About Composers Inside Electronics

Phil Edelstein, updated March 2026 (and work in progress)

(partial list of pre 2018 legacy sites CIE History, CIE Home (legacy) CIE Tudor Legacy pages , Rainforest, John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein deprecated due to Apple iWeb not supported)

Introduction

Composers Inside Electronics (CIE) originated through the realization of creative work grounded in the exploration of sound and live electronics as an interactive, spatial, and sculptural medium. The collective emerged in 1973 from collaborations at New Music in New Hampshire, bringing together David Tudor, John Driscoll, Ralph Jones, Linda Fisher, Bill Viola, and Phil Edelstein.

Soon after, additional collaborators including Paul DeMarinis joined for performances such as the 1976 performances at the Festival d’Automne in Paris. Through these projects, the group coalesced under the name Composers Inside Electronics. Since then, CIE has continued to evolve in different forms up to the present day and actively planning future projects.

Rather than functioning as a fixed ensemble, CIE hs evolved and operates as an open and project-based collective. Its structure is defined by ongoing collaborations, with participants and configurations shifting according to each work.

CIE’s installations and performances emerge from a shared interest in custom-built instrumental loudspeakers, sound as a sculptural medium, and the creation of interactive objects within a collaborative environment. The work has been strongly shaped by David Tudor’s approach to feedback and circuitry as compositional tools, as well as by projects such as Rainforest IV and subsequent Rainforest variations.

In these works, sculptural sounding objects are used to articulate space through distributed sound fields. This expands traditional musical parameters—such as pitch, harmony, and rhythm—by incorporating spatial and physical dimensions as integral compositional elements.

Rather than presenting a single, time-based sequence of sound within a fixed listening position, CIE creates environments that invite listeners and viewers into a shared acoustic and visual landscape. Sound unfolds not only over time, but across space, with variation arising through movement, location, and interaction.

Current Activity 2022-26

CIE has been focused on collaborative sound art installations, projects and related performances. Allied projects have included Teasing Chaos at the Museum der Moderne, Unexpected Territories produced by SigUhr Projects, collaborative works such as Gestures/Murmurations (Cecilia Lopez, John Driscoll), Cluster Fields (John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein), the LocaleS3 triptych (Phil Edelstein , Michelle Jaffe, David Reeder), related publications, symposia, research, consultations and release of recordings. In 2024 there were notable performances at the Getty and Arter of various Tudor work performed by John Driscoll, Michael Johnsen, Gökhan Deneç, John DS Adams, Phil Edelstein including Driscoll’s Speaking in Tongues.

Supporting documentation under cover of Gestures and Clusters at the Zuccaire Gallery from Dec 2024-Feb 2025. Activities included workshop & performances of Pepscillator and Speaking in Tongues.

Several of the CIE cohort presented at symposium in Darmstadt summer of 2025 (Kuivila, Johnsen, Rogalsky , DeMarinis, Koch, and others).

Most recently in 2026, Michael Johnsen, Ron Kuivila and You Nakai were key to the Bowerbird exhibition David Tudor: View from Inside in Tudor’s city of origin Philadelphia. This inlcluded performances of Untitled and Pulsers realized by Johnsen, Dialects by Ron Kuivila, and and extend ensemble for Forest Speech (MJ, PE, with Eugene Lew, Dan Fishkin, Gianna Santucci and Victoria Keddie and Pepscillator (PE, DF) with rotating loudspeakers using design from John Driscoll.

An area of interest is in a program under cover of the David Tudor Sound Lab @ CIE to carry forward the evolution of Tudor’s and CIE legacy through formation of an archival collection, assembling a portfolio of works, installations, performances, symposia, workshops, publications and other means of dissemination (both online and at physical venues). The latest manifestation of the spirit of that can be found under 100+50 Tudor and CIE marking Tudor’s Centenerary and CIE’s 50th.

History and Chronology 1973-2022

Exampoes of other composers participating in CIE events and activities have included: Paul DeMarinis, John D.S. Adams, Seth Cluett, Linda Fisher, D’arcy Gray, Michelle Jaffé, Michael Johnsen, Ralph Jones, Ron Kuivila, Cecilia Lopez, You Nakai, Matt Rogalsky, Bill Viola, and many others. CIE has been shaped by the nature of these participations.

CIE grew out of David Tudor’s workshop at New Music New Hampshire in 1973 introducing the idea of instrumental loudspeakers that became Rainforest IV as a template of collaboration and creative cooperation through the composers’ performances of a repertoire of live electronic works.

