Electronic Music and Sound BA(Hons)

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Portfolio advice 

We have a history of accepting outstanding students with strong portfolios and consider all applications on an individual basis. We encourage you to apply even if your predicted grades might fall below the entry requirements.

Admission to this course involves reviewing your portfolio. After you apply, we will ask you to share a link to an online portfolio of your work. This enables us to see your potential and understand your approach and motivations.

We will ask you to log on to Student View to share your portfolio link. We will not be able to progress your application to Brighton until you share your portfolio.

• Find out about the specific requirements for your course.

Creating your portfolio
We’ve put together advice and guidance to help you create and share your portfolio and we run regular online portfolio advice sessions where you can get help from our expert team.

Top reasons to choose this course

• Inspirational graduates who have gone on to rewarding careers, many of whom are celebrated in the field of sound and music.
• Links with local music venues so you can get used to playing live and make industry connections, like the Rosehill, one of Brighton’s foremost venues. Our students and alumni get involved in Outlands Network, and student work has featured in festivals including Brighton Festival, Brighton Digital Festival, Fort Process, International Design Research and Society Conference and Sound Art Brighton. They also get involved in commissions and collaborations with organisations and companies including projects run by Brighton alumni, such as Soundcamp and Ithaca.

• Lecturers are professional musicians and artists with a passion for sharing their knowledge, experience and industry insights.
• An artistic and experimental approach – you’ll be encouraged to find your own creative path.

• Excellently equipped studios and workshops – take a virtual tour in the Facilities tab on this page.
• Personal use of the studios is encouraged, giving you the freedom to experiment widely.  

• An engaging learning journey through practising and experimenting creates conditions that ensure you make the very most of your chosen craft and learn through various contexts and activities. 
• Staff and student collaboration is pivotal and encouraged.
• The third-year Professional Practice module teaches you key employment skills. 

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Year 1

In the first year you will study creative studio techniques together with the physical properties of sound which will inform other work on the course. You will be working on creative projects aimed at opening up fresh possibilities through an engagement with new audio technologies to develop creative strategies as used in contemporary music and sound art practices. In addition to industry standard production software like Logic Pro, Protools and Ableton Live, we emphasise creative work with musical programming environments such as Pure Data and Max/MSP in order to enable the design of musical interfaces, installations or systems based on individual creative projects.

The first year covers a wide field – from sound synthesis and acoustics, perception of sound and music analysis, to musical composition and instrument design. Various project assignments will encourage you to reflect upon your own practice and develop creative projects that you will present to other students. You will also write an essay on a topic of your choice related to the course profile areas. Embedded in the course curriculum are tasks and methods that provide you with transferable skills, such as project development, management and presentation skills and academic writing.

Modules

• Practice 1: Introduction to Sound

  Through establishing a solid basis in the understanding of sound from a phenomenological and psychoacoustic perspective, this module will encourage you to increase the level of experimentation in your composition exercises. By exploring diverse soundscapes, listening to and analysing important musical works of the past 70 years, you will widen the scope of their own compositional approaches. New technical skills will be contextualised within diverse aesthetic and historic musical approaches. The aim is to conduct an extensive ear training and increase your compositional portfolio.

• Practice 2: Sound as Material – Perception and Experimentation

  This module will introduce you to creative applications and techniques relating to work in sound studios, loop based music and sound installations. You will also be introduced to the nature of sound, synthesis, psychoacoustics, audio programming and compositional techniques. You will be encouraged to present work in the context of public performances and collaborations with external music organisations.

• Practice 3: Sound Organisation

  This module will introduce you to a variety of creative approaches to the concept of sound organisation as it is applied in contemporary sound art practices. You will engage with techniques for gathering of materials, customization of technical skills, conceptualization, listening and composition, and methods for organizing sound in both virtual and physical spaces.

• Practice 4: Creative Audio Systems

  In this module you will examine music and sound synthesis in the context of contemporary arts and performance by focusing on three key topics: iterative or generative music; new interfaces for musical expression (NIME) and interactive sound installations; and Network Music and Human-Computer Interaction. You will work in groups to research, develop and critique your projects.

• HCS 1: Programme Profile Introduction

  This module will introduce you to the profile of the Digital Music and Sound Arts programme. Taught as interrelated lectures and seminars, you will develop your knowledge of the wide and complex field of artistic sound practice and gain an understanding of its practical, conceptual, cultural and aesthetic implications. You will explore the experimental music and sound works in the cultural context in which they emerged in the 20th / 21st Century. You will practice presentation skills through presenting you own work.

• HCS 2: Experimental Sound and Music in Contemporary Culture

  This module will continue exploring the experimental music and sound works of the 20th and the 21st centuries, the aesthetic concepts that underpinned them, and the cultural context in which they emerged. This is introduced through individual key topics. You will also be introduced to research methodologies and academic writing. You will select a topic of your own choice and will be guided through the research methodologies and writing practices required for producing an academic text.

Year 2

In the second year you will develop skills and knowledge in three key areas:

• composition and sound design for the moving image
• sound art
• new media.

Theoretical modules support practical work where you will do sound design for films or other screen-based forms and sound art in its various manifestations. Students typically work on composition and sound design for the moving image and new media (film, TV, video, internet and games), radio, multi-channel sound, audio programming, digital instrument design, interactive sound installations and other sound arts practices.

