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September 30, 2008 On October 22, I'll be participating in a performance of Christian Marclay's Screen Play as part of the month-long Shanghai eArts Festival. Christian Marclay is an influential artist whose work pokes at sound from many angles, and Screen Play is a video score "to be interpreted by a small group of musicians," consisting of a collage of black and white film excerpts overlaid with bright computer graphics, which as you may imagine allows the performers a fair degree of latitude. The piece will be performed three times in the course of one evening, by three different groups of musicians. I'll be performing with Yan Jun 颜峻 and Bruce Gremo, both coming down from Beijing for the occasion. Also on the bill is guitarist Elliott Sharp, out from New York, performing with Wu Na 巫娜 (guqin) and Wang Li Chuan 王力川 (percussion), also down from Beijing. The third set features Shanghai's irrepressible punk band Top Floor Circus 顶楼的马戏团. The performance is part of the Final Cut portion of the eArts Festival, centered around Shanghai's Xujiahui district and organized by the fine folks of ArtHub. In addition to several nights of new media shows, they're taking over some of the big digital displays in the neighborhood and applying them to artistic ends, promising quite a spectacle. Event: Christian Marclay's Screen Play Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 7:30 pm Location: Xujiahui Park (near Zhao Jia Bang Lu and Hengshan Lu) Admission: free! In other news, I'd say my performance at last Friday's Pecha-Kucha #11 turned out pretty well; I came up with a new piece, "Statement of Purpose," for the occasion; you can check out photos and a video. Also, I think I forgot to mention that I finally finished translating Li Jianhong's Japan Diaries, documenting his tour of Japan in December 2006, posted for your reading pleasure over on GNO, complete with dramatis personae. 我十月底参加上海电子艺术节的演出，有三个小组来表演Christian Marclay的Screen Play电影乐谱。 我要和 颜峻 和 Bruce Gremo 一起表演。 还有纽约实验吉他手Elliott Sharp，古琴手巫娜，鼓手王力川，和上海朋克乐队顶楼的马戏团。 上海电子艺术节的徐家汇部分叫 Final Cut 是 ArtHub 安排的。 还有几天的电子艺术活动。 活动：Christian Marclay的Screen Play 时间：二零零八年十月二十二日周三晚上七点半 地址：上海市徐家汇公园（近肇嘉浜路和衡山路的路口） 门票：免费！ 我觉得上个星期五的 Pecha-Kucha #11 表演还不错。 我写了新的作曲，叫"Statement of Purpose"，你可以看 照片 和 电影。 而且我终于翻译好了李剑鸿的“日本十日私人地图册”，你可以去 GNO网站 看英文版本。 September 24, 2008 I’ll be making a presentation about my work at the nexus of videogames, music composition, and digital art at Pecha-Kucha #11 this Friday, kind of a non-linear, multi-media lecture/performance. Note the new location: PECHA KUCHA NIGHT #11 Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 8:20 pm Location: Wen Ding Plaza, No.204, Wending Road (near Kaixuan Road) Cover: 40 RMB (includes one free drink) 这个星期五我要参加 Pecha-Kucha #11， 介绍一下我的电子音乐和艺术。没事来玩儿！ 第十一个PECHA KUCHA NIGHT 时间：星期五,9月26日,8点20分 地址：文定路204号A（近凯旋路） 门票：40元 (一个免费饮料) September 12, 2008 EndWar audio is finished! About 2 weeks ago we checked in the final EndWar audio data, which felt a bit surreal after working on it for 3.5 years. I’m really happy with how it turned out, thanks to the efforts of a really fantastic audio team. Hear the results for yourself when EndWar hits shelves in a few weeks. I’ve shared a bit about the ideas and techniques behind the audio for the game with the EndWar community team in a podcast and a developer blog, if you want to know what’s going on behind the scenes. EndWar has turned out to be a really great game. Personally, this is the first time ever that I still enjoy playing a game after I’ve finished working on it. Initial feedback from the press has been quite positive, too, including the Game Critics Award for Best Strategy Game of E3, the first time a console game has won in this category. Here’s a sample of other comments (visit the official EndWar site for the latest updates): Game Critics Awards, Winner, Best Strategy Game IGN, Winner, Best