Martin Loridan develops a compositional practice in which sound is approached as physical, spatial and performative matter. Earlier works often foreground harmonic colour, resonance and instrumental texture; over time, these concerns have evolved towards increasingly embodied approaches to breath, gesture, space and the transformation of acoustic instruments. Recent work often emerges at the threshold of audibility, where friction, unstable vibration and incidental sounds generated through contact between bodies and instruments become materials for musical form.

A central strand of his work concerns souffle — breath and air understood not simply as instrumental techniques, but as a wider compositional principle. His PhD in Composition at the University of Leeds investigated how breath, friction and instrumental resonance can form a continuous musical material, informing works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles and larger forces, as well as spatial performance.

This research has progressively extended towards the transformation of acoustic instruments. Projects involving the Extended Pedal and non-invasive active amplification use instruments’ own resonating bodies as media for diffusion, feedback and transformation, creating new relationships between performer, instrument, electronics and space.

His works have been performed internationally by musicians and ensembles including Claude Delangle, Rohan de Saram, the Arditti Quartet, Quatuor Tana, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Fractales, Mise-En Ensemble and Accroche Note.

His work has received distinctions including the André Jolivet Composition Prize, the Vareler Composition Prize and the Reinl Foundation Composition Prize. A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, he is Professor of Composition and Orchestration at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels, where composition, research and collaborative experimentation intersect within his artistic and pedagogical practice.