Hi, I’m Rusty Santos. I’m a producer, mixer, and musician active in Los Angeles, New York City, and beyond.

My discography spans continents.  I’ve worked with pop experimentalists Animal Collective, the footwork pioneer DJ Rashad, avant-garde jazz innovators Dawn of Midi, and I have credits on albums by Beach House and Weyes Blood.  When I’m drawn to a sound or movement, I embed myself in the scene.  I’ve worked extensively in Beijing, Mexico City, Lisbon, and spent formative years in New York City and Los Angeles. I go where the music takes me, and the best music finds its way to me.  

My work is with the artist, an approach that invites collaboration.  I create from an intuitive state, seeking out where the acoustic and the conceptual intersect. The recording process can include composition and technical elements, but they are not the emphasis of my work.  Whether the sound occurs on stage or on a recording, my task is to capture both the writing and performance to communicate the music.  

Activating the listener's imagination is key. As sonic textures unfold, they act as my means of communication.  The goal is not to create ambient music; experimental records are made to engage the audience, to exist in the context of scenes, and as the sustenance of music communities. I work with these scenes and also within them.  What I produce is part of a cycle of song-based music, pushed to electronic and acoustic extremes.