biography

Charles Martin is a specialist in percussion, computer music and interactive media currently based in Piteå, Sweden. His music explores formal structures from computing and logic situated in the context of percussive gesture and timbre. He links percussion with electroacoustic music and other media through new interactive technologies.

Charles’ work is deeply informed by the processes and structures of mathematics, computing and logic which he studied in his undergraduate degree at the Australian National University along with classical percussion. His first class honours thesis in mathematics was completed in 2008 with a focus in logic and computer based proof.

In 2009, Charles completed a master’s degree in music performance at the ANU School of Music. His focus was the interaction between percussion and computer music technology. He is currently undertaking further graduate study at Luleå University of Technology’s School of Music and Media in Piteå, Sweden. In Piteå he co-founded an international percussion group, Ensemble Evolution with whom he is developing his skills in composition for percussion using augmented instruments, new interfaces for performance and cross-artform performance.

His percussive, electroacoustic, and multimedia works, described as “a thing of rare beauty” by David Zampatti for The West Australian, have been featured throughout Australia, in Sweden and the USA. Recent works include: Vital LMTD for The Street Theatre, Canberra’s Made In Canberra Season and Newcastle’s This Is Not Art festival, “The Last Man to Die” at The Brisbane Festival’s Under The Radar Season and The Blue Room Theatre, Perth, Strike on Stage with Chi-Hsia Lai, at New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Sydney and the Australasian Computer Music Conference, Canberra and a number of new works for percussion performed with Ensemble Evolution at the Piteå Percussion Repertoire Festival and in Stockholm, Sweden.

Charles believes strongly in the value of cross-artform collaboration for engaging new audiences with percussion, music, and other arts. In the spirit of hacker culture, he endeavours to “release early, release often”, prototyping his works through rapid performance and revision. He is available as a sound artist and performer for musical, theatrical and gallery-based projects and also as a consultant on interactive technologies in performance.