Robert van Heumen

Robert van Heumen is a composer and improvising musician using an extended laptop-instrument to perform highly immersive and hyper-dynamic electro-acoustic music. As a musician, live sampling is his main tool. With a joystick and other tactile controllers, live sampled source sounds are gesturally manipulated and reworked within open ended narratives. Van Heumen is continously researching new strategies for live sampling and looking for the perfect balance between free improvisation and structured music. The laptop is used in an instrumental, tactile way, connecting action to sound like any acoustic instrument, and is used in live performance as well as in the studio to generate sonic material for electro-acoustic compositions. Van Heumen is performing regularly with his band Shackle (with electro-flutist Anne LaBerge) and various ad-hoc groups. He's using realtime audio-synthesis software SuperCollider and STEIM's live sampling software LiSa.