This editorial examines the systemic exclusion of Black and South Asian artists from the field of experimental sound, highlighting the historical and institutional biases that have marginalised their contributions. While experimental sound is often framed as a universal, ethnically neutral practice, this narrative obscures the racial and cultural biases shaping the discipline. The marginalisation of these artists is not simply about visibility; it reflects deeper socio-cultural and institutional mechanisms that have historically sidelined their radical sonic innovations. This issue challenges the Eurocentric frameworks that dominate the discourse, drawing attention to the pioneering contributions of Black and South Asian musicians whose work expands the possibilities of experimental sound. By centring these voices, we aim to decolonise the field and offer a more inclusive understanding of experimental sound that recognises its global, diverse influences. Through contributions from artists and scholars, this issue explores how race, identity, and culture intersect within sonic experimentation, offering critical perspectives that question established narratives. Ultimately, this collection aims to reshape the future of experimental sound by amplifying underrepresented voices, advocating for a more equitable and representative sonic landscape that acknowledges the depth of contributions from historically marginalised communities.

This article is a discussion with supporting commentary, exploring the complex interplay and role of experimentation in various British Black music genres. We consider these as rich sources of cultural production, what we term the ‘Black Box’. As part of this Black Box discussion, we consider the researcher’s role in studying cultural production at global, national, regional and community levels. We critique the tendency of Western markets to both commodify and homogenise as well as raise concerns about perpetuating forms of neo-colonialism, especially with the increased importance of Africa, particularly styles such as afrobeats. Our discussion highlights the paradox of late corporate capitalism’s short-term focus, and we consider whether there is potential for a technological infrastructure to create genuine cultural and economic growth, that also challenges Eurocentric and Anglo-American dominance of the music industry. Within this flux, the importance of experimentation and the emergence of micro-genres facilitated by the internet advances a global dispersal of new sounds. However, this diversity is shadowed by the continued relevance of major label structures and the role of streaming platforms in controlling and mediating artist–fan relationships.

This article explores an under-discussed and unclaimed conceptualisation of futurity that can be located within historical sound practices and sonic thoughts of the Indian subcontinent. In the 1950s and 1960s, this alternative sonic worldview influenced Western music and its sound pallet without credit. The intervention of this futurism in the Western model of music, sounding and listening was revolutionary, proliferating an alternate aesthesis of time, space and subjectivities in sound practices – with an emergent environmentality, manifesting arguably in the birth of ambient music and sounding arts and remodelling of sensing the world from a relational perspective. Yet, this sonic worldview, knowledge system and a radical sense of non-linear futurity were not recognised then. But the importance of the futurity can be appreciated today on the verge of multiple planetary crises. It is in this time and day that a futurist vision may provide a new sense of surviving for a posterity and generate a possibility of emancipation from the fear and loathing for a dystopian tomorrow, which is construed from a Western perspective entrenched in its rationality. How can we hear possible futures from perspectives of South Asia that have been marginalised in sonic epistemologies by an absence of voices, which could offer new grounds?

The widespread deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools has created a shift in knowledge culture. The marginalisation of slower, more traditional modes of engagement for quantifiable data easily parsed by mathematical algorithms has resulted in prioritising proprietary or opaque datasets (knowledge) explicitly constructed with measurable parameters. Well-documented concerns persist regarding the narrow range of human data used by algorithmic tools, data that arguably encapsulates the many failures of human society. The inevitable result of the use and priority of this data, alongside very particular notions of value and what is valuable, is a replication of many of the foibles of our history as a species.

Cultural practice in general necessitates the communication of what drives our hopes and underlies our experiences. In algorithmic times we can see that this kind of communication supports some of the many critiques of AI and machine learning already extant in activist circles. Through investigating some of the theoretical backgrounds of this resistance, this article uses the first iteration of HEXORCISMOS’S SEMILLA AI project and the resulting album release as one of the many possible ways in which we might use machine learning and AI tools alongside very deliberate and uplifting models of community and community building.

