Sarah Davachi (b. 1987, Canada) is a composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, using extended durations and historical tuning structures to emphasize gradual variations in texture, harmonic complexity, intonation, and psychoacoustic phenomena. Her compositions span solo, chamber ensemble, and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of both acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and longform tenets, early music concepts of intervallic relation and affect, as well as experimental production practices of the studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant.
In addition to her acclaimed recorded output, Davachi has toured and performed extensively; her work has been presented internationally by Southbank Centre (London UK), Barbican Centre (London UK), INA grm (Paris FR), Kontraklang (Berlin DE), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg DE), Organ Reframed (London UK), The Museum of Modern Art (New York USA), The Getty Museum (Los Angeles USA), The Academy Museum (Los Angeles USA), Orgelpark (Amsterdam NL), Honen-in Temple (Kyoto JP), Open Frame (Sydney AU), Église Saint-Eustache (Paris FR), Église du Gesù (Montréal CA), Temppeliaukio Church (Helsinki FI), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco USA), Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (Chicago USA), and Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid ES), among others. Her ensemble projects have been commissioned and performed by Brussels Philharmonic, London Contemporary Orchestra, Quatuor Bozzini, Harmonic Space Orchestra, Apartment House, Ghost Ensemble, Wild Up, Yarn/Wire, Chamber Choir Ireland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Radio France, Diapason, Contemporaneous Ensemble, Cello Octet Amsterdam, and the Canadian International Organ Competition. In 2020 she founded Late Music, an imprint within the partner labels division of Warp Records.
For over a decade, Davachi had the unique opportunity to work for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard instruments. She holds a master's degree in electronic music from Mills College and a doctoral degree in musicology from UCLA (with a dissertation on timbre, phenomenology, and critical organology), and is based in Los Angeles, California, USA.