Justin Devries

Justin Devries is a musician and historian whose work lies at the intersections of percussion, electronics, and experimental composition techniques. His recent historical work investigated local settler interactions with experimental electronic musics and Indonesian musics in Vancouver from the 1960s to the early 1990s through the life and work of Martin Bartlett, completing an MA thesis in 2024 which provides one of the most comprehensive overviews of Bartlett’s life to date. His subsequent writing on Bartlett was also published in The Urban History Review/Revue d'histoire urbaine. His composition work includes the debut album of his group Universal Affirmation Ensemble, titled Unconditional Propositions and released on the USA-based Katutu Collective, as well as the piece Abu Masuk Tanah (Heart’s Contents)on the USA and Indonesia-based recording collective Insitu Recordings. Devries is a well-travelled percussionist, having performed locally and internationally as a percussionist with the bands Loving, Ora Cogan, Yawn, Jo Passed, Elisa Thorn, and many others, including on festival stages such as Pitchfork Festival Paris, Le Guess Who International Music Festival in Utrecht, London’s Mirrors Festival, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. He lives on the unceded territory of the Sḵwxwú7mesh, Xwməθkwəyəm and Səl’il’wətaʔ peoples.