Sarah Davachi

Sarah Davachi 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. She is 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.{{Cite web |title=ABOUT |url=https://www.sarahdavachi.com/about |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Sarah Davachi |language=en}}

Davachi's compositional practice combines an interest in electronic instrumentation with contemporary treatment of orchestral acoustic instruments. She is also described as a drone artist. "Part of her success", wrote Resident Advisor, "comes from her musicality: she approaches drone with a fetching, but never facile, sense of melody." According to The Stranger, "Currently, Davachi is the closest thing we have to a hybrid of Éliane Radigue and Terry Riley."{{Cite web|last=Segal|first=Dave|date=n.d.|url=https://www.thestranger.com/events/26249723/sarah-davachi-lori-goldston|title=Sarah Davachi, Lori Goldston|website=The Stranger|language=en|access-date=2018-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206232329/https://www.thestranger.com/events/26249723/sarah-davachi-lori-goldston|archive-date=2019-12-06|url-status=dead}} According to the Getty Museum, where she was invited to create experiential soundtracks to Robert Irwin's Central Garden, "Davachi is among the preeminent emerging composers and performers of electroacoustic music."

Her first full-length LP release, Barons Court, was released in 2015. The album presented an unusual combination of sonic synthesis and live performance, featuring vintage synthesizers, cello, viola and other instruments, aiming for a novel approach to beat frequencies and drones.{{Cite news|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/events/695849|title=Sarah Davachi 'Barons Court' Release Party with Kensington Gore & Richard Smith|work=Resident Advisor|access-date=2018-07-24}} "Though she doesn't dumb it down," wrote Resident Advisor, "this was experimental ambient music that almost anyone could enjoy."{{Cite news|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/19329|title=Review: MUTEK 2016: Five key performances|work=Resident Advisor|access-date=2018-07-24}} Her album Vergers was released in 2016 by Important Records, featuring only one electronic instrument (an EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer), plus violin and Davachi's voice.{{Cite web|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=36809|title=Two Sarah Davachi albums on the way|website=Resident Advisor|access-date=2018-07-24}} In 2016 Davachi also released the album Dominions.

All My Circles Run, a suite of studies for solo acoustic instruments, was released in early 2017 by Students of Decay. "Like Brian Eno at his solo best," Pitchfork wrote, "it's the sort of ambience that doesn't flood, that hovers precariously somewhere between the conscious and the unconscious, barely-there and indisputably present."{{Cite web|last=Cummings|first=Raymond|date=2017-03-16|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22772-all-my-circles-run/|title=Sarah Davachi: All My Circles Run Album Review {{!}} Pitchfork|website=Pitchfork|language=en|access-date=2018-07-24}} The music on her 2018 album Let Night Come On Bells End the Day, was described by the Chicago Reader as "meditative" and "hypnotic."{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/canadian-sound-artist-sarah-davachi-uses-electronics-and-site-specific-acoustics-to-transform-various-instruments-into-something-mesmerizing/Content?oid=45412448|title=Canadian sound artist Sarah Davachi uses electronics and site-specific acoustics to transform various instruments into something mesmerizing|last=Margasak|first=Peter|work=Chicago Reader|access-date=2018-08-19|language=en}}

Gave in Rest was issued in mid-2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2018/08/13/638155275/sarah-davachis-gloaming-soundtracks-the-growing-dark|title=Sarah Davachi's 'Gloaming' Soundtracks The Growing Dark|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-08-19|language=en}} It was described by Tiny Mix Tapes as "cathedral-sized meditations," recorded away from Vancouver during a trip through European churches and lapidariums.{{Cite news|url=http://www.factmag.com/2018/07/16/sarah-davachi-gave-in-rest/|title=Sarah Davachi announces new album Gave In Rest|date=2018-07-16|work=FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music.|access-date=2018-07-24|language=en-US}} The album's first single, "Evensong", was released in July 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/sarah-davachi-returns-new-album-gave-rest-shares-new-track-evensong|title=Sarah Davachi very, very softly and quietly returns with new album Gave In Rest, shares new track "Evensong"|work=Tiny Mix Tapes|access-date=2018-07-24|language=en}} Jon Pareles of The New York Times described "Evensong" as "an arc of mourning and mysticism, a patient crescendo dissolving into a haunted memory".{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/arts/music/playlist-blood-orange-kenny-chesney-asap-rocky-tinashe.html|title=The Playlist: Blood Orange's Fragile Pop, and 11 More New Songs|access-date=2018-07-29|language=en|work=The New York Times|date=27 July 2018 |last1=Pareles |first1=Jon |last2=Caramanica |first2=Jon |last3=Russonello |first3=Giovanni }} "Since 2013," wrote Noisey, "she's made music that tends toward slow-moving melodic gestures out of both synthetic and recorded instruments, often treated and edited with electroacoustic processes that emphasize their own stillness, but this new record is the first where she's been able to explicitly engage with these feelings."{{Cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/sarah-davachi-gave-in-rest-evensong-stream-interview/|title=You Need Some Rest. Sarah Davachi's New Ambient Music Can Help|date=2018-07-16|work=Noisey|access-date=2018-07-24|language=en-us}} In 2019, Davachi released the album Pale Bloom, an acoustic suite of pieces for piano, reed organ, Hammond B3, violin, and viola da gamba recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.

