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Think of a sound you haven't heard before. Now create it.  

I'm fascinated with this idea. Since the 1990s, I've been developing methodologies, techniques, systems and instruments to realize the unheard. My work is a sonified series of answers and investigations into various 'What if' statements: What if a swarm of insects could follow a score of music? What if language could evolve from randomness? What if each rain drop in a storm could choose its own pitch? And while I aspire to make the final compositions engaging and stimulating to listen to, my work is as much about the process itself, one step removed; the abstract innovation.

I use computers for their robust calculation capabilities, their efficiency handling complex, tedious tasks, and their objective, apathetic relationship with aesthetics and memory. Random numbers generated by a computer [while not entirely random] are much less intentional than those chosen by a person. Those numbers can be massaged to be less so if that's needed or important to me in a given situation. This precise randomness makes computers good objective decision makers, and yet, aesthetically malleable.  

I often employ programming techniques that facilitate the creation of pseudo-autonomous objects. These objects have their own internal memory, their own decision making capabilities and can interact with other objects. This environment transforms cold, calculating computers from ordinary machines into smart and thoughtful musicians, capable as participants in larger organizations; societies bigger than themselves as individuals. It is in these complex "living" systems that I find intricacy and elegance.  

Much of my work is performed in real-time collaboration with choreographers, dancers, performance and video artists, creating a blur between which art form is being informed by the other.  

Think, then listen.  Listen, then think.

 

BIOGRAPHY

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Joel Mellin started his career as a systems engineer for a NASA funded gamma ray observation satellite, but left the space program to pursue graduate studies in music composition at NYU. There, he worked on innovative digital music systems using genetic algorithms and sonar-based instrument controllers for real-time performance.

 

Mellin uses computers for their robust calculation capabilities, their efficiency handling complex, tedious tasks and their objective, apathetic relationship with aesthetics and memory. He strives to realize the unheard, experimenting with new techniques, methodologies and musical paradigms. His works include a 30,000+ rain drop thunderstorm, an automated Balinese Gamelan Gong Kebyar orchestra and a swarm of insects that follow a score.  Often, his works takes shape in collaborative settings with other artists, performers and dancers. 

 

As a programmer, Mellin developed database applications for the USDOE's Safe and Drug Free Schools initiativeto help the NYC public school system better manage at-risk students, developed a dynamic music licensing library called FlickTracks, and is responsible for developing innovative online classroom and distance learning as the Senior Information Architect for Gotham Writers' Workshop. His software is used by thousands of people around the globe every year.

 

Compositions For Computer: Volume 1, a limited edition book and CD of Mellin's work, was released by Oakland-based Kolourmeim Press in early 2009.

Joel Mellin currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

 

PRESS & PRAISE

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for Compositions for Computer: Volume 1
"Mellin's sound scores are layered, sophisticated - sometimes jarring and surprising, sometimes meditative and unrelenting - worlds I want to place amongst my dance. His computer generated sounds mysteriously reveal themselves into a swirling landscape, perfect for the choreography to unfold, to stray and settle in and, eventually, a place for the dance to live."
-Jodi Melnick, Choreographer

 

"Joel Mellin's compositional sense is firmly planted outside those boundaries that most composers fight to break through. While others may think "outside the box", Mellin does not recognize the box in the first place. A maverick with a deep respect and understanding for of formal disciplines, his innovations push both technological and aesthetic boundaries with razor sharp clarity and a kind of revolutionary charisma that invites the listener into a welcoming, if not always comfortable sonic world."
-Nick Didkovsky, Composer and Author of the Java Music Specification Language (JMSL)

 

RESUME | CV | DISCOGRAPHY 

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