Joe Davin is a musician, composer, sound designer and installation artist. Having cut his teeth as a bassist for numerous punk bands including The Cravats, Zounds and The Astronauts, Joe took to electronic and experimental music during the 2020 global lockdown, recording and releasing two albums in 2020 and 2022 under his Anzahlung moniker. Since then, Joe has collaborated with artist, writer and research Ëpha Roe on At Land And Sea and Roots: A Journey of Discovery into England’s Heritage Oak Trees, creating a sonic response to Ëpha’s photographic works. Joe has also released numerous experimental works under the name Pampered Fists, and played a handful of gigs around the South of England.
Joe has composed new works for film, most recently Alice Kavanagh’s horror short Freak In The Sheets, and sound design for Clusterfluff, a queer immersive circus event by Quietly Fighting Theatre. Joe also continues to work as a freelance musician, most recently playing for Oddfellows Casino, The Irrepressibles and Insides.
As part of his Digital Music & Sound Art course, Joe exhibited The Witness Tree, a 16-speaker spatial sound installation, located in the grounds of the University of Brighton’s City campus.
ARTIST STATEMENT
For as long as I can remember, I’ve taken a keen interest in non-conventional approaches to sound making. As a child, I can recall tuning into the rhythmic footsteps of passersby as I would walk through the town centre with my Mum, or the irregular melodies of the checkout tills in the supermarket. Taking an interest in the piano aged 5 - though less so the music theory that my teacher would burden me with - and later the bass guitar, I began to experiment with new ways to create sound, combining the bass guitar with household objects such as scissors, cutlery and bottles. My time as bassist in The Astronauts gave me the freedom to actualise these experiments in the studio, as well as bringing in other sound objects such as radios, theremins and circuit-bent keyboards.
I work with found sounds, repurposing and recontextualising them in a process I call sonic upholstery—a practice of layering, stitching, and weaving fragments of audio into new compositions. By reshaping the everyday, I consider the act of recycling not just as a material act, but as a way of listening, reimagining, and engaging with the world. Drawing
from artists like Carl Stone and People Like Us, I embrace the transformative potential of existing materials, creating works that blur the lines between the familiar and the unfamiliar.
My work is deeply influenced by Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening - I want people to tune into the unnoticed, to develop a heightened sensitivity to the sonic textures of their surroundings. Deep Listening has helped me reattune my ears to Brighton & Hove, where I currently reside, and unpick the complex layers of the city’s soundscape which tells us so much about life in the city.
I am particularly drawn to site-specific sound art, placing my compositions in urban spaces beyond the traditional gallery setting. By embedding sound into locations where people might not typically stop and listen, I encourage a different perception of space—inviting audiences to experience environments in new ways. Whether amplifying the hidden resonances of a tree, or reimagining a landmark as the protagonist in a fictional story, my work seeks to make the unheard, heard.
I am particularly drawn to site-specific sound art, placing my compositions in urban spaces beyond the traditional gallery setting. By embedding sound into locations where people might not typically stop and listen, I encourage a different perception of space—inviting audiences to experience environments in new ways. Whether amplifying the hidden resonances of a tree, or reimagining a landmark as the protagonist in a fictional story, my work seeks to make the unheard, heard.