Strategy Game for Xbox 360 GameSpy, Nominated for Best X360 Game (#9) Gametrailers, Winner, Best Strategy Game UGO, Winner, Best Strategy Game Cheat Code Central, Nominated for Best Strategy/Simulation Game Edge Online, EndWar named a best game of E3 This marks the end of my four-year tenure with Ubisoft, and I’m currently embarking on a long-anticipated sabbatical, which will encompass music composition, performances, art installations, writing, and intensive Chinese study, among other pursuits. My mission is to find ways to apply the techniques I’ve developed for structuring non-linear sound in videogames over the past twelve years in a broader cultural context. More info about these activities will be posted soon. EndWar 的声音部分两个星期以前终于结束了。我觉得结果非常好，因为我们声音部门又天才又很专业，我很感谢我的同事！ EndWar 究竟是很有意思的游戏。这是第一次我做好一个游戏以后我还想玩儿。我们已经赢了几个很好的奖品（连接在上面）。还有我写的博克和podcast，我介绍一下 EndWar 的声音部分。 因为现在 EndWar 结束了，所以我要离开育碧电脑软件有限公司。我要开始做我很长时间期待的安息年，研究怎么用我的游戏声音意见参加更大的文化谈论。 July 20, 2008 Ooh, check out the first update to the look of this site since it went live in 2001! The image at the top of each page is a photograph of neon lights on Shanghai's East Nanjing Road, which I reshuffled algorithmically using Max/MSP. I'm planning a gallery show of more of these kinds of images this fall after EndWar ships, details forthcoming. I also finally fixed the Scores page of this site. For a long time you couldn't download scores, as Finale changed their on-line score viewing plug-in format one too many times. Way back in 2000, I upgraded to Finale 2001 just for this functionality, but it never really worked right, especially compared to what their competition was doing at the time. But anyway, at long last, you can once again download all of the sheet music for my soundtrack to Arcanum (scored for string quartet), plus two other old pieces, a setting of some personal ads from 2002 and a setting of evening prayer from 1998, quite an eclectic collection, I guess. 我刚才更新了我的网站的样子，比以前好看得多！ 上面的图片是我用 Max/MSP 转换的在上海南京东路拍的照片。今年秋天 （做好EndWar以后） 我打算安排这样做的图片展览。 而且我终于修改了这个网站的 乐谱页， 你可以下载几个老作品的乐谱，包括我写的 Arcanum 电子游戏的配音，是用弦乐四重奏录音的。 April 5, 2008 I'll be performing at an event next Saturday organized by Mai Mai 卖卖 from Musclesnog called RESO: Reconstruct the Experimental Soundscape of Ourselves. I'm helping out with the English language promotion, and I've put the info up on the Sound Currents website, though it's not an official Sound Currents event. (The next official Sound Currents concert should be sometime after EndWar ships.) At this show, I plan to do something involving vocal improvisation and a laptop. Also on the bill are Asthma Writers Union (that's Mai Mai's solo project), Porn Moon Twins, and Dominik. I performed twice with Dominik in May 2006, last time he was in China, once at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art and once at Noishanghai's first anniversary A Sunday Afternoon show. Should be fun, come on down! Date: Saturday, April 12, 7:30 pm Venue: Mecooon (aka Downstream Garage) Address: Long Cao Road, lane 200, number 100, building 3 (next to the former Yu Yin Tang). Cover charge: 20 RMB (includes free CD for first 50 audience members) 下个周末我会参加 Musclesnog 的卖卖安排的 RESO第一局 活动。这次我会用即兴嗓音和笔记本表演。 演出还有 Asthma Writers Union （卖卖个人的项目）， Porn Moon Twins， 和 Dominik 多多。 上次Dominik二零零六年来过中国，我们一起两次表演了。第一次在 脑上海 的 A Sunday Afternoon 周年音乐会， 第二次在 证大现代艺术馆。来玩儿吧！ 