LP15 - Sam Dunscombe

Sam Dunscombe

Self Unsame Again Always New

Samantha (Sam) Dunscombe is an audio engineer, sound artist, performer, and composer. Her interest in the ways music allows for novel experiences of time has led to explorations in a wide variety of areas: from studio engineering to field recording; spectralism and just intonation to free improvisation; new complexity to minimalism; and more. She has presented work for acousmonium at INA GRM and Archipel Geneva; conducted Radulescu for the opening concert of Maerz Musik in 2019 and performed Eliane Radigue’s music at the Berlin Philharmonie with Klangforum Wien and ONCEIM; been a featured artist at the Sonic Acts Biennale in Amsterdam; and performed as a member of Oren Ambarchi’s Carpe Diem. Sam's work can be heard on Mode Records (Radulescu Plasmatic Works vol. 1); Black Truffle (Two forests, Outside Ludlow); Futura Resistenza (Edge Games with Jules Reidy); Another Timbre (Beissel with Golden Fur and Klaus Lang).

Thursday October 8, 2026, 5:30 for 6pm

Black Box Multichannel AV Space
Room 12.02.103
RMIT City Campus, Naarm/Melbourne

Sam will present and discuss Self Unsame Again Always New, a work for clarinet, live spectral processing, and mass plasma synthesis (a technique developed by Sam inspired by the theoretical writing of Horatiu Radulescu). In this work, MaxMSP is used to transform the clarinet (which moves through a very limited spectral pitch set) from a single, recognisable instrument encoded with a rich cultural history, into a multiplicity, a becoming, something always evolving that never reaches a fixed point of static being. This is achieved through real-time pitch tracking, spectral augmentation, and timbral (re)synthesis. This acousmonium work was commissioned and premiered in Paris by INA GRM in 2024, and revised for the 2026 Sonic Acts Biennale in Amsterdam (also presented in collaboration with INA GRM).

Entry near the RMIT tram stop on the eastern side of Swanston st, at Little Bang Cafe's location - enter through the glass doors on street level near the 'Building 10' sign and head straight down the half set of stairs, the Black Box is straight ahead

Elevator available nearby the cafe entrance for those with accessibility requirements

Listening Practice is a monthly gathering of listeners open to all, where sonic research and practice is shared in a dedicated listening environment, with informal discussion encouraged afterward.

Organised by the DSP research group

Free by RSVP with attendees added to the DSP mailing list