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.

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. 

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.”  In 2023, Dunston’s album “Skultura” was named by “The Wire Magazine” as one of the 50 best recordings of 2023. 

At this event, Dunston will perform “banjer,“ an experimental electro-acoustic solo project that seeks to explore alternative approaches and contexts to the banjo.

‘banjer’ reimagines the historically Afro-diasporic instrument by resonating it with live sound via audio transducers, and then using tools and techniques such as feedback, live sampling, and the human voice as a means of reclaiming and reembodying this widely misunderstood and nuanced instrument.

Nick Dunston is currently an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the EU.

His performance is also supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Nick Dunston is currently an artist of the SHAPE+ platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the EU and Pro Helvetia.