photo by moe penders
About
Ess Whiteley (b. 1993) is a music maker & composer working primarily with electronics whose practice takes the form of performances, installations, recordings and scores. Their work engages with the post-internet, eco-futurism, cyborgian sound worlds and deep listening to the existential impacts of technology on modern life. Ess seeks to unearth felt yet unarticulated currents of emotionality and experience through the unseen, ephemeral and somatic nature of the sonic. They are interested in vibrational world-building and sound’s capacity to mutate the real by creating new ways of experiencing time, memory and futurity.
Winner of the Riot Ensemble Call for Scores, Matera Intermedia Festival Honourable Mention and Resident Composer at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, their work has been commissioned by ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound and Popebama and presented internationally at MATA (USA), Int-Act (TH), MANTIS (UK), Dublin Music Current (IE), WOCMAT (TW), TIER (DE), Vox Electronica (UA), Echofluxx (CZ), Nuova Consonanza (IT), Mise En Music Festival (USA), ICMC (USA), LMCML (CA), amongst others. Ess has been a resident composer at VICC (SE) and I-Park Artist Residency (USA) has toured in Europe, the UK, and North America multiple times, and has had music featured on publications like Pitchfork, The Wire, New Music Handbook, Relevant Tones and Tricycle Magazine. Their music has been released on labels like Not Not Fun, 99Chants, and Topshelf Records, and their sound design and film scoring work has been licensed with clients like the New York City Ballet, House of Pierre Cardin, AT&T, ØTHERS and Expedia, as well as numerous app developers and film makers.
Ess’s work, creative practice, and Deep Listening practice is heavily informed by the two years they spent studying Buddhism and practicing meditation intensively while living in a Zen Buddhist Monastery. They received a Bachelor’s Degree in Composition and World Religions from McGill University in Montréal and is a current PhD Candidate in Composition at the University of California-San Diego. Their mentors have included Marcos Balter, Roger Reynolds, Michelle Lou and King Britt.
