Parish (b. 1997) is a composer, producer, and sound artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His music draws influence from eclectic sources, combining elements of post-minimalism, experimental electronic, deconstructed club, electroacoustic improvisation, sacred music, and noise.
He has been pseudonymously releasing music since 2012 across a wide variety of genres. His music has been featured in Wire Magazine, Mixmag France, and YEAR0001 SOUNDS and has been used in film, television, documentary, video games, and theater. Constructed from a composite of acoustic instruments, bespoke electronics, field recordings, physical modeling, extended techniques, and heavy digital signal processing, Parish’s work lies somewhere in the indefinite space between acoustic and electronic and is beholden to neither.
From 2019-2022, Parish served as studio director and a resident DJ at the freeform radio station KDVS, and as a resident DJ at Index (NYC) from 2023-2024. He approaches radio as a form of composition, sequencing sound as raw timbral material rather than by genre or era.
His debut album under his own name, Cascades of Refinement was released on Important Records in 2023. Classical instruments are mutilated and transmuted into razor-sharp shards of glass suspended on piano wire above warped opalescent metal while never losing sight of their tonal integrity.
Parish's performances seek to embody the relationship between sound, body, artifice, religious ecstasy, and atonement by making use of custom-made wearable devices, electroacoustic instruments, and explosive movement.
Parish has continued to work on developing new interfaces for performance and recording that allow for a direct, visceral connection between the body and processed sound. This project began in 2023 with a bespoke human-brain-interface device that allows for real-time translation of neural activity within the frontal lobe to spatialized sound. This device was premiered at Gray Area, San Francisco, in an interactive spatial audiovisual installation titled Irreductions. This was followed by an I2C motion sensor device called Blindsight, which allows for the real-time wireless control of Ableton Live parameters with movement. The first iteration of this device was developed and premiered in 2024 at Event Horizon, where it was used in a performance with live-input violin alongside Fitnesss, VVXXII, 011668, and Cel Genesis.
Parish’s study of sound is also informed by his previous work as a neurobiologist where he focused on hearing loss and bioacoustics. His scientific research included studying the neural correlates of tinnitus and presbycusis and the transcription of bird song, among other work on neurodegeneration, organoids, and computational genetics. He is currently pursuing an MSc in Acoustics & Music Technology at the University of Edinburgh.
Outside of developing new music and interfaces, he currently works professionally in audio plugin development, runs his own Max for Live studio, Aleph Null, and teaches courses on music production and audio programming.
