Alex Chechile

Alex Chechile is a sound artist, composer, and electronic artist whose work develops in parallel with research in neuroscience, psychoacoustics, and the biomechanics of hearing. With a particular interest in the relationship between sound and the body, his immersive compositions, installations, and performances aim to bring transparency to otherwise invisible processes in biological and technological systems. Questions that arise in his artistic work lead to formalized studies, and the results cyclically inform his sonic practice.

Chechile’s research has advanced the psychoacoustic study and creative application of difference tones, which are sounds generated in the inner ear and perceived as localized within the head. His work exhibits how complex sets of tones can reliably evoke a wide range of sonic material absent from the external acoustic space, and how difference tones can create an additional nested layer of spatial depth between loudspeakers and ears. In his series of pieces On the Sensations of Tone (2010–present), Chechile explores the physicality of sound and spatial depth using difference tones, and his Ear Tone Toolbox is the first widely available collection of software and modular instruments for evoking the phenomenon.

As a performer, Chechile was a founding member of Pauline Oliveros’ Tintinnabulate, collaborated with Mercury Rev, and performed a solo opening act for the band Primus. His projects have been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Harvestworks, Experimental Intermedia, Issue Project Room, the Experimental Television Center, the Deep Listening Institute, and the American Embassy, among others. His work has been presented worldwide at venues and festivals including IRCAM, MoMA, ICMC, Electronic Music Midwest, EMPAC, the New York Electronic Arts Festival, and Cité Internationale des Arts.

Chechile is currently the program director for the Sound BFA and the faculty lead for the Studio for Research in Sound and Technology (SRST). He teaches Modular Synthesis Studio, A Hands-On History of Electronic Music, and Intro to Sonic Arts. Chechile holds a PhD from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), an MFA in Electronic Art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a BA in Music from Tufts University.