Dr Philip Reeder

Biography

Philip has been working with field recordings, electronica and sampling to create immersive audio experiences for 20 years. His background in spatial audio includes the GPS soundscaping of the St Ives oral archives with art historian Jeanie Sinclair, music for Prototype’s groundbreaking binaural theatre work Whisper, and recording and producing various music for Linder’s “The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from the House of Fame” project.

Recently he has returned to field recording and composition, with an immersive album recorded on a fishing boat at sea with singer Johny Lamb (Guardian Folk Album of the Month), followed by The Greensounds Project participant recordings in Apple’s Spatial Audio. Philip’s work has been recognised by Prix Ars Electronica, Bourges/IMEB, and Computer Space, with funding from AHRC, ACE, RIS, Channel 4, Frieze Art Fair, Aesthetica/Audible and UKRI.

After participating in the AHRC-funded project ‘Online Orchestra’ as a named researcher, Philip is currently working on a funded project with Dr Alice Goodenough of the Countryside and Community Research Institute.

Project ‘Greensounds’ seeks to better understand links between wellness, policy, and listening through participant workshops in forestscapes, and immersive audio. Philip is also co-producing a film about the Greensounds Project with director Liberty Smith, which won Aesthetica Film Festival’s Listening Pitch in partnership with Audible, and this will premier in York, Winter 2024.

The Greensounds project has developed into a two year research project called SAGE, Sound, Ageing and Environment, funded by UKRI (£336,500 grant) and on which Philip is a Co-Investigator. The SAGE team have won a grant to host a British Academy Conference in autumn 2025, on the topic of Sound, Nature and Wellbeing in Ageing.

Philip will co-edit a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Creative Media Research on the topic of Immersive Audio Practices.

UoG also hosts the brilliant “Everyday is Spatial” immersive audio conference with conference lead Tim Land.

Philip runs the MSc in Music and Sound production, and supervises PhD candidates who are broadly interested in sound, composition, production, electronic music, field recording, or immersion. Email Philip at [email protected] for further information on the MSc or Phd study.

PhD Supervision

• Exploring Nonlinear Time Within Interactive and Adaptive Electronic Music Composition Through Unreal Editor (practice based)
• Audio, Immersion and Audiences in Gaming (practice based)
• Immersive Audio and Enhancing Creative Expression (practice based)
• Hauntology as a Creative Tool (practice based)
• The Music of Michael Kamen: Using an Archive to explore Composition Processes.

Qualifications

• PhD: Music Composition, University of the Arts London, 2013
• MMUS: Computer Music, Lancaster University, 2008
• BA: Music Technology, Lancaster University, 2007
• BA: Economics and Politics, University of East Anglia, 2004

Awards

Awards

• Project Greensounds (2024). Co-Producer, sound recording, design, mixing. Winner of The Listening Pitch, a partnership between Aesthetica and Audible.
• Still Every Year They Went (CD/Download)  (2019). Composition and production with Johny Lamb/Thirty Pounds of Bone. Named The Guardian’s Folk Album of the Month.
• High Days and Holidays (sound design)  (2018). Part of Every Encounter Counts  (Outstanding Achievement Award, The National Trust).
• Hayle Churks App (iOS)  (2015). Recognised by The Collections Trust.
• Hemispheric (5.1)  (2011). Second Prize at Computer Space  (Bulgaria).
• Hemispheric (5.1)  (2011). Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica  (Austria).
• Hans Tutschku Seminar (2011). Selected for Composing for Large Scale Multi-Channel Loudspeaker Environments.
• Big Ears Public Engagement Course (2011). Selected participant , funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Research Training Fund, with public performance and collaborative piece with young children, Belfast
• Lynchpin (5.1)  (2009). Prix Résidence at Bourges/Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique  (France).
• Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Competition (2008). Awarded for maintenance and fees.

Selected Projects

• SAGE Sound, Ageing and Environment (2023-2025). Co-Investigator. Funded by UKRI  (£336,500) with additional British Academy funding for a conference  (£24,000).
• Greensounds (2022-present). Participant recording, listening, and composition research project involving adults with dementia and their carers. Book and journal outputs forthcoming. Awarded £20,000 to produce the film Project Greensounds.
• Online Orchestra: Connecting Remote Rural Music Communities (2016–2018). Named Researcher. Funded by AHRC  (£217,245).
• Hayle Churks App (iOS)  (2015). Music and sound design. Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund All Our Stories 
• Soundwalk with Jeanie Sinclair (2012). Funded by Vilnius Academy of Arts for Nida Art Colony, Lithuania  (audio and music for GPS-aware soundwalk).
• Big Ears Public Engagement Course (2011). Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Research Training Fund. Included a public performance and collaborative work with young children in Belfast.
• Linder Sterling: The Darktown Cakewalk (2010). Recording, audio production, and composition for The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from The House of FAME  (Channel 4, Frieze Art Fair, Radio 4).
• The Mask Project (2009). Fixed media soundtrack, sound design, and live electronic performance at the Manchester Jazz Festival for Oliva Moor. Funded by Arts Council England.
• Proto-type Theatre: Whisper (2007–2008). Sound design and music for a headphone-based work. Funded by Arts Council England, reviewed and toured internationally.

