Dr Pierre-Alexandre Tremblayp.a.tremblay@hud.ac.uk | 01484 473608
Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (Montréal, 1975) is a composer and a performer on bass guitar and sound processing devices, in solo and within the groups ars circa musicæ (Paris, France), de type inconnu (Montréal, Québec), and Splice (London, UK), as well as in ad hoc collaborations. Commissioned and performed world wide, his music is mainly released by the labels Empreintes DIGITALes and Ora.
He joined the University of Huddersfield in 2005, where he is now Reader in Composition and Improvisation as well as Director of the Electronic Music Studios. He previously worked in popular music as producer and bassist, and is also interested in videomusic and coding DSP.
He likes oolong tea, reading, and walking. As a founding member of the no-tv collective, he does not own a working television set. More information about him, including his next performances and sample of his music, can be found on his website www.pierrealexandretremblay.com
- Electroacoustic and mixed-media composition, exploring creative interactions with technology in the studio (as instrument) and for the performer, as highlighted by his releases on Empreintes DIGITALes;
- Contemporary jazz composition, improvisation and performance, with or without electronics, as with [iks], ars circa musicæ, and Splice (published by Ora and Loop Records);
- Free improvisation on bass guitar and/or laptop, in solo, duet (with de type inconnu and light.box) or as a guest with other ensembles;
- Pop studio production and session playing, especially in Afro-American groove-based music;
- Video-music composition;
- Interactive installation;
- Creative use and subversion of technical means, mainly through custom DSP instrument designs, as highlighted in his technical publications.
Brooks, J., Brooks, J. and Tremblay, P. (2012) ‘Across The Great Divide’ Journal of Music, Technology and Education , 5 (2), pp. 145-157. ISSN 1752-7066
Tremblay, P. and Bonney, A. (2012) light.box [Audio]
Harker, A. and Tremblay, P. (2012) ‘The HISSTools Impulse Response Toolbox: Convolution for the Masses’. In: ICMC 2012: Non-cochlear Sound. : The International Computer Music Association. pp. 148-155. ISBN 9780984527410
Tremblay, P. and Pohu, S. (2011) de type inconnu [Audio]
Tremblay, P., Fincker, R., Smith, D. and Bonney, A. (2011) Splice - Lab [Audio]
Tremblay, P (2011) Quelques reflets [Audio]
Carvalhais, M., Tudela , P. and Tremblay, P. (2011) @c - Homem Fantasma [Audio]
Tremblay, P (2011) La rupture inéluctable [Composition]
McLaughlin, S. and Tremblay, P. (2010) ‘SpectralConway: Cellular Automata Off The Grid’. In: Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. New York: ICMA. pp. 68-71.
Hewitt, S., Tremblay, P., Freeman, S. and Booth, G. (2010) ‘HELO: The Laptop Ensemble as an Incubator for Individual Laptop Performance Practices’. In: Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. New York: ICMA. pp. 304-307.
Tremblay, P. and Schwarz, D. (2010) ‘Surfing the Waves: Live Audio Mosaicing of an Electric Bass Performance as a Corpus Browsing Interface’. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME10), Sydney, Australia. : NIME. .
Tremblay, P (2010) Ces énigmes lumineuses [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2010) Les trois petits c... [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2010) Trois lents effondrements [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2010) La nuée [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2010) For Ever Now Soon an End [Composition]
Tremblay, P. and Constanzo, R. (2009) Drum and bass and the horse you ride in on. [Audio]
Tremblay, P. and McLaughlin, S. (2009) ‘Thinking Inside the Box: A New Integrated Approach to Mixed Music Composition and Performance’. In: Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2009), Montréal, Canada, August 16-21, 2009. : International Computer Music Association. pp. 379-386.
