He picked up the saxophone in elementary school and was immediately drawn to the magic of using his own lungs to create music. Throughout his secondary education, his connected sound and high-level technical skill earned him over 20 superior medals. He also received a scholarship to Florida State University College of Music, one of the top music schools in the nation. There, he honed his composition skills writing and arranging for a myriad of the college’s musical groups.
After earning his degree in music education from FSU, Hansen fancied a bit of adventure. He auditioned for and was accepted into the highly selective United States Navy Band. While stationed in Italy, he played accordion, began to sing, and played the saxophone in every available military ensemble, from jazz band to pop groups.
Back in the States, Hansen’s childlike love for music and creative abandon are as strong as ever. Only now, they are enhanced by his lifetime of experience as a performer and composer. He began producing his own music shortly after attending a grad program at FSU, and his style is wholly and beautifully his own. His synthwave and jazz-inspired tracks artfully blend his voice with a wide variety of instruments, playfully reflecting his rich personal experiences and musical history.
Walter Hansen is a composer, singer, and award-winning multi-instrumentalist currently producing innovative synthwave and chillwave music. His complex, often unexpected instrumentations and warm, distinctive vocals are the product of a lifetime of diverse musical experience. Composing and arranging since he was a young child, he thinks and feels in melodies and expresses his full self with abandon. The result is expertly mixed and mastered music that blurs genre lines and grooves like a live performance.
His first EP, 2016’s instrumental Perspective, is a delicious display of his artistry as a jazz saxophonist. Hansen is connected with his instrument in such a way that the soulful sound flowing forth seems at times to be more like a voice than a horn. A captivating chorus of organic instruments, synth soundscapes, and stripped-down vocals showcase the symphony that lives within him. Hansen’s more recent vocal-centric work is electric, energetic, and delightfully dynamic. Earnest storytelling pieces and experimental dance tracks alike feature his sundry instrumentation, deft production, and invariably smooth, expressive voice.
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