From disfigured, brutal noise to singing violin and ethereal electronics, R. A. Martini uses a wide breadth of textures to create sonic environments invoking aging industrial mechanics, global environmental cycles, and deep wilderness areas. Martini pulls from a wide range of influences including Miles Davis, John Luther Adams, Tim Hecker, The Body, Olivier Messiaen, and Stephen O'Malley.
Raised in Midland, Michigan, Martini was inspired at a young age by wilderness, natural phenomena, and open spaces. Midland’s history as the world headquarters of a major chemical corporation, where his father worked, exposed the tension between use and preservation of the natural environment. This tension remains in Martini’s work which is simultaneously fixated on the serenity of open spaces and the harmonic richness of industrial noise. Just as one cannot sustainably abandon the preservation of the natural world that supports them for the sake of capital gain, one cannot fully disavow industry through electronic music played on plastic speakers.
Martini graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Environmental Studies and Sustainability and a B.M. in Music Composition. He also holds a Master of Science in Energy Policy and Climate at Johns Hopkins University and currently works for a leading clean energy developer.
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