Tremblay, P (2009) Un clou, son marteau, et le béton [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2009) Le Cauchemar De L'horloger [Video]
Tremblay, P (2009) Stase [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2009) Quelques courtes contemplations: I. craquer une allumette dans le noir, puis regarder la flamme danser [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2009) Sandbox#3 [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2009) Reflets de notre société crépusculaire [Composition]
Hewitt, S. and Tremblay, P. (2008) ‘Sound Communication: A Standard Syntax for Inter-Application, Inter-Device And Inter-Player Communication Over OSC’. In: International Computer Music Conference ‘08, 24-29 August 2008, Belfast
Tremblay, P (2008) Heiko ou l’apparition du héros [Audio]
Tremblay, P (2008) De passage [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2008) Sandbox#2 [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2008) Le tombeau des fondeurs [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2008) Billows in a Ladle [Composition]
Tremblay, P., Boucher, N. and Pohu, S. (2007) ‘Real-time processing on the road: a guided tour of [iks]'s abstr/cncr setup’. In: International Computer Music Conference ‘07, 27-31 August 2007, Copenhagen
Tremblay, P. and Bassal, D. (2007) ‘Le mixtering : modèle de travail pour une qualité sonore accrue en électroacoustique / Mixtering: A working model for an enhanced sound quality in electroacoustics’ eContact! , 9 (3).
Tremblay, P (2006) ‘Pragmatic Considerations in Mixed Music: a Case Study of La Rage’ Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference , pp. 527-530. ISSN 0-9713192-4-3
Tremblay, P (2006) Alter Ego [Composition]
Tremblay, P (2006) Walk That Way. Tuesday, Turn. [Composition]
Tremblay, P., Stephan, N. and Brun, S. (2006) ars circa musicæ [Audio]
Tremblay, P (2005) La rage for drummer and electronics [Composition]
- Guest lectures and masterclasses at New York University, Université de Montréal, festival Jazz à Vienne, University of Leeds, CEGEP St-Laurent, Queen-Mary University, London College of Communication, Technische Universität Berlin, Strasbourg Conservatoire, Radio Jazz Research Conference in Burghausen;
- External Examiner for PhD (Birmingham, Manchester);
- consultant on artistic panels for the Canada Council for the Arts, Musicaction, and for various computer music conferences.
- academic review panels for Organised Sound and the AHRC
- Music Chair of the International Computer Music Conference, Huddersfield, 2011;
- co-curator (with Professor Monty Adkins) and production manager of the electronic music festival Electric Spring
- member of the board of the British Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music
- Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) - Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) - major funding for establishing a research lab in immersive sound.
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) - Practice Led and Applied Research - grant to support the Thinking Inside the Box project.
- regular project grant holder from the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Council
Pierre Alexandre is interested in supervising any composition project that explores creative subversion of technological means, usually taking the form of a portfolio of original works comprising:
- Electroacoustic and mixed-media composition;
- Video-music composition;
- Interactive installation;
- Performance and DSP instrument design.
Current Research Students
Nicolas Bernier - Portfolio of Works Towards a Cohesive Compositional Approach of a Pop-Influenced Music Descending from Classical Tradition
Sebastian Berweck - Performance of Works for Piano and Electronics (co-supervised by Dr Philip Thomas)
Julian Brookes - The Laptop as an Adequate Interface for Experimental Music: Exploring Bounded Improvisation, Site Specific Performance and Supermodernity (co-supervised by Dr Aaron Cassidy)
Ashley Green - Portfolio of Interactive Minimal Improvisatory Works
Scott Hewitt - Methods of Laptop Ensemble Improvisation
Dominic Thibault - Portfolio of Works Exploring Ways of Performing the Studio
Recently Graduated Research Students
Scott McLaughlin - Emergent music, composing from the bottom up: a commentary on recent compositions (co-supervised by Dr Bryn Harrison)
Adam Jansch - Reanimation, reference, repeatability: a portfolio of works exploring strategies for freeing the record from fixity (co-supervised by Professor Mathew Adkins)
On-going collaboration with Huddersfield-based internationally renown all-valve guitar amplifier builder Matamp on the use of DSP tools to improve elements of the preamplifier design.
Director of the Music Studios
Module Leader for
Interactive Sound Design 1
Computer Composition 2
Computer Composition 3
Also teach on the following modules
Improvisation
Individual Projects
