This article explores the role of Chilean electroacoustic music as a medium for articulating cultural memory, particularly in response to significant historical events and unresolved traumas of the past 50 years. It examines five relevant works by Iván Pequeño (*1945), Leni Alexander (1924–2005), Federico Schumacher (*1963), José Miguel Candela (*1968) and Rodrigo Cádiz (*1972), analysing their engagement with voice, historical memory, trauma and political testimony through the lenses of acousmatic theory, sonic phenomenology and trauma studies. The article argues that Chilean electroacoustic music serves not only as a record of historical violence but also as a performative space where memory can be inhabited, archived, transformed and made audible again. It highlights the use of human voice recordings as vehicles of memory, the integration of radio art and testimonial narratives and the concept of ‘acousmatic storytelling’ to engage listeners in a multi-valent listening experience that blurs the lines between abstract sound and historical index. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how Chilean electroacoustic music functions as ‘embodied historiography’, using sound to write history and engaging listeners’ imagination, cognition and empathy to embrace through sound experiences of memory, political statements and justice.

The Laboratorio Digital de Música (LADIM), or Digital Music Laboratory, is located at the heart of Universidad Simón Bolívar as part of several other experimental laboratories (e.g., computational mechanics, cellular biology or nuclear physics). It has played a leading role in the curation and performance of electroacoustic and technology-mediated music at the most prestigious international festivals of contemporary music held in Venezuela (such as the Latin American Music Festival 2004–2016, and Atempo 2006). Furthermore, it has organised independent concerts and events, trained composers and musicians, produced a discreet body of literature and collaborated with institutions like the Society of Electroacoustic Music in Sweden (SEAMS) and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, Stanford). Throughout its 21-year history, LADIM has been a central figure shaping the contemporary music landscape of Venezuela’s 21st-century scene. Despite its repertoire amounting to 75 electroacoustic works, encompassing acousmatic, mixed, video and live-electronics pieces, the laboratory has not yet established a formal archive. This article represents the first effort to reconstruct its historical milestones, while identifying the repertoire collection linked to it for the purpose of a future systematic study.

Biological rhythms exhibit harmonic relations that can be operationalised for art–science creation. We introduce a neurophenomenological framework that treats the harmonic architecture of brain–body oscillations (HABBOs) as a compositional medium and guiding signal for real-time feedback. Methodologically, we compute the harmonicity of spectral peaks from electrophysiological time series (e.g., brain, heart), derive adaptive microtonal tunings via timbre–tuning alignment and dissonance-curve analysis, and render evolving tension–resolution trajectories through a sonification method we call harmonic audification. Building on these tools, we prototype creative brain–computer interfaces (cBCIs) that align auditory feedback with a participant’s harmonic landscape, enabling embodied exploration of attention, affect and creativity through closed-loop interaction. To broaden access, we release the Biotuner Engine, a web application that transforms oscillatory data into MIDI tunings and chord progressions alongside the companion open-source toolbox for research pipelines. Our contributions are as follows: (1) formalisation of HABBOs for creative biofeedback; (2) algorithms for extracting and tracking bioharmonic structure and transitional harmony; (3) cBCI design principles coupling neural dynamics to adaptive sound; and (4) accessible software for artists and scientists. We argue that modelling harmony in biosignals offers a rigorous bridge between musical form and neural dynamics, opening transdisciplinary pathways for performance, sonification and empirical study.

The introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in 1986 marked a significant shift in music education practice across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Unlike previous qualifications, the GCSE emphasised a central triumvirate of accessible, practical skills – performing, composing, and appraising – which, forty years later, remain foundational in secondary music education across the three nations. In this article, we therefore analyse how the tripartite performing–composing–appraising structure has shaped the development of the GCSE between 1986 and 2026. Using historical and documentary evidence, we identify four trends of political quiescence, progressive divergence, neoliberal convergence, and neoconservative coalescence, and suggest that across all three nations a subtle shift towards a fourfold performing–composing–knowing–appraising framework is beginning to erode the GCSE as an accessible, practical approach to assessment.

This paper re-evaluates the significance of José Vicente Asuar (1933–2017), a pioneering figure in Latin American computer music, shifting the focus from the hardware construction of his COMDASUAR system to the innovative software he developed for algorithmic composition. While Asuar’s hybrid digital-analog computer is noteworthy, the true core of his contribution lies in his original machine language programs designed for the Intel 8080 microprocessor. This study examines how Asuar thought about and designed algorithms specifically created for generating musical structures, processing symbolic data in real-time, and enabling interactive performance. By analyzing newly discovered handwritten notebooks containing his meticulous code documentation, we uncover Asuar’s deep engagement with low-level programming to express complex musical ideas. His approach, focused on the computer as an “amplifier of the imagination,” prioritized the development of software to facilitate generative composition and real-time manipulation of musical parameters. This paper argues that Asuar’s legacy rests not solely on the COMDASUAR hardware but primarily on his visionary software architecture, which transformed the computer into a dynamic compositional partner. In doing so, he anticipated later developments in interactive music systems, demonstrating a pioneering approach to computer music that placed software innovation at its center.

This article examines the most renowned electroacoustic music festival in Chile so far, from its first edition in 2001 to 2012, when its continuity was interrupted. It focuses on two aspects that appeared relevant and took place consistently during the period under study: (1) the generation of networks, circulations and aesthetic crossovers that were favoured by the festival; and (2) the perspective of the electroacoustic concert as a space for research and experimentation in devices and formats deemed appropriate for a particular experience of music. To this end, primary and archival sources of the article’s author as well as other direct participants in the festival’s organisation were reviewed. Based on this, the relevance of these types of activities in the dissemination of these art forms is determined, as well as the need for proper management to grow and consolidate these spaces.

This article explores how pre-service music teachers in Norway reflect on their future professional identities and career trajectories during the final year of a five-year generalist teacher education programme. We analyse two group interviews with eight participants – one conducted during the writing of their master’s theses and one shortly after submission. The study is framed by the concept of spatially situated possible selves, combining Markus and Nurius’ theory of possible selves with Massey’s spatial theory to examine how imagined futures could be shaped by institutional, geographic, and social contexts. Thematic analysis reveals four key areas of reflection: career awareness, the influence of past experiences, the shaping role of music teacher education, and the participants’ hybrid positioning between student and teacher roles. Findings suggest that the master’s thesis serves as a transitional tool for professional development and identity formation. We argue that music teacher education can be understood as a contested and evolving space – a multiplicity of ‘stories-so-far’ – where future selves are imagined, negotiated, and constrained.