Andreas Swoboda, MA
mail@swonic.com

Music

Andreas musical background ranges from piano lessons starting at the age of 7 to about 100 live shows as a punk rock drummer before he finally fell for electronic music. Finger drumming on grid controllers has been his favorite way to express himself musically since.

Since 2018 Andreas alias SWONIC is creating and publishing live performance videos and tutorials on various social platforms.

Musicology

Andreas gained his master’s degree in 2015 at the Department of Musicology, University of Vienna, and has been working at the Vienna Technical Museum since 2012.

His compiled research on the history of electronic wind instruments was published in 2017, carrying the German title “Die Anfänge der elektronischen Blasinstrumente” (Eng. “Beginnings of the Electronic Wind Instruments”).

Current areas of research include musical instruments, music production and digitalization.

Publications

2024: “Digitale Radiowelt“. Österreichs Radiogeschichte – vom Detektorempfang zum Streamingprogramm, Technisches Museum Wien (ed.), Berndorf: Kral (Austria).

2022: “The Evolution of the Breath Controller: Electrified Reeds, Phototubes and Digital Wind“. Electronic Musical Instruments in Collection Context, Benedikt Brilmayer (ed.), Mainz: Schott Music (Germany).

2017: Die Anfänge der elektronischen Blasinstrumente. Osnabrück: epOs–Verlag (Germany).

conference papers

2019: “The Evolution of the Breath Controller: Electrified Reeds, Phototubes and Digital Wind.”, Electronic Instruments. Perspectives on History and Museum-Collections, 08–09 May 2019, Musikinstrumenten-Museum SIMPK Berlin (Germany).

2018: “Electronic Wind Instruments — Where did it all begin? Traces lead to France, Germany, Japan and USA.”, Electronic Instrument-Making, 08–09 March 2018, Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris (France).

2017: “Tönend bewegte Elektronen – Die Entwicklungsgeschichte der elektronischen Blasinstrumente. Vortrag inklusive Demonstration historischer Blassynthesizer”, Symposium Junge Musikwissenschaft – Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft, 22–25 November 2017, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Austria).

2016: “Die ersten Blassynthesizer – Neue Puzzleteile aus den USA”, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, 9–11 September 2016, University of Vienna (Austria).

2015: “Die ersten Blassynthesizer und ihre Vorgänger”, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Musikpsychologie, 11–13 September 2015, University of Oldenburg (Germany).