A composer and electronics performer whose work explores the intersections between instrumental forces, reactive computerised sound worlds, traditionally notated scores, improvisation, audiovisuals, psychoacoustic phenomena, and installation-like soundscapes. Since 2009, he has served as technical director and composing member of Wet Ink Ensemble.
Laptop improvisation is a core part of Pluta’s artistic practice. Performing on his custom so ware instrument, he has toured internationally with Rocket Science, the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, and the Peter Evans Ensemble. He appears as a composer and performer on over thirty albums of new music and jazz, many of which are released on his label, Carrier Records. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, where he teaches composition and directs the CHIME Studio.
Selected works: Favorite Things or Titre français avec un petit Mondrian for 4–15 laptop performers with live video (2003), noise + mobile for piano and two-channel playback (2005), Mix-Deep Breaths-Remix for saxophone quartet (2005), American Tokyo Daydream III (The Surprise) for piano, string quartet, and live electronics (2006), 7:6 for distorted/amplified cello (2006), ATD IV for saxophone, electric guitar and accordion (or piano and percussion) (2007), American Tokyo Daydream I (Calypso Sunrise) for solo laptop performer with live video (2007), SWITCHES for distorted/amplified cello and drumset (2007), data structures/monoliths ii (for Chion) for laptop performer with live video sampler (2008), Signal Flow for percussion quartet and live electronics (2009), Standing Waves for flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone, guitar, accordion, percussion and live electronics (2009), Matrices for percussion trio, live electronics and two televisions (2009), Memory by Design, music for a video work by Nathan Punwar (with Peter Evans; 2010), Lyra for string quartet (2007–10), American Tokyo Daydream V for saxophone and electronics soloists, flute, violin, piano and percussion (2010), Tile Mosaic (after Chagall) for piano four hands, two percussion and resonators (2010), Palimpsest I–II for piano / keyboard, open instrumentation and live electronics (2010), Portraits/Self Portraits for large ensemble (2011), us = Dictionary[\me->\you, \you->\ me]; love = us[\me];while(love!=nil,{love=us[love]}); //endless love for flute and voice (2012), Timber Remix, remix of part 1 of Michael Gordon’s Timber(2012), Machine Language for percussionist, two percussion, two bass clarinets, two violins, accordion and electronics (2012), Broken Symmetries for violin soloist, so ware-controlled feedback, flute, saxophone, piano and percussion (2012), Sixty Cycles for sopranino saxophone, television feedback, live video, violin and cello (2013), Chain Reactions/Five Events for string quartet and live electronics (2013), Four Sixes for percussion sextet (2014), Escape Strategies for violin, flute, clarinet, percussion and electronics (2014), Points Against Fields for bassoon and fixed media (2014), MODULES for two trumpets, horn, tuba, percussion and live electronics (with Je Snyder, 2014), hydra for violin, piano, fixed media and live electronics (2015), Seven Systems for two pianos, two percussion and electronics (2015), delay/line for flute and electronics (2016), binary/momentary: ow state/joy state for string quartet (2016), binary/momentary ii: ow state/joy state for trumpet, two trombones, percussion and piano (2017), Matrix for George Lewis for two silent trombones with live analysis and synthesis (2017), Lines on Black for voice, flute, saxophone, violin, piano, percussion and electronics (2018), for Delia Derbyshire for bass, guitar and electronic playback (2018), binary/momentary iii for cello and playback (2018), Actuate/Resonate for large ensemble (2018), New Work for saxophone, violin, cello, piano, percussion and quadraphonic playback (2019), binary/momentary iv for saxophone quartet and electronics (2020).