Steve Flato is a composer, microtonal guitarist, and modular synthesist based in Buffalo, NY, whose work spans electroacoustic improvisation, just intonation, and experimental electronic music.

Active since the early 2000s, Flato has developed a distinct approach to performance using live electronics and a custom 17-tone just intonation electric guitar, which he has employed in both composed and improvised settings across North America and Mexico.

His practice is grounded in longform improvisation and collaborative exploration, with past collaborators including A.F. Jones, Vanessa Rossetto, T.J. Borden, and Brian McOmber—with whom he contributed original music and microtonal guitar to the A24 film It Comes at Night and the Emmy-winning Kingdom of Silence among others. He was commissioned to compose a tactile piece designed to be physically felt for the Spreckels Organ in San Diego—the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ—released as Organ for the Senses on LP.

Since 2020, Flato has focused on modular synthesis as a compositional tool, culminating in Degenerate, an evolving, ever-changing generative album that explores algorithmic control, feedback, and non-linear structures. His recorded work appears on experimental labels including Marginal Frequency, Full Spectrum, Astral Spirits, and many other independent music labels, reflecting a deep engagement with tuning theory, system-based composition, and the physicality of sound.