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“Watkiss’ saw-toothed guitar drones reflect the brutality of some lost barbaric age." - Edward Rinderle for Heathen Harvest

"...clinical performance aligns with a sense of darkness and mystery.” - Doug Mousrock for Dusted Reviews

"Imagine Godflesh minus vocals and beats, the buzzing and whirring and grinding and scraping of Justin Broadrick’s guitars sampled, deconstructed, and stretched out over time, but still as grimly intense, for an idea of how far from most electronica this is." - Steve Holtje for Dusty Wright's Culture Catch

 

  

 

 

 

 

Thomas Watkiss is a multi-disciplinary artist perhaps most known for his sound recordings and performances. The recordings are paired with his photography and prints -- giving the listener an intimate visual setting to the roaming ambient soundscapes. Thomas released six full length records, starting with Ancestor - Phase I : Silence 2LP (2008) and several short-run titles until Whote - Moons (2015). He conceptualized the video for the title track which was shot throughout the city and along Jacob Riis National Park where each frame represents a tracks on the record. He is currently working on a new collaborative recording project with cellist El Slizard, contra-bassist Henrik Andersson and modular synthesist Mathias Josefson. The first track, Closure was recorded and engineered by Martin Bisi at BC Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The bulk of the recording took place in Stockholm where he was a resident to the ElektronMusikStudion (EMS) program in the summer of 2019. Recording continues.


With his visual art, he re-creates moments captured in his sound works from places including the Atlantic coast, unwritten corridors of the American continent or deep in Scandinavian solitude. Symbols from his photography such as butterflies, birds and select tree species from his youth stand against obscured backdrops of distant mountains and maligned growth to animate the intention of experiencing a new and accelerated world -- through the eyes and senses of nature.


He completed residencies at ElektronMusikStudion (EMS) in Stockholm (2019), Listhus, Olafsfjordur Iceland (2016), USF Verftet, Bergen Norway (2008) and Konstepidemin, Gothenburg Sweden (2003). He has performed at spaces including Spectrum (Brooklyn), Magazin4 (Brussels), Fylkingen (Stockholm), Landmark (Bergen), Sound of Mu (Oslo), UT Connewitz (Leipzig), Spazio 210 (Torino), Rhiz (Vienna), Theater Kapellen (Berlin), Svensk Form and Crum Heaven Gallery (Stockholm). He holds an MA from Konstfack University of Art and Design (Stockholm) and a dual BA from the University of Pittsburgh.


He lives and works in New York City.