Hann Sandoz
For this week’s Nomadic Soundster’s blog post, we are featuring Hann Sandoz (they/them), a singer/songwriter and composer currently based in Chicago, IL.
As of the past 8 years, Hann’s background has been primarily centered in music. They are a recent graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where they focused on electroacoustic composition and the history of sound art. One of the main takeaways from college that Hann expressed is the importance of having an artist community, which was one of their main motivators for joining the Nomadic Soundsters Residency.
When speaking to Hann about their creative process, they mentioned that “composing for me is very magical in the way that music just presents itself to me. It comes to me in pieces and really is a lot of intention and time committed to how they fit together and which pieces are better with which.” They go about composing each of their pieces on their own terms depending on what they are engaged with in the world at the time, aiming to capture a feeling or event that they’ve experienced.
"dream tigers", Summer 2018
While at Oberlin, Hann discovered their musical voice and found a practice that lived along the spectrum of experimentation. They were able to integrate their song writing and experimental art practices to center on empathetic and relatable experiences and performances of vulnerability. “Something about experimental music appeals to our more visceral sensibilities and our more instinctive reactions, especially with the exclusion of language and recognizable imagery or visual form. It’s a lot easier to get raw engagement there.”
Hann’s intention behind empathetic experiences is centered on making oneself vulnerable to share, receive, and relate to one’s story and to have the opportunity to reach people who have had similar lived experiences. This is explained by Hann saying that, “The way that I like to talk about my art is as documents of resilience or documents of existence. My art is not a piece of me and is not an extension of me, but it is a document of who I am and proof that I’ve existed.”
Participating in the Nomadic Soundster’s Residency has led Hann to new waves of exploration. With a wide array of artistic experiences, they have had to “pivot [their] medium to facilitate a means of creation.” In this collaborative setting, Hann stepped out of their comfort zone to provide a visual component for their project. By jumping into a new collaborative space, they have learned to be adaptable, to get inspired by their artistic collaborators, and to discover different pathways for themselves.