With David Tudor’s passing in 1996, the extended community engaged in carrying forward the creative and collaborative spirit that has been our inheritance. CIE has continued to evolve as an umbrella for a spectrum of activities including the realization and presentation of works from the extended CIE community along with presentations of Rainforest IV, various collaborations and individual works. 2014 was the start of a 10-year cycle characterized by the construction of the Rainforest V variations acquired by Museum der Moderne Salzburg, MAC Lyon, MoMA NY and Arter Istanbul, exploration of the Tudor papers at the Getty Research Institute, Tudor’s instruments at Wesleyan University, dance projects with the Merce Cunningham Trust 50 Looks inside Rainforest V at Arter, Stephen Petronio’s Bloodlines realizations, Ballet de Lorraine and Lyon Opera Ballet. During this period, CIE has been working with Michael Johnsen’s recreations of the Mumma Modulator and has been undertaking various activities including workshops, performances, and exhibitions combining historically accurate reproductions of Tudor instruments along with modern realizations and new works.

Bio’s

Additional bio’s at individual websites below.

Driscoll Bio

John Driscoll is a composer, musician and sound artist from New York, currently living in California. He is a founding member of the innovative Composers Inside Electronics (CIE) group and performed with David Tudor and collaborated on his Rainforest IV project since its inception in 1973. His work has focused on robotic rotating loudspeakers, unique ultrasonic instruments, compositions and sound installations for resonant architectural spaces, and music for dance. He was a DAAD fellow (Berlin), and has toured extensively in the US and Europe with Tudor, CIE, Douglas Dunn & Dancers, Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Co., Stephen Petronio Dance Co., Merce Cunningham Dance Co., Phil Edelstein, Cecilia Lopez, and as a solo performer. His recent sound installation work has been exhibited at the Fridman Gallery (NYC), MoMA (Warsaw), MoMA (NYC), Museum der Moderne(Salzburg), Lyon Biennale, MAC (Lyon), Arter Museum (Istanbul), University of Maryland (College Park), Subtropics Festival (Miami), New Bedford Art Museum and others. His collaboration with Phil Edelstein on the sound installation Rainforest V – (variations 1-4) (2015-2018) resulted in acquisitions for the collections of: MoMA (NYC), Museum der Moderne (Salzburg), Vehbi Koc Foundation for the Arter Museum (Istanbul), and MAC (Lyon). His recent installation work Cluster Fields is a collaboration with Phil Edelstein.

Edelstein Bio

Phil Edelstein is a composer, media and sound artist from New York, currently based near Boston. He is a founding member of eba (originally Electronic Body Arts), with Maude Baum, George Kindler, and others, and of Composers Inside Electronics (CIE), formed with David Tudor, John Driscoll, and collaborators. Since its inception in 1973, CIE has collaborated on the Rainforest IV project.

Edelstein’s work focuses on interactive, gestural, and tactile software-based systems; sound composed for resonant, localized environments; and collaborations with dance. He has toured throughout the United States and Europe with Composers Inside Electronics, Stephen Petronio Dance Company, and as a solo performer.

His recent sound installations have been presented at venues including Eclipse Gallery (North Adams), Harvestworks’ Nolan House on Governors Island (as part of the triptych LocaleS3), MoMA (New York and Warsaw), Museum der Moderne (Salzburg), the Lyon Biennale, MAC Lyon, Arter Museum (Istanbul), the University of Maryland (College Park), and the New Bedford Art Museum, among others.

His collaboration with John Driscoll on the sound installation Rainforest V (Variations 1–4) (2015–2018) has been acquired by the collections of MoMA (New York), Museum der Moderne (Salzburg), the Vehbi Koç Foundation for the Arter Museum (Istanbul), and MAC Lyon.

Recent installation work includes Cluster Fields, a collaboration with John Driscoll, most recently shown at the Zuccaire Gallery. Additional projects include Re-Embodied Sound at EMPAC and new works for synthetic objects in real space.

Recent performances include appearances with CIE at the Fall Festival at Arter in Istanbul, a new realization of David Tudor’s Pepscillator with Rotating Loudspeaker, and Forest Speech, presented as part of David Tudor: A View from Inside in Philadelphia.

Bio’s of others to be supplied pending requests…

Links and Additional Reading

CIE legacy site http://composers-inside-electronics.net/cie/cie/cie_home.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tudor including

Individual’s Websites with Bio’s (partial list)