noise Music, we had a lively discussion with the participants on the potential impact of emerging technologies on music performance. Subsequently, Cedrik and Tim presented different live-electronic setups, the former with the software Reaper and the latter with Pure Data and RAVE (Realtime Audio Variational Autoencoder) tone transfer AI models. Students gained hands-on experience with performing with Pure Data and started their experiments on their own computers. Furthermore, background information to the live-electronic performance “Beneath, Within”, which was premiered in the same week on 22.11.2025 at klpac was given to the participants.
Group photo with Dr. Hairul Hasnan and students at UM.
The research team conducting sound pressure measurements with instruments at the Faculty of Creative Arts at UM.
In preparation for the concert, our research team in the acoustics laboratory at mdw in Vienna consulted with experts from the University of Malaya (Dr. Marzelan Saleh and Prof Hanafi Hussin) and the University of the Philippines (Roan Opiso).
Concert:
1. “Beneath, Within” (12 minutes, stereo)
- Tim-Tarek Grund - Pure Data
- Cedrik Fermont - Kulintangan
- Alex Hofmann - Tenor saxophone
Performance of “Beneath, Within” at klpac (Photo: Zhang Xueyang).
In the concert, Cedrik, Tim and Alex first live performed the piece “Beneath, Within” (12 minutes, stereo). “Beneath, Within” explores the networks of human performers, cultural contexts, and AI both in its production process and through its musical structure. Human musical intervention is used to probe AI sound synthesis models and their creation process, excavating fragile equilibria of the parameter space and friction points within the AI-human relationship. We investigate the question of how cultural contexts are embedded within the sound synthesis of (RAVE) AI models. What sounds should the training set consists of? How do the training parameters affect the representation of implicit musical knowledge in the model? In this piece we explore a new form of collaboration through creating, exchanging, and performing with self-trained AI models and investigate the implications of embedded musical knowledge. Will the exchange between two AI models with different embedded knowledge produce self-sustaining feedback loops? Will they adapt dominant characteristics of one model, of both, or will they blend into something new entirely? And how can we perform with them?
Cedric and Alex will interact with the models by exploring different configurations of performing with tenor saxophone and Kulintangan. When the inputs are deactivated, the AI models themselves merge into a new instrument. In a process related to No-Input Mixing, latent noise is used to stimulate a system of two AI models feeding back into itself. Tim controls this system by managing the gain of both audio and latent space signals. Carefully mixing the latent space representations of both models opens up a new possibility of intervention into its cybernetics.
2. Cedrik Fermont - Solo Performance with Reaper (15 min.)
Using a re-sampling approach, Cedrik live-processed sample-based material consisting of field recordings and gong sounds using the software Reaper.
(Photo: AH)
Photo at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center in November 2025 after the artistic research presentation, research team together with (in the middle, l-r) Prof. Tazul Tajuddin, Austrian Embassador Gerhard Eisl, and Dr. Ainolnaim Azizol. (Photo: Zhang Xueyang)
