Selected Works
Audio Tracking
Music Composition & Production
Audiovisual Works
Documentary
© Nick Zazove, 2025
Music Composition & Production
Digital
“Siren” by Nick Zazove
Date
04/02/2025
ABABC form, constructed from manipulated sample of tornado siren, various soft synths, and drum programming coded in Sonic Pi (Ruby).
Multiple melodic themes, classical counterpoint, 12-tone serialism, and electronic sound design.
Inspired by artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie; Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg; DJ Shadow and Havoc of Mobb Deep.
Artistic concept explores the blurring of freedom and repression as diametric equals in ubiquitous digital code structures, inaccessible to the public thus they shape modes of expression by design. Analogous to the birth of serialism from the embers of 1940s fascism —> maximalist digital programming techniques that similarly reconstruct timbral language from bits and integers.
Sonic Pi Demo
Original drum track for “Siren” was generated using Sonic PI (the original code is lost).
Analog
“Late Nights” by Nick Zazove
Date
12/23/2024
Live, improvised studio performance of my modular synthesizer.
Inspired by artists such as Morton Sobotnick, Pauline Oliveros, and Aphex Twin.
Artistic concept is evident by the title: Quite literally, this is how I like to spend my free time. Particularly in the dead of night.
Other Selected Works (and fun facts!)
Ambient
There are at least 6 versions of this piece dating back to 2021.
IDM
Musical material sourced entirely from a one second iPhone recording of me saying my friend’s name.
Hip-Hop
Intricate lyricism for 6+ minutes straight, grounded by a hip-hop beat which evolves through dub, grunge, IDM, and ambient.
Electro-Pop
90% of the sound design was generated through analog modular synthesis then digitally transformed.
“Classical”
Essentially my signature electronic style directly informed by the counterpoint techniques of J.S. Bach. Gradually evolves from invention to 5 voice fugue.
Audio Tracking
Shi-An Costello, “Chopin Etude No.3”
Mixed & Engineered by Nick Zazove
Date
02/19/2025
Prepared piano recorded through a AWS SSL 24/48 Console. A/B stereo pair over the strings, two lavalier mics taped to the piano bridge, and an X/Y pair near the piano lid parallel compressed using an LA-610.
The engineering intent was to emphasize performance of prepared elements and maximally preserve the dynamic range over a subtle, warm bed of compression.
Nick Zazove, “The Haraway Cyborg Execution”
Composed, mixed, and engineered by Nick Zazove
Date
03/27/2025
Improvised modular synth, voice, and piano recorded using SSL’s in-line mixing mode.
SM58 into studio, tie-line to modular synth pre-amp. Piano hi C414, audio re-amped through Yamaha piano amp.
Modular synth stereo image captured line-in to console, bused into parallel LA-610.
Mixed digitally in Logic Pro, mastered using SSL console.
Artistic concept explores duality of identity and gender in a digital age driven by a paradox where hyper-individualistic algorithms embolden into mob-mentality. Compare and contrast a real-world devolution into fascism with the normalization of pseudonymous anonymity online — connected by tech establishments normalizing political radicalization.
Audiovisual Works
Four audiovisual projects based on original musical compositions. Created using non-linear video editors such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects; visual coding programs such as Max/MSP/Jitter & Processing.
Documentary Work
My final project for my college senior seminar — a documentary about the band Sonic Youth. The book “Girl in a Band” by Kim Gordon and documentary “1991: The Year Punk Broke” by Dave Markey were the primary source materials for this work.