Sarah Davachi

Canadian composer Sarah Davachi produces richly immersive, layered drones that draw on analog and modular synthesizers together with acoustic instruments including strings, woodwinds, and pianos. Her music recalls minimalist figures such as Eliane Radigue and LaMonte Young while examining psychoacoustics via delicate shifts within spare harmonic frameworks. Since 2007 she has held a position at Calgary’s National Music Centre, where her responsibilities have included teaching, content creation, and the archiving of information on musical instruments and recording gear. She received a philosophy bachelor’s degree from the University of Calgary in 2010 and, two years later, a master’s degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California. Shortly after completing artist residencies in the Netherlands and Sweden, she issued her first recording, the 2013 cassette The Untuning of the Sky, on Full Spectrum Records. August Harp appeared the following year on Important Records’ Cassauna cassette imprint. Students of Decay brought out her debut vinyl LP, Barons Court, in 2015; Constellation Tatsu soon issued the cassette Qualities of Bodies Permanent. Two further LPs arrived in 2016: Dominions on JAZ Records and Vergers on Important Records. Students of Decay released All My Circles Run in 2017, an album comprising five pieces each centered on a different acoustic instrument. Recital put out Let Night Come on Bells End the Day in 2018, a work realized on Mellotron and electronic organ. Later that year Ba Da Bing issued Gave in Rest, a more densely orchestrated piece shaped by cathedral spaces and early music traditions.