In the second semester of this year you will start one-to-one tutorials with your dedicated tutor to support you in the first stages of your final research essay, which links strongly to the final practice-based project in the third year.

Modules

• Practice 5 and 6: Sound for Screen

  This module offers you the opportunity to explore conventional and experimental forms of composition and sound design strategies for screen-based audiovisual formats including surround sound in film, TV, video, the web, mobile devices, games and audiovisual installations.

• HCS 3: Sound/Music and the Moving Image

  This module will give you a broad introduction to the development of sound and music for film, TV, video and new media. You will investigate the structural use of sound/music for narrative and experimental audiovisual works and develop an understanding of the dynamic relationship between sound and music and moving images by analysing examples. New audiovisual aesthetics in contemporary media will also be explored.

• The Global Challenge Project; Art as Activism

  This module introduces you to art movements and activisms that have sought to address social change. You will draw upon your photographic, moving image or sound creative practice to produce a project of artistic value that responds to one of the global challenges identified by the UN’s sustainability development goals relating to equality and diversity, wellbeing, climate change or sustainable economies.

• Practice 7: Sound Arts Practice

  The lectures in this module, which works in tandem with the Sound Art Theory module, each address a different topic and are devised to develop the skills and techniques associated with specific applications. In the practical work, you will tackle conceptual and technological problems specific to different sound art forms and gain an understanding of the key issues relating to each area.

• HCS 4: Theory and History of Sound Art

  This module traces the history of sound art from its 20th century inception to the present day, exploring the different strategies employed in the field, including sound objects, sound sculptures, sound installations, radio art, soundscapes, interactive sound productions and events. Sound art will be explored in the context of contemporary media culture and related arts, such as improvisation, performance and visual arts.

• Practice 8: Final Project and Research Essay Proposals

  In this module, you will create proposals for your Final Project and Research Essay which will be linked and developed in parallel. The Research Essay will support the development of the studio practice of the practical Final Project and will provide historical, contextual, theoretical and conceptual research which forms the basis for it.

Final year

In your final year, you will work more independently than in previous years. This year consists of the following elements:

• a research essay written in the first semester
• a practical project in the second semester
• the completion of a professional practice in the second semester
• the development of your final project in the first semester. 

The practical project is an intensive process where all the professional skills (practical, intellectual, organisational and production management) gained during the course of studies are condensed into one well-developed, documented and presented final project that will be publicly exhibited during the degree show in June.

Your final year will involve one-to-one tutorials, study groups, seminars, lectures and professional practice sessions. All years will see you attend creative studio techniques and audio seminar sessions and benefit from ongoing technical workshops.

Modules

• Practice 9: Final Project Development

  In this module you will develop your ongoing Final Project with supportive critical reviews at key points. Through practical investigations and theoretical research, drawing on research essay work, you will continue to evolve your own specialism within the wider arena of sound work practices.

• HCS5: Final Research Essay

  In the final year of your degree, you will produce a Final Research Essay of 5,000 words which is intended to both contextualise and support your main studio practice and demonstrate an ability to research a chosen topic, construct coherent arguments, and comprehensively develop and present ideas.

• Professional Practice

  This module supports your own professional development by covering a variety of related issues and vocational directions. You will gain a broad understanding of professional structures and career options within the field of sonic design and composition for the moving image and new media, contemporary music and sound production, sound arts and related areas.

• Practice 10: Final Project

  This module facilitates the completion of your individual Final Project. You will continue to develop your project and address issues raised by your chosen area of practice in work-in-progress seminars and tutorial sessions. These will provide a supportive forum for you to develop ideas, consider creative and aesthetic decisions and consolidate your practice-based research and investigations.

Facilities 

• Four modern digital production and post-production studios equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software equipped with surround-sound speaker systems
• Two sound-isolated recording booths
• A sound diffusion lab where students can experiment with spatial projection, multichannel sound and unconventional speaker configurations
• Workstation area for individual student use, teaching presentations and demonstrations that is equipped with all taught software
• Dedicated tutorial room for individual and small group consultations
• Separate workshop area where students build customised instruments and devices
• Field-recording equipment, including a digital six-channel recorder and 5.1 field microphone

Software used in the course: Logic Studio Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Max/MSP, Pure Data, SuperCollider and various open source applications. You will be able to experiment with software and hardware design, enabling you to build your own acoustic, electric or virtual instruments and installations.

Meet the team

Johanna Bramli, course leader

Johanna works with textures, noise, sonic spaces, audience interaction and sensory perception. She has lectured in sound art, composition for media, performance-based practice and musicology for the past 15 years. Johanna is also one half of electronic/motorik/pop band Fröst, founder of all-female noise/feedback improv choir The Larsens and co-founder of MAMI – Mamas Across Music Initiative.

Read a Q+A where Johanna talks about her career journey and how she got into creating and teaching music.

Dr Stephen Mallinder, musician, DJ, writer and academic. Stephen is a founding member of pioneering electronic act Cabaret Voltaire.

Caleb Madden, sound and installation artist. Caleb is undertaking an arts practice-based PhD focusing on critical noise theory and novel approaches to analysing the political agency of contemporary art practices.

Technical Demonstrators: Paul Bowyer, Alfie Warder and Ben Beasley.

Course leader Johanna Bramli is a musician, sound artist, composer and performer.

Summer shows 2024

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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