2024
Country: US/DE
WEBSITE BANDCAMP

Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist. Called an “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde” (New York Times), his performances have spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe. His work explores notions of ancestral memory, materiality, embodiment, decolonization, and Afro-surrealism. As a collaborator he has worked with artists such as Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Moor Mother, JACK Quartet, Son Lux, Ingrid Laubrock, Wet Ink Ensemble, Craig Taborn, Dave Douglas, Allison Miller, Wendy Eisenberg, Lotte Anker, Darius Jones, Mette Rasmussen, Elliott Sharp, Sofia Jernberg, Jim Black, Achim Kaufmann, Lucrecia Dalt, Joy Guidry, Imani Uzuri, Anna Webber, and Amirtha Kidambi. In addition to seven albums released under his name, as a composer Dunston has been commissioned by artists and organizations such as Wet Ink Ensemble, Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, A L’ARME! Festival, Ex-Aequo, Bass Players for Black Composers, Tenth Intervention, Johnny Gandelsman, T R O M P O, Gaudeamus Festival, PULSE String Quartet, and Ekmeles. In 2019 he was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette, which supported the creation of the trans-media song cycle La Operación, the double bass quintet piece The Floor is Lava!, and his debut studio album, Atlantic Extraction, which was referred to as “the debut of 2019” (JazzTimes Magazine). In 2020 in collaboration with Dogbotic Labs, he co-created “Ear Re-training”, a music composition course focusing on media-bending experimental techniques and concepts.

Dunston was featured as the inaugural Artists-in-Residence with Wet Ink Ensemble for the 2021-2022 season, where he created his 14-piece ensemble work Reverse Broadcast, himself performing on double bass, live-processed radio, and improvised Conduction. He released his improvising trio album Spider Season in 2022 in which Pitchfork Magazine noted “Even in a trio setting, Dunston’s curiosity creates a plethora of possibilities. No two songs of his ever sound alike.” His performing and improvising can also be heard on the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All At Once, which won the Oscar that year for Best Original Score. Nick Dunston’s upcoming album, the Afro-surrealist-anti-opera COLLA VOCE, was released on April 26th 2024 on Out Of Your Head Records, and named “A suite of dazzling extremes and electrifying confrontation that reveals a razor-sharp vision.” He has given artist talks and presented his works at academic institutions such as The University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, The University of Iowa, and Stony Brook University. He was nominated for the Deutscher Jazzpreis (German Jazz Prize) in 2023 and 2024, and with along vocalist and composer Cansu Tanrikulu, he was awarded the SWR Jazz Prize in 2024. Dunston currently resides and maintains an active presence in both the Berlin and New York experimental, contemporary, and improvised music scenes.

Nick Dunston is an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and interdisciplinary art, co-funded by the European Union and Pro Helvetia.

Download press photo here.

News

Past events