Machine Aesthetics in Live Music: Performance, Improvisation, Recording

Join Alex Stevenson (Leeds Beckett University), Brendan Williams (University of Salford) and Dave Fortune (University of Salford) as they discuss machine aesthetics in contemporary popular music practice from multiple perspectives. The panellists consider how production technologies have influenced instrumental performance and the cyclical reciprocity of how these performances are presented in a contemporary recorded context. The discussion will also consider emerging electronic music improvisation practice in the Greater Manchester region.

Speakers

Alex Stevenson

Course Director for postgraduate courses in Music and Sound, in the Leeds School of Arts. He has published and presented on topics related to UK Hip Hop, Popular Music Education, Mixing Practice, Music Performance and Electronic Music. He is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Oslo entitled ‘Machine Aesthetics in Popular Music Performance’.

Dr Brendan Williams

Associate Professor in music technology in the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at UoS. His text–based outputs currently focus on two distinct areas of practice. Working with acoustic ensembles he explores emerging spatialisation techniques within both live and recorded contemporary classical music. In the field of popular music, Williams writes on the contemporary use of saturation techniques in drum kit recording and presentation.

Dave Fortune

Academic at the University of Salford, where he teaches various disciplines within the field of music technology, including his main specialisms which are composition, production and live performance of electronic music. Dave’s research and creative practice explores the innovative use of various technologies and practices within in these domains. Dave co–runs the Bring Machines music event where participants take part in live jam sessions using various electronic instruments. This event is the focus of Dave’s most recent research output “Bring Machines: Observations and Proposed Frameworks for Improvised Electronic Music Performance”, which he presented at the 2025 Innovation in Music Conference, and which will be published later in 2026 by Routledge.