RESEARCH

My academic research directions are several, comprising (1) ongoing work on the life and music of David Tudor, (2) another stream in collaboration with Dr LJ Cameron focusing on William WH Gunn, Canadian environmentalist and field recordist, and (3) work in composition, performance, installation and sound design, including solo work and collaborations with filmmakers, theatermakers and choreographers.

My focus on David Tudor began in 1994 before Tudor's death, with the generous help of Ron Kuivila as my MA Supervisor at Wesleyan University. As a graduate student I assisted with Tudor moving out of his longtime home in Stony Point NY, and preparation of materials uncovered there for transfer to the Getty Research Institute and Wesleyan University's World Instrument Collection. In 2022 this continues with more work on Tudor's 1970 Microphone, and other pieces from this era. In 2022, I had the opportunity to present a new version of Tudor's 1970 Microphone in Berlin as part of the Unexpected Territories celebration of Tudor's work. Also in 2022 I led a workshop and performance/installation of Rainforest IV in Berlin with a fantastic group of sound artists.

Work with LJ Cameron on William WH Gunn as a central figure in environmental sound recording has been ongoing for about ten years, and is perhaps culminating in 2023 with a six month double leave from Queen's University to complete an unconventional monograph on Gunn, his contributions to a particular Canadian sonic identity, and his practices of collecting sounds across the globe, and disseminating information in public talks.

Info on my other research which is performance- or installation-oriented can be found in those sections of this site.

❀ Rainforest IV, video documentation of David Tudor's large-scale performed installation realized in Berlin's St Elisabeth Church, March 2022

❀ Microphone, Tudor's 1970 creation exploring feedback bursts processed via Gordon Mumma's 'Pepsi Modulators', presented with Dimitri Georgaras July 2 2022 as part of Unexpected Territories series, Berlin. Binaural mix for headphone listening

❀ Microphone again, in an installation realization with Dimitri Georgaras presented November 29 2025 as part of the IF25 Festival in Guelph Ontario. Binaural mix for headphones.

❀ Revisitation G, a compositional exploration of the sonorities of William WH Gunn's classic mono LP A Day In Algonquin Park.

❀ In 2017, I remixed Gunn's mono Algonquin Park album as an immersive ambisonic production which you can listen to with headphones in a binaural mix: here are Side A and Side B. A sealed copy of the 1955 album was digitized and heavily worked with spectral editors to isolate and spatialize all its elements.

❀ 'A Day in Algonquin Park: William W. H. Gunn and the circadian audio portrait'", 2017 article published in the journal Organised Sound.

BIO

As a settler-identifying Canadian, I live in Kingston Ontario Canada, also known as Katarokwi, on territories of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee which were stolen by earlier generations of settlers. I am grateful to have received a lot of insight and understanding from Indigenous friends and colleagues, into principles of ethical living and making, and I am doing my work in light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report and action items.

My background is quite international so I often have trouble saying where I am from. Born in Umuahia, Nigeria in 1966 at the cusp of the Biafran War, I was taken back to Canada where Ottawa was home base, but then moved to peninsular Malaysia as a 5 year old. Returning again to Canada, I had Southern Ontario and Manitoba summers and winters, and then moved with my family to Nairobi Kenya, as a teenager. Returning to Canada we relocated to the Vancouver area. Since then I have lived in the USA and England for extended periods, but the last 20 years I have been based in Kingston/Katarokwi with my partner of 37 years, raising a son who was born in England and is now in his twenties and making great music of his own.

My academic background includes undergraduate studies in experimental music composition/performance and soundscape studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver with Martin Bartlett, Barry Truax, Pauline Oliveros and George E Lewis from 1985-1991; MA studies 1993-95 in the Department of Music at Wesleyan University with Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton and many others; and a PhD (1999-2006) from City University London focusing on the history of David Tudor's Rainforest, supervised by Simon Emmerson.

I have been a participant in Composers Inside Electronics presentations of Rainforest and other David Tudor works since 1998, and collaborated on development of Rainforest V, which was acquired in 2017 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for its permanent collection. In 2023, I organized a 50th birthday presentation of Rainforest IV and an accompanying Zoom symposium with many of the figures connected with this piece.

I teach at Queen's University (Canada) as Professor in the departments of Drama and Music, Film and Media, and the Cultural Studies Graduate Program. I am Director of the Sonic Arts Studio, originally named Queen's Electroacoustic Music Studio, founded by David Keane and most recently by Professor Emerita Kristi Allik.

I am continuing to collaborate with Geographer Dr Laura Jean Cameron, my partner of 40 years. In 2026 Cameron and I are extending our live performance project called TYΦA, which uses instrument materials derived from the cattail marshes of Ontario and had its premiere in the Refugium series on Gabriola Island BC in 2024.