This article investigates the innovative pedagogical approaches and cultural integration of electroacoustic music in Papua, Indonesia, through the work of composer and educator Markus Rumbino. Born in 1989 in Jayapura, Papua, Rumbino is the first professional electroacoustic composer from eastern Indonesia. After returning to Jayapura in 2013 to join the Institute of Arts and Culture (ISBI) Tanah Papua, he faced unique challenges in a region where electroacoustic music is largely unfamiliar and often misunderstood. The study explores how Rumbino bridges Western music education with Indigenous Papuan sound environments to foster cultural identity and confidence among his students – primarily Indigenous from East Indonesia, including natives from the Papuan Highlands with limited formal musical training. Through detailed interviews and analysis, the article examines his innovative use of soundscape composition, listening exercises and soundwalk methodologies as pedagogical tools. By engaging students in critical listening and exploration of their local soundscapes, Rumbino reconnects them with their cultural heritage while introducing contemporary artistic expressions. Situating his methods within the broader context of soundscape literature and inclusive educational practices in electroacoustic music, this article highlights the transformative potential of integrating local soundscapes into music education. This contributes to discussions on culturally responsive teaching methods and the role of environmental sounds in fostering musical creativity.

We have all made poor decisions, and some such questionable decisions are artistic in nature. When looking back on one’s early work, it is easy to have tinges of embarrassment that are counterbalanced by nostalgia. John Baldessari made this dynamic tangible in 1970 through his Cremation Project, an undertaking in which he burned all of his paintings and baked some of the resulting ashes into cookies. Viewing some of these cookies/ex-paintings several years ago, I felt that Baldessari’s approach to his previous work, simultaneously embracing, annihilating and remaking, was a fitting way to let go of one’s artistic past. My user-driven installation Confessional provides the opportunity for composers to briefly take pleasure in and (symbolically) destroy one of their dubious creations. This process is accomplished with a computer running Max and a user-provided recording that is processed live. The audio processing unfolds in stages that mirror the phases of animal decomposition. Through this series of transformations, the user’s piece transitions from its original state to nearly imperceptible bits of noise. In this article, I examine Confessional, focusing on the work’s conceptual background, related issues such as memory and hierarchy, and the structure of the Max patch that is used for processing.

This article introduces the Voice Leaf, an outsider among Baschet’s numerous sound sculptures because of the use of the performative voice. Conceived in 1965 by French pioneers Bernard and François Baschet, the sculpture for voice consists of a stainless steel sheet folded as a leaf using origami technique. This article explores how voice and sculpture interplay acoustically by evaluating the voice’s agency and the sculpture’s aural dynamic gain. In this mutualist relationship, multiple senses are mobilised: aural, visual and haptic. The voice harboured in the sculptural leaf gains materiality and a resonance altered by the sculpture’s intrinsic properties. The article draws from conversations at the Structures Sonores Baschet Association open day with chairperson Pierre Cuffini and former workshop and acoustics research director Frédéric Fradet, as well as an interview with multidisciplinary artist and long-term collaborator of Bernard Baschet, Sophie Chénet.

This article considers modular composition as an approach to engendering structural plasticity in musical works. Structural plasticity, in this case, is defined as the ability for the components of a musical work (e.g., events, ideas, sequences, textures, timbres) to vary in how and when they are presented. In this research, modular composition is the process for creating a collection of individual musical ideas (e.g., sequences, patterns, phrases) termed ‘modules’, and designing a dynamic system for their assembly into cohesive structures. This approach results in musical works that exist in a state of constant structural flux, allowing for real-time alteration while progressing beyond similar existing approaches observed in video game music and interactive music apps, from which this research takes inspiration. Approaches involving compositionally focused intelligent music systems are also observed, highlighting how modular composition bridges traditional compositional practices and the design of interactive music systems. Two of the authors’ own works are discussed with regard to how modular composition can be implemented in varying creative ways. The outcome of this work illuminates the creative possibilities of integrating traditional compositional practices with new digital approaches to arrive at a more structurally plastic and alterable form of music.

Auditory-based illusions and effects are fascinating fields for both psychoacoustic research and sound installations. While such illusions and effects are usually researched in isolated scientific studies, they can also be applied as compositional tools in sound installations. This article addresses the suspenseful connection between psychoacoustic research and sound installations. After defining terms relevant to auditory-based illusions and effects, various aspects of sound installations are described. In that light, auditory-based illusions and effects are described and categorised and examples are provided for their scientific investigation by means of references to key experiments. Further, examples of applications are included that showcase the use of auditory-based illusions and effects in compositions and sound installations. Finally, in order to foster future artistic applications, the connections between illusions and effects are visualised, and sound-installation aspects are provided in a table. Such a combined consideration of psychoacoustic fundamentals and sound-installation aspects aims not only at deepening the methodological knowledge of sound artists, but also inspiring innovative compositional perspectives.