时间: 星期六,四月十二号,晚上七点半 场地: 下河迷仓 地址: 龙漕路200弄100号3楼（育音堂原址隔壁） 门票: 二十人民币，所有入场观众将赠送弥勒唱片为RESO定制的限量50张唱片 July 9, 2007 Now that the big website overhaul is complete, I can get back to posting news, and the most interesting news lately is that the project on which I've been working for about the last two years has finally been announced to the world: Tom Clancy's EndWar. It's a real-time strategy game set in the universe of Tom Clancy's near future techno-thriller books, designed from the ground up for Microsoft's Xbox 360 videogame console. I'll leave the official announcements to the pros, so check out the official website for more information. I'll just say I'm having a great time working on a truly innovative project with a very talented team from 5 continents and all the resources to pull off something of unprecedented coolness! July 8, 2007 Okay, it’s time to come clean. In the six years since this site went live, there has been exactly one person generating all of the content you find here: me, Ben Houge. When I first put up this site, I guess I thought it was more professional or legitimate or whatever to refer to myself in the third person, but it’s become increasingly cumbersome to maintain the charade in recent years. The problem is that once one starts down that dark path, there’s no easy way to switch to writing in the first person, since it requires re-writing the entire website. Well, that’s what I’ve finally done; I could bear it no longer. So I hope the world enjoys the new more personable and approachable Ben Houge. Next big project: Chinese version. Stay tuned… P.S. I finally got a MySpace page last February; I used to think MySpace was soooooo 2004, but then I realized it’s a good way to stay in touch with Chinese musician friends, so I jumped on the bandwagon. There are two exclusive tracks there, Psalmus and Mobile 3, elsewhere unavailable! I’ve also got a Flickr page now, a bit lean for the moment, but more coming soon! December 12, 2006 Pictures from the 2pi Festival and NOIShanghai VI have been added to the Images page. A recent feature from last month's issue of That's Shanghai has been added to the Press page. There have been several other minor nips and tucks left for the reader to discover. Additional 2pi shots are available on Flickr, and check out the GNO website, maintained by Lawrence Li, for complete coverage of the event, with most performances available for free (legal) download. GNO is an indispensible resource for cutting-edge Chinese music and sound art, and Lawrence is a tireless and eloquent advocate. November 16, 2006 In addition to next Thursday's show at Yu Yin Tang, a second NOIShanghai VI concert has been added the next day (Friday, Nov. 24th) at China Live Bar, featuring the same line-up mentioned below, but with mostly different music. Live Bar (phone: 021-28336764) is located at 721 Kun Ming Road, near Tong Bei Road in the northern Yang Pu district of Shanghai. The show will start at 9pm, and tickets are 30 RMB at the door. Ben has also been added to the line-up of the fourth annual 2pi Festival in Hangzhou the next day, on Nov. 25th. Organized by Li Jianhong (李剑鸿), 2pi is the main annual showcase of experimental Chinese music and sound art, presenting artists from all over mainland China and Taiwan, in addition to Ben, Audrey Chen, and Alessandro Bosetti from the NOIShanghai concerts. The event goes starts at 2:30pm and runs until midnight at Loft 49, 49 Hangyin Rd., Gongshu District, Hangzhou. Check out the official website for full details and a map. 下个星期有两个新的演出。 原来的是十一月二十三号星期四在育音堂（明细在下边）。 然后二十四号星期五在 现场酒吧 （杨浦区昆明路721号，近通北路，电话021-28336764）九点还有演出。 然后二十五号星期六在杭州我会参加 2pi音乐节。 音乐节在loft49（杭州拱墅区杭印路49号 ）二点半开始。明细，作曲家，地图什么都在在他们的网站上。 October 16, 2006 Ben returns to Yu Yin Tang to perform at NOIShanghai VI on Thursday, November 23, 2006, 7:30 pm, Lane 100, 200 Long Cao Rd., Shanghai (tel: 021-64360072). Tickets are 30 RMB. In addition to a performance by Torturing Nurse (NOIShanghai organizers and tireless promoters of new sounds in Shanghai), this concert also marks the return of cellist and vocalist Audrey Chen (Baltimore, USA) to Shanghai. She performed at last year's Sound Currents concert with percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, and this year's she's touring Eastern Asia with Berlin-based saxophonist and sound artist Alessandro Bosetti. Ben is likely to present, among other works, a live performance of "Study for Eventual World Domination", recently contributed to Mike Min's Bike Bin Project, a musical bicycle tour of Seattle. 