“The role of the laptop in artistic production has become ubiquitous: it records, transmits, receives, creates, edits, effects, and performs; it is mobile, fast, and light. For the audio-artist, experimental electronic musician, video-producer, or visual artist working in new media, the laptop is increasingly becoming indispensable device?” -- (van Veen 2002)

Laptop music is an un-generalized, un-patterned and non-uniform cultural phenomenon, a product of rhizomatic conditions, a musical practice, an attitude, almost state of mind, consciously or unconsciously redefining the techno-cultural sound scape. It is a new mode of musicianship: fusing self-research, composition, innovation, performance and distribution in a single technological device connected to digital networks.

The background and impulse for this mainly theoretical endeavour is author’s participation in various musical settings, practical utilisation of digital tools, free software and digital networks for more than ten years. It has been observed in recent years an increasing use of mobile devices, especially general purposed processing machines – laptops in live and compositional musical situations. Frenzied communication of dsp specialists has been stumbled while playful exploration of free musical tools has been conducted on almost daily basis. At the time of creating first outlines of research it has been understood that by acknowledging the fusion of previously discrete practices a wide scope has been charted. This scope includes historical artistic and musical conceptual and practical developments, emergence of personal computer, Internet and free software, the demoscene and net.audio, contemporary issues of the music industry and present day instances of musicians with laptops. Researching Laptop Music as a cultural phenomenon has been a navigation through a terrain of cross discipline references, cross-historical practices and theoretical leads only to constantly uncover curious mixture of contradictions exerted by people in creative dialogue with their own creation: the (computing) machines. It is yet unknown if this sketchy map live up to its goals, but to be sure, it is hoped to be a modest contribution to a better understanding of contemporary micro-cultural musical practices. Structure of this paper is divided into six chapters with a preceding discussion on theoretical points of departure and methodological concerns. The first chapter explores a historical view on musical developments throughout the 20th century that seem influential at the beginning of 21st. The advent of personal computer and the under researched topic of demoscene – community of computer audio/visual creatives – and pc’s immense transformational power is discussed in second chapter. The underpinnings and quick overview of development of the Internet are outlined in third chapter continuing into free software and Linux emerging phenomena and its consequences. Fourth chapter delves into difficult area of recording industry struggle with new disruptive file-sharing distribution technology, while fifth chapter explores a fairly unknown field of independent on-line virtual audio publishing. Last chapter offers an insight into inspiring ‘.microsound’ on-line community as a sketched community of laptop musicians and follows some other real-life appearances of mobile-technology-using musicians in recent years. In conclusion, an aspect of five fused practices of laptop music is presented to finish celebrating the phenomenon’s ambiguity.

In the present text, we explored the terrain of conditions for creative and technological practices in the light of five activities that a musician conducts with help of general purpose processing device connected to digital networks. In conclusion, they are layed out here.

Research
The information age represents an era when, among others, the knowledge that needs dissemination will be disseminated. As never before in human history, an individual with a personal computer and Internet connection has access to body of knowledge previously unimagined. Being on-line can be thought of as “being in the classroom”. Despite of Internet explosion being largely a consequence of its privatization, the meme of “information wants to be free” never left the building. Thanks to numerous individuals who continuously publish and communicate their inventions, papers, documentation and explorations on the Internet, and campaign for liberties like free software and free speech, a netizen can now learn almost without limitations, and for her, indeed, information overload is an obligatory experience.

Composition
The freeing sounds by mid-century composers opened a door not only for free compositions, but also for free composers. The re-questioning of art brought in new types of artists. By introducing indeterminacy, composers gave performers power to compose, and by using machines musical performer became somewhat obsolete. Music-making has become possible for anyone with an interest in bouncing samples around in trackers, manipulating sounds and sequencing them or perhaps leaving them to random triggering by customised patches. Musicians grew increasing interest in maths, programming and algorithms, to create new varied compositional methods. ?Composition is inscribed in the permanent fragility of meaning after the disappearance of usage and exchange. It is neither a wish nor anxiety, but the future contained in the history of the economy and in the predictive reality of music.? (Atalli 1985)

Innovation
The advent of general purpose processing device ? a personal computer ? created a free space for creation of musical tools, compositional software, experimental synthesis and dsp plugins. It created plateaus open to re-appropriation of code, programming routines and experimental patches, with help of ?intelligent? software that enables creation of new applications. The composer is free to create her own versions of tools, customised for composition or performance. The instruments morph and switch at fingertips at virtually lightning speed.

Performance
With its mobility, laptop frees the composer, the performer, the band, from bulk of synthesisers, pianos, drums, rack of samplers and effect units, and sends her ? the technomad ? to perform, sometimes motionless to challenge the aura of the spectacle, sometimes immersed into the ocean of her own sound, like it would be a true gibsonian cyberspace of avatars, and perhaps indeed the network traffic from the venue?s open wireless network is used as data for control information within the digital patches. The glowing of lcd screens illuminate concentration, and reveal nothing more than a hint at interface with buttons, sliders and numbers. Or perhaps a black screen with a command line is projected onto the wall demonstrating a custom built music performance tool. Performance as exploration of technology.

Distribution
Using the Net as a network for free distribution of creative works through various protocols and services enabled musician to find her audience and offered possibility to listener find her music. Music is liberated from its physical media, entering the cyberconsciousness only to re-enter the free flow of appropriation, exchange and redefined referencing. Instant virtual publishing bypasses the middle-man, the manufacturer, distributor and seller, to spread the non-exclusive sound in a non-exclusive way. Even ?the exclusive music? ? the protected and guarded ? is almost militantly liberated, as in a battle for air, reinstating the right to listen by throwing ripped digital data into the sea of binary bits and bytes disseminated by tcp/ip protocol to be put to seemingly primary use: ensemenating1 the musical minds: ?Let loose the echoes of difference. They need no guidance, nor control nor mastery or strict prescription, but space and time to plat out their differing echoes? (Veen 2002)