Örjan Sandred is a composer of both instrumental and computer music. His instrumental works reach from music for Symphony Orchestra to solo instruments. Several of his later compositions show an increased interest in mixed music, where acoustic instruments are combined with live electronics. He has composed music for performers in many countries. Among his electroacoustic compositions is Konzert für Konzerthaus for the Wave Field synthesis loudspeakersystem at the concerthall in Detmold, Germany. He has also composed larger scale works, for example Magma for symphony orchestra (for the Swedish Radio Orchestra), Labyrinths in the Wind for Yamaha WX5 Wind Controller and symphony orchestra, and Lament for Humanity (both commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra).

Sandred is currently a Professor in Composition at the University of Manitoba in Canada, where he founded Studio FLAT - a studio for computer music research and production. Previous to his current position he was teaching composition and electro-acoustic music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm 1998-2005. He is a frequent guest lecturer around the world. He has given seminars at Harvard University, at University of California at Berkeley and Davis, at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, at the Bartok Seminar in Szombathely (Hungary), at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, at McGill University in Montreal, at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at the University of Plymouth and other places. During the spring 2016 he was a DAAD visiting professor at the Hochschule für Musik, Detmold in Germany.

Many of Sandred's pieces are results of his search for new methods of composition. During 1999 he worked as a Composer on Research in the Musical Representation Team at IRCAM. He has a particular interest in Rule-based Computer Assisted Composition techniques, and he has published several articles on the outcome of his ongoing research (for example in Computer Music Journal 2010 and Contemporary Music Review 2009).

Sandred's music is regularly performed in many countries around the world. In 2017 he was featured in a portrait concert at the concerthall in Uppsala, Sweden