Serge Bulat is a Moldovan-American multidisciplinary artist and composer who approaches performance arts and media through an experimental lens.
His work merges art, philosophy, science, and psychology, exploring themes of creativity, reality, technology, culture, environment, and identity.
Notable works include Queuelbum (IMA Award for Best Electronic Album), the audiovisual installation Inkblot (presented in over 10 countries), and the experimental art game Wurroom. His projects have been featured at international symposiums and exhibitions, including Technarte: Art & Technology Conference (Spain), FILE (Brazil), Seeing Sound and Convergence (UK), Video Art Forum (Saudi Arabia), Simultan Festival (Romania), Bethany Arts, and Burning Man (USA).
Described as “the new sound in the realm of electronic music” (Facts & Arts, France) and “an ambitious project that triggers intellectual thought” (The Deli Magazine, USA), Bulat’s artistry fuses emotional depth with cutting-edge experimentation. His works have been called “expressive extensions of his own psyche, bridges to the listeners’ emotional landscapes” (I Thought I Heard A Sound).
Born and raised in Moldova during the country’s most transformative period, Bulat lived through its transition from a Soviet republic to an independent nation, enduring the social and economic upheaval that followed. Growing up in Soroca, a town bordering Ukraine, he attended E. Coca Music School before moving to Chișinău to pursue radio work and study further.
In Chișinău, Bulat knocked on every studio door until securing an internship at a newly opened Romanian radio station. Within a year, he was hired by Radio 21, developing content for both Radio 21 and its sister station, Europa Plus. He quickly rose to creative director, producing shows and events that introduced global trends and amplified underrepresented local voices.
Alongside his radio career, Bulat studied at the Academy of Music Theater and Fine Arts, honing his skills in performance arts. Though there was no sound design department at the time, Bulat became a go-to figure for his peers, contributing to the National Philharmonic of Moldova and the Opera and Ballet Theater.
While advancing professionally, Bulat felt creatively stifled by Moldova’s constraints and relocated to the United States in 2009 in search of broader opportunities.
In New York, he immersed himself in the city’s art scene while working various jobs in modeling and acting. He pursued education and radio work, but his immigration status posed limitations.
Against the backdrop of New York's challenging life, Bulat's desire for music-making soared, yet he lacked the tools.
This turning point catalyzed the creation of his debut album Queuelbum, an interdisciplinary concept project blending sound, video art, photography, and writing, crafted entirely on a single synthesizer gifted by a close friend. The album marked his first collaboration with visual artist Michael Rfdshir and launched his journey into genre-defying experimentation.
Intentionally unbound by convention, the album blended classical, experimental, psychedelic, and ambient elements, emphasizing world-building over form. Queuelbum later evolved into Third World Walker, an audiovisual triptych presented at independent festivals across Europe. Following its release, Bulat expanded his musical universe through international collaborations that integrated original instruments and interactive presentations.
His Wurmenai project followed - a two-part, multi-format endeavor featuring artists such as OYME and Miriam García, combining global sound traditions, activism, and experimental techniques. Its singles honored both the UN’s International Year of Indigenous Languages and the centennial of Leda Valladares.
Framed as an “album in video game format,” Wurmenai introduced Wurroom, a surreal game platform developed with Rfdshir, allowing players to interact with the album’s soundscape. The Border Song from the project earned an AEAF nomination for Best Music Video.
Part II, Similarities Between Fish and A Chair (2021), brought in collaborators including Katie Buckley, Nino Errera, and Hirokazu Ishida. The project expanded its global reach with contributions from artists across ten countries. During this time, Bulat and Rfdshir also developed their follow-up experimental game, Isolomus.
In 2019, Bulat launched Inkblot, an immersive work at the intersection of creativity and mental health. Presented at festivals around the world, the project was later published in the Brazilian scientific journal Vortex. It evolved into a long-term series, regularly updated with new data and tools for psychological and artistic practices. The second audiovisual piece, Normality, premiered across multiple countries.
Over the following years, Bulat traveled extensively, reaching four continents, and became an artist-in-residence in Türkiye and Andorra. There, he focused on “sound hunting”: the field recording and preservation of vanishing sonic material.
Beyond his solo output, Bulat frequently contributes to collaborative and independent projects aligned with his exploratory ethos. His field recordings have been featured in Cities and Memory’s Migration Sounds and Sonic Heritage initiatives, using sound to preserve cultural identity and share human stories across borders. He has participated in ToneShift’s Sound of Solidarity mix series, released vinyl tracks on Vinyl Moon's Gaze of Cydonia and Facade Arcade compilations, and contributed sound art to the Spanish experimental label Mute.
Additionally, he reimagined sonic material from Luxor and Dettifoss for two compilations: Sounds from Egypt, based on recordings from the ancient city; and Music for Sleep, a meditative work shaped by the Icelandic waterfall. In 2023, Bulat joined Sean Ellis Hussey’s project Emergent Character of Identity, resulting in a collaborative concert in Chicago and the album Identitudes.
Bulat’s next studio album, Omorphita Cornershop, is a bold exploration of dance music shaped by his migrant experiences. The album fuses electronic beats with field recordings from Cyprus and the world’s last divided capital - capturing the textures of border crossings and local environments. It offers a transformative listening experience that reflects on identity, culture, and belonging.
The Cornershop project has since expanded into a multi-format initiative - featuring DJ sets, radio specials, and curated mixes. It explores global electronica, traditional fusion, and immersive field recordings, celebrating the world’s diverse soundscapes through live performances and collective engagement.
Bulat’s most recent initiative, Phonomundi, brings his artistic vision into the realm of sonic anthropology. Spanning 12 countries, the project documents a wide spectrum of vanishing soundscapes - from UNESCO-listed landmarks to overlooked cultural rituals and fragile ecosystems.
Recorded between 2017 and 2024, the album functions both as an auditory archive and a meditation on sound as cultural memory, preserving what is often ignored or at risk of vanishing.
From the ritual music of Native America and Pyrenean folklore and the endangered bell-ringing traditions of Andorra and Malta to the expansive soundscapes of the Sahara and Cyprus, the album invites deep listening, drawing attention to what may soon be lost, while raising questions about preservation and responsibility.
Whether tracing bus rides to the Romani Hill in Moldova or the lively crafts and food markets of Türkiye and Poland, the album amplifies Bulat’s commitment to safeguarding and reintroducing the world’s living sound history.