In 2020 Davachi founded Late Music, an imprint within the partner labels division of Warp Records. In June 2020 Davachi published a collection of essays, titled Papers.{{Cite web|title=Sarah Davachi - Papers|url=https://boomkat.com/products/papers-69713554-8405-4bc3-b4ab-c09cf04c0e88|access-date=2020-08-10|website=Boomkat}} Her album Cantus, Descant, released in September 2020 via Late Music,{{Cite web|last=Minsker|first=Evan|title=Sarah Davachi Announces New Album Cantus, Descant, Shares New Song|url=https://pitchfork.com/news/sarah-davachi-announces-new-album-cantus-descant-shares-new-song-listen/|access-date=2020-08-10|website=Pitchfork|date=2 July 2020 |language=en-us}} was recorded on six pipe organs across North America and Europe.Mattila, M., [https://kulttuuritoimitus.fi/artikkelit-kolumnit/kolumnit-parasta-juuri-nyt/parasta-juuri-nyt-17-12-2020-sarah-davachi-mary-lattimore-william-basinski-fire-toolz-pakanamaan-kartta/ "Parasta juuri nyt"], Kulttuuritoimitus, December 17, 2020. Davachi also released a number of EPs in 2020 and the double live album, Figures in Open Air. The album Antiphonals, recorded mostly using the Mellotron and Korg CX-3 electric organ, followed in 2021. In 2022, Davachi released the double album Two Sisters, featuring chamber music written for carillon, choir, organ, strings, woodwinds, brass, and electronics. She also released the double live album In Concert & in Residence. In 2024, Davachi released Long Gradus, a triple album of solo pipe organ works recorded at historic churches in California and the Netherlands over a three-year period. The album explores sustained tone, decay, and resonance, and was described by Boomkat as “monastic,” “starkly beautiful,” and “a masterclass in quietude.”{{Cite web |title=Sarah Davachi - Long Gradus |url=https://boomkat.com/products/long-gradus |access-date=2025-04-30 |website=Boomkat}}

Davachi also works as a musicologist, exploring organology, phenomenology, and timbre. Between 2007 and 2017, Davachi worked at Calgary's National Music Centre as an interpreter, content developer, and archivist. She has also lectured at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Film School, UCLA, California Institute of the Arts, and held artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, Canada), Quatuor Bozzini's Composer's Kitchen, Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments (Fribourg, Switzerland), the National Music Centre (Calgary, Canada), STEIM (Amsterdam, Netherlands), WORM (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Elektronmusikstudion (Stockholm, Sweden), OBORO (Montréal, Canada), and MESS (Melbourne, Australia).{{Cite news|url=https://www.soundtoys.com/signals-3/|title=SIGNALS: Sarah Davachi|date=2017-01-31|work=Soundtoys|access-date=2018-07-24|language=en-US}} Since 2017, she has been a resident host on NTS with the monthly show Le Jardin.{{Cite web |last=Radio |first=N. T. S. |title=Le Jardin w/ Sarah Davachi |url=https://www.nts.live/shows/sarah-davachi |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=NTS Radio |language=en}}

Adapted from Davachi's website.{{Cite web |title=Discography |url=https://www.sarahdavachi.com/discography |access-date=2023-03-20 |website=Sarah Davachi |language=en}}

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Category:1987 births

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian electronic musicians

Category:Musicians from Calgary

Category:University of Calgary alumni

Category:Mills College alumni

Category:Composers for pipe organ

Category:21st-century Canadian composers

Category:21st-century Canadian women composers