Nat Evans

Nat Evans’  sonic craftsmanship is a delicate blend of tone poetry, sound design and psycho-acoustic chamber composition using musical instruments, natural sounds and signal processing.  The final effect is like a reverie or a raga; the sonic equivalent of a deeply moving sunset.  His approach, like his music, is hard to put into words, yet deeply impactful and philosophically rich.  Natural sounds often create a kind of “harmonic progression” upon which are artful layers of percussion, processed strings and foley are laid, creating what can only be described as a new style of sound composition.

Much more than just a sonic innovator or experimentalist, Nat is a true artist of sound — creating experiences through our aural perceptions that are sublime, haunting, mesmerizing, sometimes even frightening.  It is rather than learning to play a particular instrument, he strove to play everything – to use a limitless selection of acoustic phenomena to instill visceral emotional colors, dreamlike places, altered states.  Both ethereal and earthy at the same time, his music is trancelike and can put the listener into a completely unique perceptive state.

The music he will be presenting and relating on March 25 is made from field recordings, bells, and traditional instruments, created to coordinate with the changing light of the sky at dusk.  It is also inspired by his studies in Zen meditation.  Evans also cites the time-specific characteristic of Indian Ragas and site-specific pieces by Robert Moran (hear Seven Sounds Unseen) and Stuart Dempster (hear Cloud Landings) as strong influences. Many of Evans’ works are created to be experienced outside and at a precise time of day – in the case of Assemblage (for Sunset), 10 minutes before sunset.

In September 2010 a new site-specific electro-acoustic work that combines nature, community and music – Sunrise, September 18th, 2010- was presented in Seattle and in Louisville. Participants downloaded the score to a portable listening device, then joined groups in their respective geographic locales to observe a sunrise together as they listened to the music. This was the first in a series of site and time specific works presented in this manner. In 2011 Evans presented his Sunset + Music tour across the United States using the same method as sunrise event, with this one taking place at sunset. The events were covered extensively in the press, and Evans was invited to give lectures on the topic, as well as present it at New York’s Bring To Light Festival. Currently he is working on the third in this series entitled Blue Hour as a commission for the Private Works series at The Hartt School.

Evans’ music is regularly performed across the United States and has also been performed in Europe, South America, Australia and China. He has received numerous commissions including the Seattle Percussion Collective, the Harrison Center for the Arts, ODEONQUARTET, Seattle Pacific University Men’s Choir and Percussion Ensemble, Beta Test Ensemble, The Northwest School Chamber Orchestra, among others. His music has been featured on a number of radio stations in the United States, as well as BBC3, and in the 2011 Music Issue of The Believer. He studied music at Butler University with Michael Schelle and Frank Felice.

Evans has created installations at the Harrison Center for the Arts, and helped organize (and performed in) the Sonic Waves Experimental Music Festival in Melbourne, Australia. His music has also been featured in the Long Beach SoundWalk sound art festival, Brooklyn’s Nuit Blanche event Bring To Light, as well as the Make Music Winter festival as part of Tom Peyton’s Bell by Bell event. A frequent collaborator, Evans has worked with fashion designers in Berlin, artists, film makers, and composers and musicians such as Ross Simonini. He and Simonini have written scores for film as well as modern dance, including choreographer Catherine Cabeen.