Sarah Davachi

Sarah Davachi is a Canadian composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, utilizing extended durations and considered harmonic structures that emphasise gradual variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena and tuning as well as intonation. Her compositions span solo, chamber ensemble and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and longform tenets, early music concepts of form and affect, as well as experimental production practices of the studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant.

In addition to her acclaimed recorded output, Davachi has toured extensively alongside artists such as Ellen Arkbro, Oren Ambarchi, Grouper, Tashi Wada, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Charlemagne Palestine and filmmaker Dicky Bahto. Commissioned projects include works for Quatuor Bozzini, London Contemporary Orchestra, Yarn/Wire, Apartment House, Ghost Ensemble, Wild Up, Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Radio France, Contemporaneous Ensemble, Cello Octet Amsterdam, Canadian International Organ Competition and Western Front. Her work has been presented internationally by Southbank Centre (London), Barbican Centre (London), Kontraklang (Berlin), INA grm (Paris), Issue Project Room (New York), Lampo (Chicago), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Organ Reframed (London), The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Getty Museum (Los Angeles), Orgelpark (Amsterdam), Hōnen-in Temple (Kyoto), Open Frame (Sydney), Église Saint-Eustache (Paris), Église du Gesù (Montréal), Temppeliaukio Church (Helsinki), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (Chicago) and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), among others. In 2020 she founded Late Music, an imprint within the partner labels division of Warp Records.

For over a decade, Davachi worked for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard instruments. She has held artist residencies with The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, EMPAC, Quatuor Bozzini’s Composer’s Kitchen, Elektronmusikstudion, the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio, the National Music Centre and the smem (Swiss Museum and Centre for Electronic Music Instruments), and holds a master’s degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California. Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, focusing on timbre, phenomenology and critical organology, and is based in Los Angeles.