Vorhees
DANA WACHS - (photo credit Ebru Yildiz).jpg

about

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photo: Ebru Yildiz

Dana Wachs is a Brooklyn based composer and audio engineer, that performs under the name Vorhees.

Dana studied cello and electric bass from an early age. At nineteen, she joined the DC hardcore group Holy Rollers (Dischord Records) and dove deep into a world of touring and live sound. Audio engineering would define the following twenty years of her life while working at Greene Street Recording NYC, and then touring the world with St. Vincent, Jon Hopkins, and MGMT among many others. 

In 2009, she debuted her solo compositions and has since continued to work on her own music. The past decade has seen her busy releasing her debut 7", composing for commissioned performances and recordings for fashion designer Rachel Comey and other designers during New York Fashion Week, as well as dance performances by Guggenheim Prize winning choreographer Morgan Thurson, and Bessie Award winning choreographer Heather Kravas. Live solo performances included invitations to perform at Basilica Soundscape 2013 and Iceland Airwaves 2014, New York shows supporting Anna Meredith, Matmos, and Josef Van Wissem, as well as tours including supporting Beth Orton in Australia, Cat Power in America, and Deerhunter in the U.K. and Europe.

Vorhees debut EP, Black Horse Pike, was released in 2016 via Styles Upon Styles (Brooklyn).  Black Horse Pike was written, recorded and produced by Dana Wachs in her Brooklyn home between tours.

In 2017, she composed and performed in parts II and III of a performance art piece titled Rural Violence, directed by Brandon Stousy (The Creative Independent), both presented by artist Matthew Barney. In conjunction, she collaborated with George Clarke of Deafheaven, forming the new duo Wachs & Clarke, for the 20 minute accompanying music piece RVIII: Invocation.

February 2019 saw the release of her latest work, “Tracks for Movement”, a compilation of scores for dance and film.

Currently, Dana is focusing on film scoring, having had her first two feature premieres in 2022.  “Confession”, directed by Dayna Hanson (HBO’s “Room 104”) being her first narrative, and “Blue Bag Life”, her first documentary, winner of the Audience Award at BFI London Film Fest 2022, The Golden Coconut for Best Documentary Feature at the Hainan International Film Festival, and the Golden Alexander at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival.

“Under the name Vorhees, Dana Wachs makes music in which motion and stillness seem to merge. Her pieces constantly progress, but repetition gives them a contemplative quality, as if the sounds are watching themselves go by. This makes Wachs’s work well-suited to accompany moving things, particularly bodies and images. Tracks for Movement features scores composed for dance pieces and films over the past decade, and sees her conjuring mental images through variances in dynamics, volume, and tone… much of  Tracks for Movement has a visceral feel. You can practically feel feet landing on the floor and see muscles flexing in the thoughtful physicality of Wachs’s evolving compositions.” 

  • Marc Masters, Best Experimental Music Bandcamp February 2019