About

COMPOSING IS THE WAY I explore the imagination, my way to invent and share delicate aural spaces.

I am particularly attracted to sounds that shift and bend at the edges of perception. I create unhurried music, using slow-moving shapes and a free sense of time. My works often explore repetition with subtle variations in gestural pace, instrumental character, and tuning. I hope to craft personal, intimate music that invites listeners to focus on momentary details while a larger structure unfolds in ways that they may not quite grasp. I employ electronics extensively in my work, as technology allows me to alter instrumental timbres and shift tunings by tiny amounts – changes that listeners may not actively perceive but which can foster a sense of uncertainty and wonderment.

My compositions have been described as “colorful…darkly atmospheric” (New York Times), “hypnotic” (mainlypiano.com), and “incredibly soft, beautiful, and delicate” (Computer Music Journal).

I am active as a collaborator in a range of musical styles, including with my sleepy rock/ ambient project Bell Monks; with the heavy metal band Realmbuilder; with the noise duo Mindscrubber; with synth-duo Binary Reptile; as a laptop composer/ improviser with Skewed and Such and Sonict; and as co-composer with S. Craig Zahler for the music and songs in his films, Bone Tomahawk, Brawl In Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete.

I am a Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where I teach courses in music composition, audio, multimedia, and music technology.

Contact me at jeffwherriott@gmail.com.