Dylan Hester is a sound artist based in Chicago. I work with field recordings, textural sounds, and long-form audio storytelling. I perform experimental music under the name Diane Oxide.
My most recent work is I can hear these sounds just as closely as you can, a multi-channel environmental audio installation. My album, Honey, I Mischanneled the Oracle, was self-released in 2024 on compact disc via my label A Sharpened Whisper.
⇒Email hello@dylanhester.info for booking or collaboration inquiries.
⇒Follow @diane.oxide on instagram for social updates.
Update — October 2026
As of 2026, I've permanently relocated to the beautiful city of Chicago. Recently, I performed live at Technosferatu XXX at New World in Minneapolis, the Atmospheric Music Alliance's Sound Market in Chicago's Logan Square, and the I Believe in Roof Worlds rooftop party in Pilsen.
Essay — December 11, 2025
The after-lives of objects. Which objects make us feel whole? What things do we need? A survey of Uncertainty surrounds the holding of things, a sixteen-artist group exhibition curated by Bella Feinstein and Olivia Miller, featuring exhibition photography by Aaron Wessling.
Bonus article: Curatorial Conversation on Uncertainty surrounds the holding of things, an interview with the curators via Art & About PDX.
Live Performance — November 8, 2025
My Eyes See Without Looking by Alessandro Rovegno. I participated in this ensemble composition for experimental orchestra, playing part 3 of 40. My part included music for keyboard, plastic bags, dead batteries, and aluminum bowls throughout the 64-minute score.
2026 update: This performance has been officially released in high-resolution audio.
Live Performance — October 25, 2025
Diane Oxide. Closing reception of Thrust Bearing exhibition by E.C. Comstock at This n That, 2731 E. 25th Street, Minneapolis. With Graham Baldwin. 6-8pm, $10-20.
Podcast — October 14, 2025
Can I Walk With You? by Thoraya Maronesy. Season 1, episode 14. Thoraya asked me to walk and talk with her. We discuss sobriety, relationships, trauma, and art. I also talk about my record, Honey, I Mischanneled the Oracle.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Watch on YouTube
Sound Design — September 2025
más y more by José A. Luis. Designed, composed, selected, and arranged 5.1-channel audio for a two-person, sixty-minute dance choreography.
"Who are you to the other image of yourself? Are you the reflection you see in the window? This could sound like internal conflict, but in this work it's more like the self as a prism, with facets that beam into multiple desires. Sometimes we want different things at the same time, cells dividing and multiplying. The self that is dancing in the club in flashing lights, the self that is straining to carry the load, the self that looks up to see a doorway–all are present and working in ensemble."— Emily Gastineau, from Work, Rest, Love: The Incommensurate in más y more by José A. Luis for Sixty Inches from Center
Exhibition — July 2025
I can hear these sounds just as closely as you can. An environmental audio installation and non-linear tone poem comprised of eight sound-image-text stations installed at after/time collective gallery in Portland, Oregon.
This work features eight stereo channels of unique, longform, looping audio which may never be the same twice. The audio channels interact with each other, moving in different directions throughout the room. This audio is accompanied by 32 prints (19 images, 13 texts), to create a single sound-image-text poem.
Take a one-minute audio walkthrough of the show.
Follow @aftertimegallery on instagram.
Album — October 19, 2024
Honey, I Mischanneled the Oracle by Wild Dyl & A Sharpened Whisper. This record contains themes of naive spirituality, sexual mysticism, & delusional thinking. It's about the hilarious, humiliating indifference of the natural world.
This is a formalist work set in four interlocking triptychs & two asymmetrical halves, totaling 12 tracks in 37 minutes.
Available on CD & digital formats at sharpwhisper.bandcamp.com.
