Ryan Gaston with Buchla 700, March 2023; courtesy of the Buchla Archives.
Ryan Gaston (b. 1990) is a performer/composer, instrument designer, and writer who makes devices and music that combine sonic elements of noise rock, free improvisation, and experimental electroacoustic music. Often described as intricate, chaotic, noisy, and dynamic, Gaston's music and instruments explore chaotic systems as a vessel for storytelling and spontaneous worldbuilding—creating surprising, unpredictable, and highly varied emergent sonic forms.
This musical trajectory started in the late '00s when, as a teenager in the Ozarks, Gaston stumbled more or less simultaneously across an array of ear-opening music: Curtis Roads, the Mars Volta, Edgard Varèse, Anthony Braxton, Naked City, Morton Subotnick, Mr. Bungle, and others. Simultaneously, he was experimenting with synthesizers (on an already well-worn Korg MicroKorg) and dabbling in electronic musical instrument maintenance and repair (restoring electric organs from school basements and garage sales).
While studying music composition at Hendrix College, he was encouraged to explore crossover between his musical interests/curiosities, writing music that combined orchestral textures with electronics and rock band orchestration. Subsequently, he shifted his primary focus toward computer music and live electronic performance/free improvisation with modular synthesizer.
Eventually, a series of mentors California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) prompted him to consider how the process of instrument design and software design could act as an extension of the compositional process—and that designing unique personal tools and workflows could be an avenue for deeper artistic exploration. Through working with Mark Trayle, Clay Chaplin, and Scott Cazan, Gaston began to question how he might use electronics and computer music as a vehicle for exploring his personal concerns, rather than relying purely on tools created by others.
Currently, Gaston's work explores the theme of temporal perception—memory, preconception, time travel, and the concept of the "present"—by using chaotic electronic structures as the basis for both electronic instruments and compositions. His music builds intricate webs of colliding melodies, abrasive textures, and fragmented rhythms. Similarly, his instruments use chaotic processes to create a user experience that leverages musicians' uniquely attuned sense of the passage of time—constructing sonic interactions that expand the user's sense of the relationship between past/present/future while creating a dynamic and surprising experience for both the performer and the listener.
Gaston's forthcoming album Friends Unraveling explores these themes of memory in the form of a hazy, disjunct, poly-stylistic collage of indie music, improvisation, noise rock, and extended abrasive soundscapes. Based on an asynchronous recording process with contributions from Sarah Belle Reid, Patrick Shiroishi, Todd Barton, Eldar Tagi, and others, Friends Unraveling is due for release in early 2025.
Simultaneously, Gaston is developing his newest series of instruments—a digital modular synthesizer system based on original, chaotic, self-organizing approaches to sound generation and user interaction.
Gaston’s writing focuses on the history and techniques of experimental electronic music and electronic musical instrument design, with a special focus on American west coast trends in the second half of the 20th century—as well as propositional writing about the potential futures of electronic music.
Gaston holds an MFA in Music Composition and Experimental Sound Practices from the California Institute of the Arts (2016) as well as a BA in Music Composition from Hendrix College (2012). His writing and instruments have been featured at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference, the Canadian Electroacoustic Community's eContact!, the Southern California Institute of Architecture's Offramp, the CalArts Digital Arts Expo, and elsewhere. He is the editor of and frequent contributor to Signal, an online publication managed by California-based electronic musical instrument retailer Perfect Circuit. Since 2023, Gaston has also worked closely with The Buchla Archives, an organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of the life and work of instrument designer, composer, and sound artist Donald F. Buchla.
Gaston collaborates frequently with performer-composer Sarah Belle Reid, having co-produced her albums MASS and Underneath & Sonder. Gaston and Reid are co-developers of MIGSI, an electronic hardware/software system designed to augment the acoustic trumpet.
Short Bio
Ryan Gaston (b. 1990) is a performer/composer, instrument designer, and writer who makes devices and music that combine sonic elements of noise, free improvisation, and experimental electroacoustic music.
Gaston's creative work explores temporal perception—memory, preconception, time travel, and the concept of the "present"—by using chaotic, unpredictable electronic structures as the conceptual basis for both electronic instruments and musical compositions. His writing focuses on the history and techniques of experimental electronic music and electronic musical instrument design, with a special focus on American west coast trends in the second half of the 20th century.
Gaston holds an MFA in Music Composition and Experimental Sound Practices from the California Institute of the Arts (2016) as well as a BA in Music Composition from Hendrix College (2012). His writing and instruments have been featured at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference, the Canadian Electroacoustic Community's eContact!, the Southern California Institute of Architecture's Offramp, the CalArts Digital Arts Expo, and elsewhere. He is the editor of and frequent contributor to Signal, an online publication managed by California-based electronic musical instrument retailer Perfect Circuit. Since 2023, Gaston has also worked closely with The Buchla Archives, an organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of the life and work of instrument designer, composer, and sound artist Donald F. Buchla.