The Sydney-based project combines cognitive science with immersive sound design to create music engineered to trigger specific physiological and mental responses.
Eric J Dubowsky, the ARIA and Grammy Award-winning producer behind mixes for Flume, FKA twigs, St. Vincent, and ODESZA, has launched REALM: an experimental music project that merges audio engineering with cognitive neuroscience. The debut live experience will premiere at Machine Hall, Sydney on 30 November 2025.
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Rather than simply evoking emotion, REALM aims to engineer specific cognitive and physiological responses through sound. Developed in collaboration with ambient artist Matt Curtin, creative director Tim Baggott, and cognitive neuroscientist Dr Steffen A. Herff, the project explores how particular musical elements influence perception, time, and physical sensation.
“REALM is about understanding what sound is really doing to the brain,” says Dubowsky. “We know music can make you feel things. But what if we could design that experience with intention and improved well-being impacts for people?”
The debut event features two distinct experiences. Neural Rush focuses on triggering chills–shivers, goosebumps, pupil dilation, and elevated heart rate. Dream Hacker takes a different approach, designed to provoke vivid mental imagery, out-of-body sensations, and altered perception of time and space, accompanied by live visuals from artist Justin Ridler.
Lab testing adds scientific rigour to the project. Compositions were tested on 100 international participants through the Sydney Music, Mind & Body Lab at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Results showed a 35% increase in vividness of mental imagery, with imagined time stretching up to 55 times normal perception. Recurring visual themes emerged across listeners despite personal differences.
“We wanted to move beyond general ideas like ‘relaxing’ or ‘uplifting,'” Dubowsky explains. “This is about exploring how specific musical elements influence the brain. If we understand that, we can design immersive journeys with positive intention and nuance.”
Audiences will become part of the research process, too. After each performance, attendees scan a QR code to report what they saw, felt, and imagined, and this data feeds back into ongoing research. Matt Curtin describes the approach as an exploration of “the deeper neurological channels that connect sound to emotion and body,” freed from traditional concert format distractions.
For Dubowsky, REALM represents an expansion rather than a departure from his pop and electronic work. It’s a new dimension in audio that points toward what he calls “a new kind of sonic euphoria” as younger audiences seek altered states outside substance culture.
REALM debuts at Machine Hall, Sydney on Sunday 30 November, with doors at 6:30pm. Find tickets here.