Selected Texts and Presentations

• International Journal of Music, Health, and Wellbeing (2025). Editor, special edition on ageing.
• International Journal of Creative Media Research (2025). Song and Soundscape: Immersion and Presence in Spatial Audio  (forthcoming).
• Greensounds (2025).   (journal article, forthcoming).
• Intermediality in Communication (2024). Presentation at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania on Sound Environment and Ageing: Sound Interventions in Care Homes.
• Erasmus+ Multiplier HACK-IT event (2024). Presentation on immersive audio for changemaking.
• Journal of Music, Technology and Education (2017). Designing a System for Online Orchestra: Peripheral Equipment  (co-authored).
• Performance Research Journal (2016). Still Every Year They Went  (journal and video).
• Innovation in Music (2015). Presentation at Anglia Ruskin University with Johny Lamb, UK on Still Every Year They Went: Iterative Processes.
• Electronic Visualisation and the Arts, London (2012). Paper on Sound/Walking with Jeanie Sinclair.
• Association of Art Historians Annual Conference (2012). Presentation at The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK with Jeanie Sinclair on The Disembodied Voice as Embodied Experience of Place.
• Museums and the Web Conference (2012). Sounds of the Sea: Making a Mixed Reality Oral History Application for the St Ives Archive  (ePub). San Diego, USA.
• The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (2011). Presentation on The Acousmatic Album. New York, USA.
• Roehampton University (2011). Workshop and performance-lecture on By Response  (Max/MSP/Jitter and upright piano).

CD/DVD/iOS/Streaming

• The Greensounds Project (2023). Album of field recordings by participants of the Greensounds Project. Streaming.
• Still Every Year They Went (2019). Album of maritime folk songs and electronica on Armellodie.
• Cage Street Memorial (2016). Recording, mixing, production for Carleen Anderson’s album on Freestyle Records.
• Poetry/Video/Music (2016). Music for Amorese’s art in 23 EU languages. Aracne Editrice, Italy.
• Hayle Churks Soundscape (2014). Recording, composition, mixing, mastering.
• St Ives Soundwalk (2011). Created with Jeanie Sinclair. Available on iOS and Android.
• CyberArts 2011 (2011). Hemispheric 5.0 included in Hatje Cantz  (ISBN 978-3-7757-3181-2). Austria.
• Chopped and Stretched (2011). Upside Outward featured on a compilation album by Drift Station Gallery, Nebraska, USA.
• Whisper (2010). Prototype Theatre’s sound design and music. DVD release, UK.

Selected Performances and Events

• Aesthetica Film Festival (2024). Screening of Greensounds  York, UK.
• Hardwick Gallery (2022). Greensounds installation with Alice Goodenough. Cheltenham, UK.
• Everyday is Spatial Conference (2022). A Stór Mo Chroí with Danielle Meunier. University of Gloucestershire.
• Resonance FM (2020). Returns EP with Danielle Meunier. London, UK.
• BBC Radio 3 Late Junction (2020). Shoals of Herring with Jonny Lamb. London, UK.
• BBC Radio 3 Late Junction (2016). Farewell to Grog  (stereo) with Jonny Lamb. London, UK.
• Vilnius Academy of Arts (2012). Nida Art Colony Soundwalk with Jeanie Sinclair. Vilnius, Lithuania.
• Digital Futures, Victoria and Albert Museum (2012).  Ives Soundwalk. London, UK.
• Noisefloor Festival (2012). Drowning  (5.1). Staffordshire University, UK.
• International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition (2012). Upside Outward  (5.1). Leeds, UK.
• Hear This Space, St. David’s Church, Leicester (2011). Upside Outward  (stereo). Leicester, UK.
• Interrogations into Music Experimentation Symposium, Coventry University (2011). Upside Outward and Hemispheric  (5.1). Coventry, UK.
• The Seventh Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, Lancaster University (2011). Upside Outward  (stereo). Lancaster, UK.
• The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (2011). Upside Outward  (24.4 channel). New York, USA.
• Oxford Festival of Sound Art and Contemporary Music (2011). Audiograft Jukebox, Iron Gorge  (stereo). Oxford, UK.
• Electronic Spaces, Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (2011). Hemispheric. Kansas City, USA.
• Ai-Maako, International Festival of Electroacoustic Music (2011). Hemispheric. Chile.
• Sound Art Gallery, curated by Margaret Noble (online)  (2011). Sailsong. Online.
• Byte Gallery International Exhibition, Mitchell Fine Arts Centre (2011). Hemispheric. Kentucky, USA.
• Ars Electronica Origin, Festival for Art, Technology and Society (2011). Cyberarts Exhibition, Hemispheric. Linz, Austria.
• St Ives Festival (2011). GPS-aware soundwalk with Jeanie Sinclair. St Ives, UK.
• Drift Station Gallery (2011). Upside Outward in Chopped and Stretched  Nebraska, USA.
• Linder Sterling Commission (2010). The Darktown Cakewalk: Celebrated from The House of FAME  (Channel 4, Frieze Art Fair, Radio 4, Island Internet Radio, with Antti Saario). Glasgow and London, UK.
• Manchester Jazz Festival Commission (2009). The Mask Project  (fixed media soundtrack, sound design, and live electronic performance with Antti Saario). Manchester, UK.
• International Computer Music Festival (2008). By Response. Belfast, UK.
• Mantis Festival (2008). By Response  (Max/MSP/Jitter and upright piano). Manchester, UK.
• Proto-type Theatre, Whisper (2008). Alsager, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, London, Birmingham, Scarborough, Leeds, UK, and New York City, USA  (sound design and music for acclaimed headphone work).
• Liverpool Biennial Art Festival (2006). Surveillance with Sarah Cleaver. Liverpool, UK.