ABOUT TOM
Tom Eaton is a GRAMMY® nominated musician, producer, and mastering engineer. Using vintage and modern synthesizers, electric and lap steel guitars, fretted and fretless basses, myriad sonic sculpting devices, field recordings, and his signature piano, Tom composes what Ambient Music Guide calls “lush, shadowed, emotional music that’s rich in harmonies and oceanic layers and…so deliciously slow.”
The spatial and dynamic aesthetic of the classic Hearts of Space, Windham Hill, and Private Music albums resonates through Tom’s work, described by Hypnagogue as “breathtaking…rich, complex and beautifully structured.”
Tom’s music has been featured on NPR's Echoes, Hearts of Space, Star’s End, SiriusXM, NPR, and many other programs. His 2021 album Brothers with Will Ackerman and Jeff Oster was nominated for the Best New Age GRAMMY® award.
Since 1993 Tom has been producing, engineering, mastering, and playing on albums for others, and since 2009 he has been collaborating with Will Ackerman (GRAMMY® winning guitarist, producer, and founder of Windham Hill Records) at Imaginary Road Studios in Vermont. Together they've made albums for some of the best musicians working in the modern instrumental and new age genres.
Tom and Will produced and toured with the award-winning ensemble FLOW (featuring Will, Lawrence Blatt, Fiona Joy Hawkins, and Jeff Oster), playing Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall multiple times, The Grammy Museum in LA, and The Jazz Museum in New Orleans, among many other venues.
Tom worked for many years as a tracking and mix engineer before moving most of his engineering time to mastering. He has contributed engineering to Emmy and Grammy winning projects, and has supplied content for NPR, the BBC, ABC, Bravo, and the National Geographic Channel, and worked on hundreds of music projects over the years.
Brothers, a trio album written and performed by Tom, Will Ackerman, and Jeff Oster, was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in 2021. Will’s current album, Positano Songs , which Tom and Will produced and Tom recorded, mixed, mastered, and contributed piano and bass to, was nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY® award.
Tom lives in rural New Hampshire with his wife, two cats, and a rotating cast of nearly grown children. His studio, Sounds & Substance, is a two-story converted barn containing a mastering studio on the first floor and Tom’s composing space, filled with instruments and natural light, on the second floor.
He draws inspiration from the woods and pastures just outside his door and the nearby Atlantic coast.
ABOUT TOM'S MUSIC
"Lush, shadowed, emotional music that’s rich in harmonies and oceanic layers and so deliciously slow." Ambient Music Guide
"Lushly and intricately produced, beautifully meditative and highly vulnerable...Eaton reveals himself to be an incredible storyteller." The JW Vibe
"Whatever separation there is between nature and the technologies used to assemble his material dissolves when the music floods the listening space." Textura
"Tom Eaton’s piano playing is a revelation"
Wind and Wire
"A piano sound to lust after, immersed in a suggestive, gauzy world of beautifully wrought electronics and guitar loops" Tim Story
"A beautiful, shimmering, and colorful emotional experience, with strong melodic content morphing slowly like waves as each piece slowly progresses" Expose
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ABOUT THE STUDIO
The mastering studio at Sounds & Substance sits on the first floor just below the writing room.
The main system consists of a Cranesong Avocet Quantum, SPL Crossover, Hothouse amplification, Dynaudio M2 mains and stereo Dynaudio ABES ii subs.
Other references include: Munro Sonic Egg150 and Dynaudio BM6.
Tom's writing room in the loft at Sounds & Substance. Favorite instruments are close at hand: Yamaha EX5 and Opsix, Access Virus, ASM Hydrasynth, Expressive E Osmose, Roli Seaboard49, Rhodes MK80 and suitcase, Modal Cobalt 8, Waldorf Quantum, and Studiologic Sledge. Novation Supernova, Yamaha TX802 and Roland D550 live in the rack. In the corner is the CP70 where most of the writing is done. Music Man and G&L basses and DBZ guitars are in the foreground. Most recording work is done in ProTools, while drone and looping work is done in Digital Performer's POLAR. Monitors are Dynaudio BM6a and Hales Design Concept 3 with stereo NHT subs, with a Crane Song Avocet Quantum handling the D/A and switching.
CONTACT US
For inquiries about Tom's music or to join the mailing list, please send a message via the form below.