John Thayer is a New York-based musician and audio engineer whose experiential compositions are inspired by a deep attention to the sounds of the natural world. His recordings, centered around a hybrid of studio techniques and improvisatory performance, range from long-form, multilayered ambience to polyrhythmic electro-acoustic collage.
A trained drummer and percussionist, Thayer has toured internationally as a performing artist. As the house engineer for Thump Studios in Brooklyn, he employs a collection of beautiful vintage gear, focusing on fidelity to capture nuanced sound. His work has appeared in multiple television and feature films and has been released by a number of record labels, including AKP Records, Not Not Fun, Aural Canyon, Mexican Summer, Tonal Union, Astral Editions, Moon Villain, Surfacing Records, and Spirit House Records.
In addition to his solo releases, Thayer is a member of jazz abstractionists YAI with multi-instrumentalist David Lackner and Earth Room with Robbie Lee and Ezra Feinberg. He creates site-specific sound installations and is an active collaborator in NYC’s experimental scene, having performed with musicians such as Zeena Parkins, Brian Chase, Daniel Carter, Nick Jozwiak, Stan Zenkov, Chris Cochrane, and Lea Thomas.
Thayer was a 2018 Montello Foundation artist in residence, with his sound installation Currents premiering at Brooklyn's Trestle Gallery in 2019. His long-form piece Listening Sky premiered at the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) in 2021. He is a graduate of the Institute of Audio Research and George Washington University.