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The University has just unveiled a studio that uses the latest technology to bring composers and traditional musicians into contact with computer wizardry to create new forms of music and sound.

Francis Dhomont

The £2.25m Novars Research Centre will be a focal point for the leading exponents of what is known as ‘electroacoustic’ music – a movement dating from the 1940s which is typified by a preoccupation with the interplay of gesture and texture, rather than the usual musical concerns of rhythm, harmony and melody.

In fact, even the name of the centre, Novars, is a celebration of electroacoustic, coming as it does from one of the movement’s luminaries, Francis Dhomont – it is the title of a 1989 composition by him inspired by the Latin phrase Ars Nova, meaning new skill or technique.

Dr David Berezan is director of Novars and he says it will allow for some radical new ways of thinking.

Dr David Berezan

"The centre uses technology to explore the sounds that we hear in the everyday world. Most electroacoustic compositions make use of sounds not available to, say, the traditional orchestra, often using pre-recorded sounds from nature or from the studio that are then further transformed and manipulated by the composer."

To this end, the centre contains a veritable feast of new technology, not least of which is the structure itself. Inside the stunning building is a ‘room-within-room’ design of concrete blocks suspended on hundreds of rubber cylinders, which creates the perfect acoustic isolation needed by the musicians.

In addition, there’s a host of gizmos that give the performers 24 channel surround equipment – the equivalent to a huge version of a home cinema.

It’s a centre that is getting the musicians attached to the University understandably excited. Composer Dr Ricardo Climent hopes it will allow composers the chance to utilise the potential of new technology and "break down the divide between traditional and contemporary forms of music".

For him though, the most important thing is the new sound system.

The striking Novars Research Centre

"The technology is exciting and groundbreaking: the 24 channel system in particular will mirror the sounds we hear as human beings. After all, we don’t hear in stereo."

The centre will be launched with a series of concerts that showcase electroacoustic composition. They will include works from the pioneering Dhomont, as well as the centre director David Berezan and leading British composer John Casken, who is Professor of Music at the University.

For Professor Casken, the excitement of it all lies in the future of music coming out of the University.

"I am delighted that this innovative and important development has come to fruition. It’s a great opportunity to explore new ways to come together in inspiring and challenging ways.

"I have no doubt that those working in the Novars Research Centre will go on to produce some ground-breaking creative work."

The Novars Centre opens with a programme of concerts from Fri 2 to Sun 4 November. For a full programme of events, see the centre’s website.