Ashley Bellouin

Ashley Bellouin’s work explores the merging of sound art, electro-acoustic composition, and instrument building. She focuses on the studies of sonology, psychoacoustics, and the interaction between sound and architecture. Her compositions emphasize and exploit the sonic potential contained within a single musical gesture, regularly using electronics to develop latent qualities. Spatialization, beat frequencies, auditory illusions, and microtonal tunings are frequent compositional tools.

Bellouin holds an MFA in Electronic Music & Recording Media from Mills College, where she studied with Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, and James Fei. Her accolades include the Frog Peak Collective Experimental Music Award for most outstanding thesis.

She has presented her work at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Soundwave ((5)) Festival, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, UC Santa Cruz, and Stanford University, among other venues. Her residencies include the Paul Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency Center, the UC Berkeley Center for New Media, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and EMS in Stockholm, Sweden. Additional awards include a YBCAway grant from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Since 2012 Bellouin has collaborated with musician Ben Bracken on both musical compositions and instrument building. Their piece “After Image” is included in the double LP/DVD compilation Gravity Spells: Bay Area New Music and Expanded Cinema Art, released in 2014 by Bimodal Press. Other current and past collaborators include musician Sarah Davachi, filmmakers Paul Clipson and Kerry Laitala, and visual artists Rick Bahto, Chris Duncan, and Chris Fraser.

Professionally, Bellouin has worked for synth pioneers, the late Don Buchla, as his assistant in research and development, and Dave Smith, as a technician at Dave Smith Instruments. She currently serves as Visiting Faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute and resides in Oakland, CA.

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Ashley Bellouin.com

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