before the storm

Yann Novak was born in Madison, WI in 1979. At an early age, he became interested in the worlds of both music and visual art. He developed his primary medium, collage, via pieces which combined found photographs with his own drawings, and prerecorded LPs with loops and live instruments. In the 1990s, Novak performed and exhibited his work throughout the vibrant Madison café art scene. In 2000, Novak moved to Seattle and refined his methods, trading in turntables and vinyl records for a Mini Disc recorder and a laptop, in order to achieve a more in-depth style of production. Novak has released set of 5 limited edition 3-inch CDs “Three Inches for Friends”. In addition, he has produced two film soundtracks, for “Leaning” (which he also produced), and “Neptune” (produced by Brian Murphy). Both movies premiered at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, in 2003 and 2004, respectively. He was recently included on the compilation “People Doing Strange Things With Electricity” curated by Dorkbot-sea and released by Comfort Stand Records, and was Commissioned by the Crispen Spaeth Dance Group to score there full length piece “Fade”. Novak’s work has withstood a series of changes in method while always retaining and refining the strengths of his unique aesthetic, exploring the overlap and intersection between presence and absence, art and design, sound and music.