Richard Scott is an electroacoustic composer and free improviser living in Berlin working with analogue modular synthesizers and alternative controllers such as the Buchla Thunder and Lightning and his own self-designed WiGi infra red controller developed at STEIM, Amsterdam. He has been composing and performing improvised music for over 25 years, producing, performing and recording with artists such as Evan Parker, Twinkle³, Edward Barton, Clive Bell, Olaf Rupp, David Ross and Grutronic. He studied improvisation with John Stevens, saxophone with Elton Dean and Steve Lacy, action theatre improvisation with Sten Rudstrom and electroacoustic composition with David Berezan and Ricardo Climent.
His work has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and 4, International Computer Music Conference, London Jazz Festival, BEAM, Bratislava NEXT Festival of Advanced Music, SARC Sonorities Belfast, Berlin Interaktion Improvised Music Festival and MANTIS Electroacoustic Music Festival, Manchester. He is a long term artistic resident at STEIM in Amsterdam, sometimes a Lecturer in Music at Lancaster University and co-curator of two underground experimental, improvised and electronic concert series in Berlin: AUXXX Berlin and Basic Electricity.
I am a composer, performer, lecturer and recording engineer working in many areas of music. I currently lecture on undergraduate BA Hons. course units in Audio Theory, Music Technology and Studio Practice at Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (University of Lancaster). I hold a Doctorate from the University of London for my sociological analysis of musical improvisation. In 2010 I completed an MMus (with Distinction) in Electroacoustic Music Composition at NOVARS, Manchester University.
In my current teaching position I have the responsibility for creating and delivering undergraduate degree courses in Audio and Sound Theory and Studio Practice, including creating and marking assignments and examinations. Subjects include acoustics and hearing, analogue and digital signals, the recording and production chain, recording, mixing and remixing. Specific course contents includes tuition in Pro Tools and Logic Pro, analogue and digital audio processing, the history and use of microphones, analogue desks and patch bays, the use of hybrid analogue/digital studios, and recording and mixing assignments including acoustic guitar, wind instruments, voice, piano and chamber ensemble.
I have a great deal of experience and interest in working in cross-media, multimedia platforms, especially in the area of performance. I studied with teachers such as John Stevens, Julyen Hamilton, Jos Houben and Sten Rudstrom and taught improvisation and performances skills to musicians, dancer and actors. In the past decade I have been musician in residence as various international dance festivals, including several years at Ponderosa Berlin, Freiburg and Göttingen Contact Dance Improvisation festivals.
I studied Action Theatre (a physical theatre improvisation training method) for several years, including intensive courses with Sten Rudstrom and Ruth Zapora. Between 2002 and 2008 I taught improvisation and performance skills to mixed groups of musicians, dancer and actors at Compagnie Songes in France, FIM (Festival of Multidisciplinary Improvisation) in Bilbao, Spain. I am also a qualified and active Bowen technique practitioner with a great deal of experience or somatic work with dancers, musicians and other performers.
Since 2008 I have been a research resident at STEIM, Amsterdam developing infrared interactive performance technologies. My work includes analogue and digital synthesis and processing using Max MSP, JunXion, LiSa, Ableton Live, Serge Modular and Buchla Thunder and Lightning midi controllers. Since 2010 I have begun to present and publish my research at conferences and symposia such as the International Computer Music Conference, the Canadian Electro-Acoustic Music Journal and the Belfast Sound Arts Research Centre (SARC) and in a chapter for a forthcoming book about improvisation for Cambridge Scholars Press. I have had my compositions played on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and at international festivals such Future Everything, BEAM, London Jazz festival, Interaktionen (Austria), Manchester Jazz Festival and the Bratislava Next Festival for Advanced Music.
In parallel with my own creative work I have worked as a recording engineer and producer for 20 years, especially in the areas of jazz, improvised, electroacoustic and electronic music recording, producing and/or mastering projects for companies including PSI, Kwan Yin, Inu.itu, sruti BOX, GRP Impulse, Isisongs, Discus, Fantastic Plastic and Metier Records.
As you see, I do not like to write about myself in the third person.