Short Bio for Performances and Related Events
Doug Van Nort is a composer and performer of electroacoustic and experimental electronic music. His work is dedicated to fostering personal and collective creative expression through composition, installation, workshops, free improvisation and generally electroacoustic means of production. His musical work maintains an interest in the boundaries of noise and tone, dense layering, texture, drone, viscerality and the emergence of psychoacoustic effects and patterns that result from experiencing the work in immersive acoustic spaces. Van Nort performs on self-made and idiosyncratic ‘instrumental systems’ that explore an improvisatory and sculptural approach to working with sound using hands and voice, and improvisation in partnership with machine processes. He often captures sounds live in performance, while his recorded source materials span instruments and natural environments, including any and all sounds discovered through attentive listening to the world.
Recent projects have spanned telematic music compositions, transforming an elevator into an electroacoustic sculpture, interactive textiles, creating + performing with generative machine improvisation systems, interactive bio-physical music compositions for dance, and performing sonified data streams from NASA’s Kepler mission. The unifying thread in this work is that it begins from a fascination with the complex and embodied nature of listening in environments that are immersed in noise.
Van Nort regularly presents his work internationally, appearing at venues such as the Stone (NYC), Experimental Intermedia (NYC), Casa da Musica (Porto), the New Museum (NYC), Skolska28 (Prague), Liebig12 (Berlin), Quiet Cue (Berlin), SAT (Montreal), WNUR (Chicago), Issue Project Room (NYC), Xfest (Holyoke), Roulette (NYC), the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Miller Theatre (NYC), EMPAC (Troy), X-Avant Festival (Toronto), Cafe OTO (London), the Red Room (Baltimore), Eyebeam (NYC) among many others; he often performs solo as well and has performed and recorded with a wide array of internationally recognized artists spanning musical styles and artistic media, including Francisco López, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Al Margolis (If, Bwana), Chris Chafe, Jonas Braasch, Kathy Kennedy, Ben Miller, Alessandra Eramo, David Arner, Anne Bourne, Eric Leonardson, Judy Dunaway, Katherine Liberovskaya, Carver Audain, Paul Hession, Jefferson Pitcher, Francois Houle, Jonathan Chen, and in Sarah Weaver-conducted ensembles alongside the likes of Gerry Hemingway, Min Xiao-Fen, Ray Anderson, Miya Masaoka, Franz Hackl, Mark Helias and Dave Taylor among many others. Van Nort also conducts and leads the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra from his home base of York University in Toronto. His music appears on several labels including Pogus, Deep Listening, Attenuation Circuit and Zeromoon.
Doug Van Nort is a composer and performer of electroacoustic and experimental electronic music. His work is dedicated to fostering personal and collective creative expression through composition, installation, workshops, free improvisation and generally electroacoustic means of production. His musical work maintains an interest in the boundaries of noise and tone, dense layering, texture, drone, viscerality and the emergence of psychoacoustic effects and patterns that result from experiencing the work in immersive acoustic spaces. Van Nort performs on self-made and idiosyncratic ‘instrumental systems’ that explore an improvisatory and sculptural approach to working with sound using hands and voice, and improvisation in partnership with machine processes. He often captures sounds live in performance, while his recorded source materials span instruments and natural environments, including any and all sounds discovered through attentive listening to the world.
Recent projects have spanned telematic music compositions, transforming an elevator into an electroacoustic sculpture, interactive textiles, creating + performing with generative machine improvisation systems, interactive bio-physical music compositions for dance, and performing sonified data streams from NASA’s Kepler mission. The unifying thread in this work is that it begins from a fascination with the complex and embodied nature of listening in environments that are immersed in noise.
Van Nort regularly presents his work internationally, appearing at venues such as the Stone (NYC), Experimental Intermedia (NYC), Casa da Musica (Porto), the New Museum (NYC), Skolska28 (Prague), Liebig12 (Berlin), Quiet Cue (Berlin), SAT (Montreal), WNUR (Chicago), Issue Project Room (NYC), Xfest (Holyoke), Roulette (NYC), the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Miller Theatre (NYC), EMPAC (Troy), X-Avant Festival (Toronto), Cafe OTO (London), the Red Room (Baltimore), Eyebeam (NYC) among many others; he often performs solo as well and has performed and recorded with a wide array of internationally recognized artists spanning musical styles and artistic media, including Francisco López, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Al Margolis (If, Bwana), Chris Chafe, Jonas Braasch, Kathy Kennedy, Ben Miller, Alessandra Eramo, David Arner, Anne Bourne, Eric Leonardson, Judy Dunaway, Katherine Liberovskaya, Carver Audain, Paul Hession, Jefferson Pitcher, Francois Houle, Jonathan Chen, and in Sarah Weaver-conducted ensembles alongside the likes of Gerry Hemingway, Min Xiao-Fen, Ray Anderson, Miya Masaoka, Franz Hackl, Mark Helias and Dave Taylor among many others. Van Nort also conducts and leads the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra from his home base of York University in Toronto. His music appears on several labels including Pogus, Deep Listening, Attenuation Circuit and Zeromoon.