二零零六年十一月二十三号周四七点半在 育音堂 (龙漕路200弄100号, 电话021-64360072) Ben Houge (我) 参加 NOIShanghai VI 的演出。门票30元。 Torturing Nurse (闹上海组织和新的声音发扬的人)会演出。还有美国的歌手和大提琴演奏家Audrey Chen。去年她参加霍杰明的 Sound Currents 演出。 她现在和德国的萨克斯管吹奏者 Alessandro Bosetti 正在旅行东亚洲。 我大概会演出不但他最新的作品， “Study for Eventual World Domination,” 而且其他的电子音乐。 October 1, 2006 Ben just contributed "Study for Eventual World Domination" to Mike Min's Bike Bin Project, a somewhat peculiar endeavor which is best explained by Mike himself on the official site. At face value, at least, it's a self-guided musical bicycle tour of Seattle, and doesn't that sound pleasant? Ben was involved in two stages of the project, in fact, first in manipulating the fodder supplied to the participating artists, then in contributing a response to said fodder. It's all a bit odd, but wondrously so. By the way, the Infinite Scape concert from last month went quite well. In the end, circumstances prevented Jin Shan and Chen Wei from making the trip from Hangzhou, but Torturing Nurse and Xu Cheng ably substituted for them. And even though there's no way you might have attended, let the record show that Ben and four of his Ubisoft colleagues (Yu Hai Xiang, Lu Bin, Yang Jia Yang [aka Clark], and Jean-Michel Tari) performed an exclusive three-song set in English, French, and Chinese at Ubisoft's company party last week. The name of the band is Final Submission (designed to evince a chuckle from industry insiders). However, in the heat of the fray, the venue's wonky electrical system fried Ben's beloved Roland JP-8000 synthesizer. Memorial arrangements are pending. August 27, 2006 Following last Sunday's excellent concert by Dickson Dee (aka 李劲松 or Li Jin Song) and Lawrence English at Tang Hui in Shanghai, Junky (lead instigator of Torturing Nurse) asked Ben if he would like to participate in another concert two weeks later. The details were unclear, and Ben didn't really have anything prepared, but he certainly knows better than to refuse such an offer. So next Sunday, September 3, 2006, Ben will join Melanie Velarde, Jin Shan (金闪), and Chen Wei (陈维) as part of the Infinite Scape concert at Yu Yin Tang, Lane 100, 200 Long Cao Rd., Shanghai (tel: 021-64360072). The show starts at 4pm, and tickets are 20 RMB. 周日九月三号 Ben Houge (霍杰明) 还要演出. 来听听吧! 主办: Infinite Scape 场地协助: 育音堂 时间: 2006年9月3日(周日)16:00 地址: 龙漕路200弄100号 电话: 021-64360072 门票: 20元 August 20, 2006 Just added to the Press page is an article on last May's Noishanghai show, written by Dominik Salter and published in the June issue of Shanghai Talk. Another Sound Currents show is currently in the works for next November; stay tuned for more details! June 3, 2006 The Noishanghai concert last month rocked, with an eclectic array of music, a good crowd, and a funky venue. Ben performed his electronic work Psalmus and premiered A Reading from Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan An Forum on Literature and Art," a new electronic version of his 2003 work A Reading from _____ for four readers, in which an arbitrary text is manipulated into a completely non-linear form that emerges in real time. Images from the show are available on the images page. Then last Sunday, Ben premiered his new Method for the Direct Conversion of Visual Information into Sound, at an event called Lovely Shanghai Music, organized by Germany-based art collective Team 404 at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art. Team 404's project involved collecting visual images to serve as scores from a range of artists all over the world, then inviting local musicians wherever the project is presented to interpret these scores live. Not being much of a free improviser, but wanting nonetheless to oblige the amiable Germans, Ben devised this method for sonically representing the works on display. For over an hour, Ben and UK artist Dominik performed the work on