Evan “Skytree” Snyder on Atomic Priests and Crystal Synthesizers

Taking deep time into the music studio, a robotics engineer and midtempo producer uses modern tools to commune with rocks and send notes to the distant future.

Evan “Skytree” Snyder in his studio. Source: Facebook.

Evan “Skytree” Snyder straddles two worlds: by day, he is a robotics engineer. By night, he produces electronic music that drops listeners into lush atmospheres evocative of both the ancient world and distant future.

We had a chance to speak with Snyder about his 02020 album Infraplanetary and his recent experiments with piezoelectric musical synthesis. Both projects ratchet up themes of deep time, inviting listeners to meditate on singing rocks and post-historic correspondences.

Our discussion has been edited for clarity and length.

Let’s talk about the lyrics to “Atomic Priest” off Infraplanetary.

An excerpt:

“This is for the humans living ten thousand years from now With radioactive capsules, thousands of feet underground
Grabbin’ the mic to warn you of these hazardous sites
For those…