Composer, electronic musician, sound designer, ECU member since 2021Born on 05.03.1985
Sander Saarmets is an Estonian composer, electronic musician, and sound designer whose work explores the interplay between structure and openness. Working across concert music, live electronics, film, installation, and radio, he combines modular synthesis, generative processes, and transformed remnants of his own acoustic compositions into evolving musical forms.
Whether composing for ensembles, creating music for film and installation, or performing live electronics, Saarmets is drawn to musical processes that leave room for the unforeseen. These ideas take different forms throughout his practice, from interdisciplinary collaborations and concert works to his recent LP, Bleu Précieux (Glitch Please, 2025), and his live modular performances.
His work has been presented internationally in concert halls, galleries, festivals, films, and radio broadcasts across Europe. In 2023, his ensemble work and the sky turned yellow was selected among the Recommended Works at the 69th International Rostrum of Composers in The Hague, later becoming one of the most widely broadcast works through the international public radio network. His sound and music also featured in Regional_Express, presented as part of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024, while his electroacoustic work Echoes of Salt was commissioned by the Austrian broadcaster Ö1.
Saarmets also composes for ensemble, film, dance, installation, and theatre, collaborating closely with directors, choreographers, performers, and visual artists. His work has been performed by ensembles including Ensemble U:, Ensemble for New Music Tallinn, and ConTempo Quartet, while his audiovisual and electronic performances have appeared in Estonia, Austria, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere.
Alongside his work under his own name, Saarmets continues to develop parallel artistic projects, including the ongoing electronic music project V4R1; earlier works were released under the name Muschraum.
Important works and creative achievements:
2021 – Sound design and music for film A Pile of Ghosts (dir. Ella Raidel)
2023 – 5th place at the International Rostrum of Composers with the work and the sky turned yellow, performed by the Ensemble for New Music Tallinn
2024 – Music and sound design for audiovisual project Regional_Express (Ella Raidel, Marlene Rutzendorfer, Petra Ardai)
2024 – Artist in residence in Galway Music Residency in Ireland
2024 – Sruth for string quartet and electronics premiered in Galway, performed by ConTempo
2025 – Album Bleu Précieux (Glitch Please)