Post-Euphoria in Electronic Music Making

Engaging in a range of electronic music making techniques, this doctoral, practice-based project examines the creative interpretation of “post-euphoria”: a concept conceived here to describe a retrospective subjectivity that encapsulates reminiscing and an afterglow feeling in relation to lost euphoric experiences. The study aims to establish a musical aesthetic the responds to this concept using DAW tools, to form a body of musical work comprising a collection of recordings. Identifying a lack of available practice-based studies on music production practices that deal with memory and recollection, particularly in connection with electronic dance music and its concomitant cultural events, the research contributes insights to this underexplored area. To examine how post-euphoria can be interpreted through electronic music making, the research firstly conducts interviews with comparable electronic music practitioners whose work is informed by themes of recollection and reminiscing in the context of electronic dance music. Insights gained in the interviews then inform the main creative investigation, which is pursued by utilising the DAW Ableton Live and its built-in tools. Developed as part of the creative investigation are production and compositional strategies and a body of ten original recordings, accompanied by this critical exegesis that examines and contextualises the creative practices established. Undertaking the study enabled an understanding of ways in which elements of electronic music production can be used figuratively to embody conceptual meanings relating to reminiscing and recollection. It further demonstrates how electronic dance music tropes can be employed, alongside sampling-inspired and self-remixing techniques, to connote a sense of missing euphoria and to suggest transformations that occur in the memory of fleeting experiences. Finally, the study shows how these musical elements can be incorporated within a songwriting framework and as part of an integrated collection of corresponding recordings, to further the musical interpretation of post-euphoria.