Eric Leonardson

Background

About Eric Leonardson

Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based composer, radio artist, sound designer, instrument inventor, improviser, visual artist, and teacher, devotes a majority of his professional career to unorthodox approaches to sound and its instrumentation with a broad understanding of texture, atmosphere and micro-tones. As a practicing artist and educator he has an interest in the elusive lines that separate art media and disciplines; the promise of technology to enable new possibilities in art, discovering connections between physical action, sensory perception, and ideas. Eric Leonardson performs regularly on the Springboard, an electroacoustic percussion instrument made from readily available materials. Applying his percussion skills and a piezo pickup to coil springs, wood, plastic combs, and rubber bands he creates rich tones and timbres that, in the words of Nicolas Collins, “evoke the sound world of a Balinese Gamelan orchestra.” Others compare these sounds to industrial vibrations and animal voices. Specialties: analog synthesis, instrument construction, drawing, painting, field recording, studio recording, audio mixing, sound design, radio art, soundscape awareness