Programme:

6PM: Seminar by the composer and sound artist Sam Pluta

7PM: Improvisation concert by Sam Pluta (electronics) and Agustí Fernández (piano)

Abstract:

Contemporary computer music languages such as Max, Pure Data, and SuperCollider excel at graph-based instrument design but impose steep barriers when custom DSP is required, pushing musicians into C/C++ plugin workflows with unfamiliar APIs, build systems, and cross-platform complexities. MMMAudio addresses these issues by centering its programming model on Mojo for high-performance DSP and seamless Python–Mojo interoperability for tooling, AI, and scientific libraries. In MMMAudio, unit generators (UGens) are simple Mojo structs, enabling users to write, test, and distribute new UGens without leaving their code editor or contending with external build pipe-lines. This design simultaneously encourages new DSP creation, leverages Python's mature ecosystem for machine learning and data processing, and exploits Mojo's performance features (e.g., SIMD) for fast, real-time audio processing. He will present the system's architecture, programming model, and extension mechanisms and show audio examples of the platform in action. Check out MMMAudio here: https://github.com/spluta/MMMAudio

Bios

Sam Pluta is a composer, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on using the computer as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class improvisers. By creating musical systems of shared agency, Pluta’s vibrant sonic universe focuses on the visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds. He has performed with Wet Ink Ensemble, Peter Evans Ensemble, Rocket Science, and Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Sam is author of the MMMAudio creative coding environment.

Agustí Fernández (Palma de Mallorca, 1954), with a perfectly based career and a well-deserved international reputation, is one of the Spanish musicians of major international projection and a world reference in the field of improvised music. Fernández has worked with famous musicians of the free improvisation scene like Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Butch Morris, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Joel Ryan and Peter Evans a.m.o. He is a member of the Blue Shroud Band and the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, and has been in Mats Gustafsson NU Ensemble and Barry Guy New Orquestra. Up to the current date he has published more than 150 CD’s.

Organized by:

Supported by:

And

Cátedra UPF-BMAT en Inteligencia Artificial y Música (TSI-100929-2023-1). Project funded by Secretaría de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial, the European Union-Next Generation EU, and by BMAT Music Innovators, the Music Operating System