Robert Laidlow

2025 was home to so many exciting projects I was proud to work on, present and share with the world. Some highlights - 🧪 Berlin showcase of our "Sound Vessels" project with @federicovisi @alberto.decampo & Cosima Gerhardt using liquid vessels as instruments to control electronic soundscapes (I was there in spirit..!) (photo: Nikolas Brade) 🤖 @col0ratura fifth performance of Post-Singularity Songs in Edinburgh and recording session for her album with Alastair MacDonald "Ecstatic Visions" next year 🎻 Recorded my string quartet "Gravity" with @piatti4tet for @nmcrecordings album next year with amazing support from @dorico 🎤 Gave lots of talks on Exoplanets and Music including in Basel ahead of @interfinity_ next year 🧲 My 35 minute concerto for @zubinkanga performed and recorded by @bbcphilharmonic and @jackfrsheen in July. Zubin plays piano, synths and new embedded AI instruments including the "stacco" in the image. Thank you to @privatonicola @victorrileys and @intelligentinstruments for helping me adapt this tech for my concerto and hosting me at the lab in Iceland last year (photos: @robinclewleyphotography ) 🪐 @londonphilharmonicorchestra gave a fantastic first performance of my orchestral piece "Exoplanets" 🐕 and of course lots of walks with Ada (beach photo!) Bring on 2026!

Thank you to @londonphilharmonicorchestra @edwardgardner_official for an incredible first performance of my piece "Exoplanets" this Saturday evening. It was such an enjoyable and rewarding experience to work with the LPO and to have my music played in my hometown of London by an orchestra for the first time. I always like taking photos of the percussion setup in my pieces, but this one has a first for me - branded buckets to submerge bell plates into! Top marks. Many thanks to the players for being so receptive to my music, to Ed, to my scientific collaborators and interlocutors, and to friends and family who came to see. Next outing is @interfinity_ in March with @sinfonieorchesterbasel which involves an immersive light show designed by @nickverstand !

(sound on) Another extract from "Post-Singularity Songs". @col0ratura has a breathtaking range (see last reel for the "low" side!) and incredible precision and control. Amazing collaborator to work with! This is from her recording of "Post-Singularity Songs" on the recent album Ecstatic Visions with @electromacd

Loved making the live processing for Stephanie's voice at this moment, which we've taken to calling the King's Song, in my Post-Singularity Songs. Always fun performing it together live too! The text by John Donne seemed appropriate for the twilight-shadow-grey character Stephanie represents at this moment in the piece who presides over a crumbling world. Post-Singularity Songs was recorded by Stephanie and @electromacd on their recent album Ecstatic Visions

We’re still not over this – are you? Exoplanets – what a journey! 📸 @m.j.photo.s

Music, lasers, and scientific insight dissolve the boundaries of the concert hall and invite us to dream beyond our world. „Exoplanets” is a stunning collaboration among curator @lukas_loss , composer @robert_laidlow , light artist @nickverstand , the @sinfonieorchesterbasel under the direction of Lin Liao, and physicist Dr. Henry Legg @physicshenry . With its powerful evocations of extreme atmospheres, distances, and temperatures, Basel’s vast Messehalle transforms into the outer reaches of the galaxy. What lingers after this audiovisual journey is not only a heightened sense of planets beyond our reach, but a subtle shift in how we understand our own. Lukas Loss – concept, curation, texts Robert Laidlow – composition, live electronics (“Stacco”) Dr. Henry Legg – moderation Lin Liao – conductor Sinfonieorchester Basel Nick Verstand / @wes_broersen - light design Tim Grützner @lightanddesign_ch - light programming @live_tec_gmbh – technology @stage_mate @amadis.hertzwerk – sound engineering NCCR PlanetS – scientific partner, texts Interfinity bridges science and the arts in bold, innovative formats. The festival is made possible by main sponsor @novartis_ch , @christophmerianstiftung , Swisslos-Fonds Basel-Stadt, and NCCR PlanetS. „Exoplanets“ is a co-commission with the @londonphilharmonicorchestra . Photos: @m.j.photo.s

