Mattias Hållsten (b. 1997) is a Swedish composer and musican. His music explores auditory perception and the boundary between acoustic and elec- tronic sound, utilizing different synthesis techniques and instrumentations combined with just intonation. In relation to this, he also works with the aesthetic and affective characteristics of different intonation patterns. His interest over the last few years in the Japanese court music Gagaku has led him to studies in the musical instrument sh ̄o, for the Japanese musician Ishikawa Ko.

Hållsten has a master’s degree in electro-acoustic composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where he studied for, among others, Henrik Frisk, Ludvig Elblaus, Gerhard Eckel, and Christofer Elgh. His music has been performed in Sweden and other European countries.

Breathing, bowing

Viola da gamba and steel plate

In Breathing, bowing, Mattias Hållsten uses the bowing of the viola da gamba as a musical point of departure. The frets of the viol are adjusted to facil- itate harmonies in seven-limit just intonation, welcoming the rich timbral characteristics of the viol and creating moments of harmonic fusion. Apart from the viol, the piece uses a 600x1000x0.75 mm suspended steel plate, ex- cited by a transducer speaker, used primarily for playing back justly tuned sine waves. By using the plate for playing back the sine waves, rather than loudspeakers, the electronic sound is given a body and assumes a physical presence on stage.