Sarah Davachi (b. 1987, Canada) is a composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, utilizing extended durations and considered harmonic structures that emphasize gradual variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena, and tuning and intonation. Her compositions span solo, chamber ensemble, and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and longform tenets, early music concepts of form, affect, and intervallic harmony, as well as experimental production practices of the electroacoustic studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant.
In addition to her acclaimed recorded output, Davachi has toured extensively alongside artists such as Ellen Arkbro, Oren Ambarchi, Grouper, William Basinski, Catherine Lamb, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Michael Pisaro, Loren Connors, Tashi Wada, David Rosenboom, Charlemagne Palestine, Arnold Dreyblatt, and filmmaker Paul Clipson. Commissioned projects include large-scale works for Quatuor Bozzini, the London Contemporary Orchestra, Yarn/Wire, Apartment House, Wild Up, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Cello Octet Amsterdam, Bonner Kunstverein, the Canadian International Organ Competition, and Western Front New Music. Her work has been presented internationally by Southbank Centre (London, UK), Barbican Centre (London, UK), Kontraklang (Berlin, DE), Ina GRM (Paris, FR), Issue Project Room (New York, USA), Lampo (Chicago, USA), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, DE), Organ Reframed (London, UK), The Getty (Los Angeles, USA), Orgelpark (Amsterdam, NL), Le Guess Who? (Utrecht, NL), The Museum of Jurassic Technology (Los Angeles, USA), Mazeum Festival (Kyoto, JP), Open Frame (Sydney, AU), Unsound (Kraków, PL), Église du Gesù (Montréal, CA), Église Saint-Eustache (Paris, FR), Temppeliaukio Church (Helsinki, FI), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco, USA), Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (Chicago, USA), Lapidárium Národního Muzea (Prague, CZ), and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid, ES), among others. In 2020 she founded Late Music, an imprint within the partner labels division of Warp Records.
Between 2007 and 2017, Davachi had the unique opportunity to work for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard instruments. She has held artist residencies with The Banff Centre for the Arts, Quatuor Bozzini’s Composer’s Kitchen, STEIM, Elektronmusikstudion, OBORO Montréal, the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, the National Music Centre, and the Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments, and holds a master’s degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California. Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, focusing on timbre, phenomenology, and critical organology, and is based in Los Angeles, California.
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