photo by moe penders
About
Ess Whiteley (he/they) is a musician and artist working primarily with electronics whose practice encompasses the creation of performances, scores, recordings, and installations. His work is inspired by the post-internet, eco-futurity, more-than-human worlds, spiritual experience and the existential impacts of technology on modern life. Ess is interested in speculative world-building, vibrational storytelling, and the capacity of organized sound to mutate the real. Through his work, he seeks to create aesthetic experiences that challenge, expand, and meditate on everyday encounters with the sensuous.
He has been awarded commissions from ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Popebama and Riot Ensemble and has had his work presented at MATA (USA), Int-Act (TH), MANTIS (UK), Dublin Music Current (IE), WOCMAT 關於 (TW), TIER (DE), Vox Electronica (UA), LMCML (CA), Echofluxx (CZ), Festival di Nuova Consonanza (IT), Mise En Music Festival (USA), SEAMUS (USA), Matera Intermedia Festival (IT), amongst others. Ess has been a resident composer at VICC (SE), I-Park Artist Residency (USA), Mizzou International Composers Festival (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. Ess has been a participating composer at the Dublin Sound Lab, International Contemporary Ensemble’s (ICE) Ensemble Evolution, and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. His music has been released on labels like Not Not Fun, 99Chants, Topshelf Records, and Touchtheplants, and his 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 he spent studying Buddhism and practicing meditation intensively while living in a Zen Buddhist Monastery. He 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. His mentors have included Marcos Balter, Roger Reynolds, Michelle Lou and King Britt.
