Oslo Laptop Orchestra (OLO) is an ad hoc ensemble at the University of Oslo. It has been operating since 2007, in the spirit of Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), and others.
This repo contains old PD, Max, and Chuck patches, plus a set of new browser-based laptop instruments.
OLO is accompanied by Oslo Mobile Orchestra (OMO), which explores similar electronic musicking in a marching band setting, using mobile phones and portable speakers as sound makers. OMO also has a public code repo.
Thanks to new, powerful WebAudio technology, we have now moved our setup to using browser-based instruments:
| Instrument | What you do |
|---|---|
| CliX | Hold keys; a shared grid retriggers typed impulses |
| Crystalis | Bow or pluck; drag the pad like a trackpad |
| Droner | Crossfade four harmonic corners with the pointer |
| Clap Hands | Clap into the mic; delays answer back |
| Munge | Speak or play into a living delay cloud |
| Tap Bloom | Click to plant slow, pulsing pentatonic blooms |
| Green Button | Hold for a swelling drone (Space works too) |
| XY-FM | Full-screen FM — mouse = pitch & depth |
| Horizon | Shepard tone — tilt or drag vertically |
| Slice Keys | Record mic, keys 1–8 = slices |
| Vision Grain | Camera motion → granular cloud |
| Circular Groove | Euclidean rings + evolving L-system rules |
| Beat Matrix | QWERTY 16×4 step sequencer |
| Shiny Machine | 16-step drums — kits, swing, effects, velocity |
| Filter Ladder | Tilt/mouse opens ladder filter |
| Mic Theremin | Hum → pitch-tracked sine |
| Room Wash | Mic level → reverb wash |
| Shadow Seq | Webcam shadows → 8-step rhythm |
| Wavetable Scan | Mouse morphs wavetables |
| Autophagy | Starvation types & autophagy phases, sonified |
Full sensor catalogue: docs/LAPTOP-INSTRUMENTS.md.
OLO operates with some constraints, which can also feel like opportunities:
- The laptop is considered an instrument — just like playing an acoustic instrument, we focus on real-time control and in-the-moment musicianship.
- Sound comes from the extended instrument — we do not route sound through a large PA system; each player has a local sound source so that it is clear to everyone who produces what sound.
- Digital possibilities are explored — we explore all sorts of synthesis and sampling, networks, sensors, and new social forms of playing together.
The result is a distributed orchestra similar to traditional ensemble performance, but with the possibility of exploring new forms of musicking.
OLO was founded in 2007 by Alexander Refsum Jensenius (UiO) and Kjell Tore Innervik (NMH). Workshops and concerts have run at irregular intervals ever since, developing repertoire from the laptop-orchestra canon and new works for different line-ups.
Sister project: Oslo Mobile Orchestra (OMO), having the same philosophy but using mobile phones and portable speakers.