Artistic Activity
Performance and composition as an electroacoustic composer and guitarist, working across computer-based composition and guitar performance.
Current Work
An electroacoustic work for guitar and Sherman Filterbank 2, composed in 2025. Three pieces investigate what remains when the computer is removed — the raw signal of a guitar passing through analog filtering, the boundary between the instrument and its transformation, between presence and absence. The title track was selected for Forum Wallis 2026, Leuk Castle, Switzerland.
Awards & Selections
Thresholds of Presence — Selection, Leuk Castle, Switzerland
Reverie for Guitar — World Premiere, National Sawdust, Brooklyn
nOt well Nothing noT Almost — World Premiere
gU-topia for solo Electric Guitar, 8-channel spatialized — Australia
The Difference Machine — Selection, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Battle Button — Award, Dresden, Germany
Artist Grant (USA); artist residency at Mills College, California (1999–2000, 2001)
Performance
Live performance (September)
PTYX — World Premiere, 8ch multichannel, Shibuya Cultural Center Owada, Tokyo
UTSURO-BUNE — Niigata City Noh Theatre, with choreography by Atsuko Wada, dance by Masayuki Sumi
Reverie no.3 (Vienna, World Premiere) / nOt well Nothing noT Almost (Melbourne)
Collaborations
Past collaborations with dance and film — real-time processing of guitar sound alongside movement, and music composed for experimental film.
JSEM 22nd Concert, Niigata City Noh Theatre. Choreography by Atsuko Wada, dance by Masayuki Sumi.
See the project →Music for the movement. Presented by Yasuhiro Otani, supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
See the project →Discography
guitar, Sherman Filterbank 2
Single
Single
Single
guitar, 8-channel spatialized
PaleBlue Records
PaleBlue Records
Max / MSP
Much of the catalog is built on Max/MSP/Jitter, used extensively for multichannel spatialized pieces. Otani authored an introductory book on Max/MSP/Jitter (BNN, 2009) and a technical column series (Sound & Recording Magazine, 1996–1997). Thresholds of Presence is a project-specific departure — built from guitar and Sherman Filterbank 2 alone, without a computer.