Music and Art Professors Release Cutting-Edge Ambisonic Jazz Album

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Jake Hertzog, assistant professor in the Department of Music, and Adam Hogan, assistant professor in the School of Art, released an innovative new album titled a turn of events, available now on Apple Music and Spotify.

The new album blends arts, improvisation and technology with a novel focus on ambisonics — which is a 360-degree sound format that surrounds the listener and is ideal for immersive audio experiences — to "completely redefine how 'free' free jazz can get," according to Hertzog.

"We really wanted to understand the interaction between the performer and the instrument, and that interaction begins with conceptualizing the ambisonic diffusion technology as an instrument," Hertzog said. "In other words, I think both of us really had to learn how to play all over again for this project, and we want to carry the listener with us through that journey."

Utilizing free jazz improvisational techniques, a turn of events showcases the benefits and unique aspects of ambisonic sound, allowing the format to act as live instruments do and be capable of advanced spatial, musical and timbral improvisation.

The album, which marks the final product of an intensive research and development project that began in 2020 as part of a Chancellor's Grant for the Performing Arts and Humanities, reflects a year's worth of extensive experimentation, testing, technology development and nearly 100 hours of trial recordings.

"I was drawn to the immersive holistic sound field that can be rendered using ambisonics, and how as both a composer and improviser, by using this technique, we can now think about space just as we would think about pitch, melody or rhythm," Hogan said. "Now with immersive sound streaming formats like Dolby ATMOS, we can deliver that experience directly to the listener."

The duo's pioneering work was recently featured at the 2023 International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz Conference in a presentation on how technological research influences improvisation.

Hertzog and Hogan said a turn of events also takes nods from jazz pioneers such as Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, who elevated "free" jazz in both acoustic and electric settings for their generation, and current practitioners such as Dan Tepfer.

The project's lineage and influences further include electroacoustic composers Juan Pampin and Richard Karpen and acousmatic pioneers Bernard Parmegiani and the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theater.