How BLAST works as a concert platform/composition studio for immersive audio: “If you like high risk sports, this is for you!”

Jorge Gregorio García Moncada, an electroacoustic composer and full time faculty member of the Music Department at the Universidad de Los Andes Colombia, explains why the university runs the only undergraduate university program offering Electroacoustic music as a major in composition, why he founded BLAST – a multichannel immersive audio sound system for electroacoustic and mixed media work – and why Genelec monitors were the only option for BLAST.

You're an electroacoustic composer; when did you first become interested in instruments and composing music?

I come from a background that is not necessarily from the classical world. In my generation of composers, there are a big bunch of Colombian composers that come from the commercial and specifically from the rock world. So for me bands from the ‘80s and ‘90s, like Depeche Mode, and so on, and then Nine Inch Nails - the sound that they began to show in their albums, for me was a huge catch. 

I remember in my early teenage years and then my 20s, sitting down and listening to these albums with a critical ear - listening to synthesizers, listening to the sound design and so forth. For me, that was absolutely brilliant. So for me, when the moment arrived to do my studies, it was very clear that it was music, and then music related to composition, and then related to music tech.

You’re a full time faculty member of the Music Department at the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, which is focused on composition and theory. What do you teach there and what do students come there to learn?

I teach composition in instrumental music, but the music tech part is a passion of mine. It’s everything related to electro acoustics, to experimental music, and that relationship between the instrumental world and the electronic world. For me this is something very special; I love it. Besides composition, I teach musical theory, analysis and 20th century and 21st century music.

The Music Department at the Universidad de los Andes has a reputation for experimental music with technology in the region. Is it correct that it is the only undergraduate university program offering Electroacoustic music as a major in composition?

As far as I know, it is the only place where you can acquire a degree in composition where you can base your studies and your research in electronic media. That's correct.

Why do you think the subject of Electroacoustic music composition is so specialist?

I think that is something related to the composition history in our country. When you take out the instrument in a musical scenario A, for older generations, it is not that easy to recognise that as music. They will just say, ‘That might be some sort of an artistic thing related to sound’. One of the first places experimental music research was recognised as a serious thing was here in Bogota, Colombia. 

People in the present day musical scenario began to be very active composers in terms of electronic media and they opened that path for us. So me and my generation continue the path. It was a difficult path, because in terms of the technology that you need, you need the investment, and you need to convince people in the administration area to invest. We somehow did the job to convince them. 

So, that's where BLAST came to life, basically, as a huge project in terms of electronic media and electronic music research. The musical space is now one of the first things that you think about when doing composition - it is not a secondary thing.

BLAST - which stands for Bogota Los Andes Sound Theatre, represents the research/creation area of experimental electronic composition. You are the founder and director of BLAST. Can you explain what BLAST is?

BLAST is an academic space for research and exploration in sound. It is not necessarily focused and narrowed just to music because I think that when you narrow definitions, this is when you shorten the results. 

BLAST is a space where sound artists, say composers or science researchers and so forth, can go and explore and research. BLAST is about not only the researchers and the professors, but the students and the community. They have the space to explore sound in its broadest way.

BLAST functions as both a concert platform and a composition laboratory / studio for immersive audio. Can you explain how that works as a platform for both of these different applications?

We compose the pieces in the studio, but we dismantle the studio, we put it in the truck, and then we go to places where we mount the studio again, like a concert facility or something like that. It is fantastic and it is risky - you’re dealing with the uncertainty of the music that you compose where you basically try different things in the studio, and the studio is a controlled environment. 

Then we go to a music concert hall or a cathedral, because we have done concerts and gigs in these strange places, and the things that you hear there sound different. BLAST transforms from a composition studio into a musical instrument. It’s incredible because you transform each space into an instrument. The building itself is not as acoustically controlled as the music studio, so your music is going to sound different, but we set up the monitoring system differently. 

We go to the space, we listen, we begin to rehearse, and we apply the system differently within this space - we have this control of the system. It's even more interesting because you have to really listen to what is happening - nothing is controlled. If you like high risk sports, this is for you!

BLAST is a non standard multi channel immersive sound system. Why did you choose Genelec loudspeakers as the right choice for the immersive BLAST system?

I first experienced the Genelec sound at the University of Birmingham, England, where I did my PhD, almost 15 years ago. BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) is the concert sound system of the University of Birmingham's Electroacoustic Music Studios. It was founded in 1982 by Emeritus Professor Jonty Harrison and developed later by Scott Wilson,

the current director. They had this combination of arrays of Genelec monitoring, which is a combination of 8040s 8030s, 8050s, and the big 7060 subs. Man, I began to fall in love with the sound of Genelecs! In particular, the clarity of the monitoring and the warmth of the sound. For my final mixes I will choose Genelec instead of other brands because I know how they sound, and that became my main reference. 

When I mixed on other systems I didn't find the sound as plain and clear as with the Genelecs. With the studio and with the concert scenarios, the Genelecs tend to respond well and with warmth when you need the system to sound big. They sound very nice. That's the main reason I love the system. I love the sound that Genelec has developed and particularly in surround systems. It's about reliability. It's about the warmth and the quality of sound.