neurodiversity and electronic music
Milan is also a pioneer of inno- vation in this field. Since 2020, UnìSono – A Rave for All has brought the model to Italy with meticulous attention: lights not too low, music not excessively loud, a decompression room, and guidelines on acoustics, lighting design, timings, and security wri- tten with the help of neurologists and psychologists. The project, supported by the Municipality of Milan, organises 4–6 inclusive ni- ghts per year. And that’s not all: the Disabled Ravers Network has built a database of disabled and neurodivergent artists, while ve- nues like The Yard in Manchester offer braille signage, audio loops, lowered bars, and sensory rooms. Things that seem obvious, but that almost no clubs have yet.
But accessibility doesn’t stop at sensory rooms and reduced volumes. There is another, even more radical frontier: one where the body becomes the instru- ment. Soundbeam, for example, is a sensor that translates move- ment into sound. Even a person
with profound physical disabili- ties can create music by moving a finger or their head. It has been used in therapeutic contexts with autistic children and adults with spinal cord injuries, and the results have been surprising: not only improvements in motor skills, but also a new form of emotional expression.
The duo of Cicanoise (an autistic musician with motor difficulties) and Atau Tanaka pushed the concept even further: electrom- yographic (EMG) sensors placed on the body turn signals from the nervous system into MIDI data to control modular synthesisers.
These are not isolated experi- ments. A systematic review pu- blished in Psychiatry Research in 2025 analysed dozens of studies on music therapy and assisti- ve technologies for children and adolescents with ASD and ADHD. The evidence shows moderate to large effects in improving psy- chological and social functioning, especially when using interactive
musical interfaces, virtual reali- ty, and neurofeedback systems. Then there are purely artistic projects like “Spectrum Sounds” by autistic composer Andrew Hu- gill, who lives with synaesthesia and asymmetric hearing loss. He created seven pieces associated with the colours of the spectrum, using the BBC’s Audio Orches- trator to allow listeners to control the listening environment – ad- justing volume, reverb, and equa- lisation. These are all demonstra- tions of how making art can show another way of existing.
The magic of all this is that many solutions already live within the scene. The next time you hear a hypnotic kick drum, a modu- lar synth unfolding for minutes, a drop that pulses in your chest, think about who programmed it. Maybe their brain simply works… on a different frequency. And maybe that’s exactly why the music sounds so good.
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