Spencer Doran

Spencer Doran is a composer, sound designer and researcher working across the disparate-but-adjacent fields of abstract electronic music, game audio design and environmental music studies. As half of Visible Cloaks, the “humanely futuristic” duo with Ryan Carlile, Doran co-helmed albums such as Reassemblage (2017), Lex (2017) and, in collaboration with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano, serenitatem (2019), developing a form of amorphous, omni-directional digital composition intended to be appreciated in both active and passive listening space. As a researcher, he co-runs the Empire of Signs imprint with Maxwell August Croy (known for reigniting global interest in environmental music pioneers like Hiroshi Yoshimura) and compiled/annotated the compilation Kankyō Ongaku for Light in the Attic Records. 2023 saw the arrival of his audio direction and interactive score for the Playstation 5 title SEASON: A letter to the future. His work as both composer and researcher deals with concepts like human/digital hybridity, environmental sound design, east/west feedback loops of artistic influence and the glistening sheen of the hyperreal.