Sounds Like Things is an experimental music duo formed in 2020 by percussionist/composer, Andrew Stauffer, and cellist/composer, Nicholas Denton Protsack. Sounds Like Things takes novel approaches to their music, exploring the sonic possibilities of found objects, extended techniques, alternate tuning systems, effects pedals, electronics, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Improvisation features heavily in their live performances. In addition to their primary instruments, Stauffer (pitched and unpitched percussion) and Denton Protsack (cello) utilize other instruments such as the hammer dulcimer, flutes, guitar, piano, and various found objects and made instruments.
Photo by Rob Buchanan
Nicholas Denton Protsack is an emerging composer and concert cellist, originally from Kelowna, British Columbia. His creative work often explores new connections between music and the natural world. Described as a “(composer) to keep a close eye on” by the Canadian Music Centre BC, Nicholas was recently named a recipient of two first prizes from the 2021 SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards, as well as a top prize from the internationally renowned BMI Student Composer Awards (2021).
As a cellist, Nicholas is an active freelance performer and advocate of new music—frequently involved in collaborative projects across North America that range from more traditional idioms, to free-form improvisations. Although primarily a chamber musician, he has also appeared as a soloist with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra.
Nicholas is currently undertaking a PhD in music at Victoria University of Wellington, studying with composers Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. His other major teachers have included David Garner (composition), Jean-Michel Fonteneau (cello), and Jennifer Culp (cello).
Photo by Alanna Coady
Andrew Stauffer is a percussionist and sound artist from Texas whose work explores the communication of ideas between artistic disciplines, the sonic possibilities of sundry objects, improvisation, and community. He has performed and recorded percussion in jazz, avant-garde, folk, and pop bands, as well as orchestras and a devotional Buddhist group.
More recently, Andrew arranged the musical component of an audio/visual installation, The Collective Body, which features the music and dance movement of over thirty artists across North America. Andrew works as the Community and Educational Programming Specialist at the Rotary Centre for the Arts. He is on the board of directors for Chamber Music Kelowna and on the advisory board for the Living Things Festival.
Andrew holds an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, where his research focused on the intersection between music and spirituality, and an M.A. in philosophy from Ohio University where his research explored ethics and aesthetics.