honoured and excited that my orchestral piece "Exoplanets" is the conclusion to this year's @interfinity_ festival in Basel. @sinfonieorchesterbasel and Lin Liao sound absolutely phenomenal and the music is alongside a lights/laser performance in this incredible space in Basel with @nickverstand . Some shots here from the first rehearsal/test! Going to be a really special occasion. If you're in or around Basel, catch it Thursday 19th and Friday 20th. I worked on this piece with several exoplanet scientists across different countries and I really feel proud of the music which captures some of what I find inspiring, mesmerising, thought-provoking and sometimes terrifying about what and how we learn about other planets in the universe. The piece was co-commissioned by Interfinity and the @londonphilharmonicorchestra , who performed it last year. @kingsartshums

Another one from "Everything I Have Ever Heard Is Just Data" (a very reel-able movement from TECHNO-UTOPIA). Big band jazz to Mahler to Verdi to trumpbabble to ABRSM-style scales and arpeggios. Enjoyed writing this bit @zubinkanga on piano and synths here with some great playing from BBC Phil percussion, and indeed everyone else, conducted by Jack Sheen. You can hear the whole 35 minute piece on BBC Sounds for the next week or two.

Happy 6th birthday to our fabulous four legged best friend Ada

Wow it's been a bit of a difficult day on here. Thought I'd share this calm moment from TECHNO-UTOPIA featuring soloist Zubin Kanga on piano and drum machine, and the amazing BBC Philharmonic on everything else. From the third movement "Everything I Have Ever Heard Is Just Data". You can hear the whole 35 minute piece on BBC sounds

🔊🔊 SOUND ON 🔊🔊 Some audio from Saturday night's radio broadcast of TECHNO-UTOPIA on BBC radio 3! One minute from the 35 minute concerto. Breakneck speed playing from @jackfrsheen and BBC Philharmonic with @zubinkanga controlling past recordings of the orchestra on his sampler (while also playing piano with the other hand!) Feeling so fortunate to have such a wonderfully high quality recording of this piece from such a great ensemble. Watch out for next performance in Berlin 😁 You can listen to TECHNO-UTOPIA on BBC radio 3 new music show for the next 26 days. Would love to know your thoughts!

This Saturday my 35-min concerto "TECHNO-UTOPIA" for @zubinkanga and the @bbcphilharmonic will be broadcast on @bbcradio3 New Music Show! Catch it live or for 28 days after. This piece was a very long time in the making, and features Zubin performing on piano, synthesizers and newly-developed adaptive instruments. As I write in the programme note, "TECHNO-UTOPIA explores human music-making in the age of algorithms and how making and listening to music constructs what it is to be human." (see image for note). I can't wait to share it. The orchestra granted me access to their archive of recordings which Zubin explores, melts down and reconstructs in many ways. All the electronics and new instruments are spun out of this rich archive - it’s an audible rejection of the notion we often hear that new technology simply can’t function without scraping every piece of music online, whether the creator wants you to or not. Instead, the technology is responding to that specific group on stage. It's a real journey, especially the third movement which goes on a tour of hundreds of my own formative sonic memories merged with the archive of the BBC Philharmonic. The second movement is a cadenza for the "Stacco" instrument, invented by @privatonicola and @la.lepre at the @intelligentinstruments . I spent a week at the Intelligent Instruments Lab in preparation for this piece, where Nicola, @victorrileys and I worked on adapting the Stacco for TECHNO-UTOPIA, including creating new latent space audio models based on the orchestra's archive which Zubin can explore and pull apart using the power of magnets. We recorded this back in July with @jackfrsheen so its great to have it out there. I am hugely grateful to the BBC Philharmonic for commissioning this work, along with @rsb_orchester who will premiere it in Berlin in October. @kingsartshums @torchoxford @jesuscollegeoxford @cyborgsoloists