Anastasia Clarke
electronic music, performance, and sound design
anastasia clarke
b. 1987, New York
acceptable pronouns: they/them or she/her (fluid)
Anastasia Clarke’s live embodied electronic music performances consider the role of the musician as a healer, activator, and sonifier of the unheard and unseen. Working as a performer-composer and artist-engineer, they use creative music technology such as controllers, custom-built instruments, and performing systems, as well as compositional approaches informed by intuitive work, to splice and dissolve narratives into ineffable new shapes and stories.
In recent years, Anastasia has performed live soundscapes designed for the strategic application of listening modalities. Bringing together synthesis, field recording, and sample-level sound design as artifacts of attention and intention, their durational performances invite listeners to experience shifts in their own sensations of place, scale, space and time. In defiance of any notion of “easy listening,” Anastasia chisels thick ambient textures into character formations using a smattering of noisy activations and idiosyncratic sonic sigils. Underlying each performance is a steadfast trust in improvisation and risk-taking, wielded to reveal the shifting fault lines that exist in our aesthetic and technological systems, perceptive faculties, and societal structures.
Anastasia has presented work in music, sound art, and sound design work on hundreds of occasions, acting in galleries, theaters, DIY venues, and unsuspecting community spaces. Projects in 2022 include establishing an art production studio, Purple Cloud Productions, based in Brooklyn, NY; and creating new solo performance work as AC Diamond.
Anastasia is currently Adjunct Faculty in Music Technology at New York University (Steinhardt), and regularly speaks and presents on their research in academic and community teach-in style settings. They hold an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College and a BA from Bennington College. Their work has been supported by the COVID-19 Relief Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Queens Arts Fund, EMS (Stockholm), Tri-tryagain, CCRMA, Cycling '74, and a 2020 Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette. Anastasia also works professionally as an archivist and consultant for artists and non-profits.
b. 1987, New York
acceptable pronouns: they/them or she/her (fluid)
Anastasia Clarke’s live embodied electronic music performances consider the role of the musician as a healer, activator, and sonifier of the unheard and unseen. Working as a performer-composer and artist-engineer, they use creative music technology such as controllers, custom-built instruments, and performing systems, as well as compositional approaches informed by intuitive work, to splice and dissolve narratives into ineffable new shapes and stories.
In recent years, Anastasia has performed live soundscapes designed for the strategic application of listening modalities. Bringing together synthesis, field recording, and sample-level sound design as artifacts of attention and intention, their durational performances invite listeners to experience shifts in their own sensations of place, scale, space and time. In defiance of any notion of “easy listening,” Anastasia chisels thick ambient textures into character formations using a smattering of noisy activations and idiosyncratic sonic sigils. Underlying each performance is a steadfast trust in improvisation and risk-taking, wielded to reveal the shifting fault lines that exist in our aesthetic and technological systems, perceptive faculties, and societal structures.
Anastasia has presented work in music, sound art, and sound design work on hundreds of occasions, acting in galleries, theaters, DIY venues, and unsuspecting community spaces. Projects in 2022 include establishing an art production studio, Purple Cloud Productions, based in Brooklyn, NY; and creating new solo performance work as AC Diamond.
Anastasia is currently Adjunct Faculty in Music Technology at New York University (Steinhardt), and regularly speaks and presents on their research in academic and community teach-in style settings. They hold an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College and a BA from Bennington College. Their work has been supported by the COVID-19 Relief Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Queens Arts Fund, EMS (Stockholm), Tri-tryagain, CCRMA, Cycling '74, and a 2020 Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette. Anastasia also works professionally as an archivist and consultant for artists and non-profits.
offerings
live music performances / teaching and lessons in electronic music production, composition, + artistry / archives and media preservation consultation / composition, sound design, and media scoring / open to creative proposals
mailing list
Anastasia Clarke performing at Confetti Machine Festival, Outpost Artists Resources, Ridgewood, NY. Photographs: Verónica Puche