Robert Baldock is a Scottish-based composer and new media artist who has been making and performing experimental music under the name Aleatory Music Systems (AMS) since 2002.

AMS is interested in exploring the interface between order and chaos, with pieces usually being improvised musical structures, which are slowly built up and then dismantled, with chance elements influencing their evolution.

Compositions are created using either bespoke Java software applications or, more recently, Max/MSP patches and modular analogue audio and video synthesis. Sound sources include analogue synthesizers, General MIDI, shortwave radio and field recordings.

His work has been performed previously at the ‘Seeing Sound’ Festival, Bath Spa University, ‘Lights Out Listening Group’, Glasgow, ‘Generation’, National Galleries of Scotland, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, ‘Radiophrenia’, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, ‘Synesthetic Sequencer’, Edinburgh Art Festival, Place + Platform, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh, ‘Neon Digital’ Dundee Contemporary Art, Dundee, ‘Staring at the Ceiling, Looking at the Stars’, University of Stirling The Dark Outside, Dumfries and Galloway Dark Sky Park.

In 2017 I survived a serious ischemic stroke. I now live with acute aphasia (I know what I want to say but cannot find the words), severe verbal dyspraxia (if the words are there, I have difficulty motor-programming to speak).

This suite of impairments makes all forms of communication, both verbal and written, incredibly difficult, if not impossible. I use the raft of tools at my disposal such as drawing, gesture and facial expression to make myself understood.

Expressing myself through the act of creating music has never been more crucial for me.