synthesizer, drums, accordion, voice, radio, and gu zheng (a Chinese zither). April 2, 2006 On May 7, 2006, Ben will take part in Noishanghai's anniversary "A Sunday Afternoon" mini-festival of experimental/electronic/noise artists and musicians. Noishanghai has been responsible for some of the most creative underground experimental performances in Shanghai over the last year or so, in addition to releasing a steady stream of adventurous recordings on their affiliated Sasha label. Here's the full line-up for the upcoming show: 10 (Marqido from Japan + itta from Korea), laptop noise Torturing Nurse (Shanghai,China), analog harshnoise group D!O!D!O!D! (Hangzhou,China), guitar and drums noise band OO (Shanghai,China), voice and sound Ji Mu (Hangzhou,China), hardware and laptop noise Dominik (UK), minimal noise Wang Changcun (Shanghai,China), laptop sound art Ben Houge (USA), laptop sound art 00700 (Shanghai,China), guitar and keyboard noise duo Keplerslaws (France), free-improvised electronics Acidzen (Hangzhou,China), hardware noise duo Ben is still considering the exact details of his performance, but he's currently thinking it will likely include a reprise of Psalmus, premiered last November, plus some new speech-based work. The only way to find out for sure is to come to the show! The concert will take place at the new Yu Yin Tang venue, south of Xu Jia Hui, near the Shanghai Stadium, Lane 100, 200 Long Cao Rd. (phone: 021-64360072). Note that the show is in the afternoon, starting at 4pm. Tickets are 30 RMB at the door. 下个五月七号 Ben Houge (霍杰明) 要和所有的上面的作曲家一起演出. 来听听吧! 主办: NOIShanghai Shasha Records 场地协助: 育音堂 时间: 2006年5月7日(周日)16:00-20:00 地址: 龙漕路200弄100号 电话: 021-64360072 门票: 30元 March 30, 2006 The March 2006 issue of the English-language monthly Shanghai Talk profiles Ben's game audio history and current aesthetic outlook in a two-page feature article entitled "Sound Man: The Art and Science of Composing Soundtracks for Computer Games." Choice pull-out quotations include, "I think there's kind of a tyranny of melody in game scoring," and, "At one point or another, all game audio designers must take a sledgehammer to a pumpkin." The full transcript has been added to the Press page. Ben's music has also been featured prominently on a Chinese internet radio station run by Tinnitus (耳鸣 , aka Hong Qi Le) in recent months. This site is a fantastic portal to the experimental underbelly of the burgeoning Chinese music scene. And to cap off this recent flurry of press interest, a transcript of Ben's January interview for the Polish radio station RMF Classic's Klasyka wchodzi w gre (Classics comes into the game) program has also been added to the Press page. January 23, 2006 Ben's music for Arcanum will be featured on the Polish radio show Klasyka wchodzi w gre (Classics comes into the game), hosted by Mateusz Pawlak, on RMF Classic this Friday at noon Seattle time (that's Saturday at 4am Shanghai time), then rebroadcast on Saturday at 6am Seattle time (10pm Shanghai time). Ben also did an interview for the program, which should be on the web site soon. To listen, just click "Sluchaj nas w internecie" on the main site. December 10, 2005 The Nakatani-Chen Duo is Ben's new favorite band. They exhibited a mesmerizing improvisational resourcefulness at the latest Sound Currents concert (and again at Live Bar and the following weekend at the 2pi Festival of experimental music in Hangzhou). They also happen to be warm, fascinating people who are great to hang out with! Ben's debut as one of those ubiquitous laptop performers was also well-received. Ben presented a new piece entitled Psalmus and a live performance version of his 2004 work Radiospace. To help mitigate the disconnect that can occur when a performer's face is hidden behind a laptop monitor, both pieces used only sounds that were recorded on stage as part of the performance: Ben's voice and some Tibetan bells for Psalmus and local Shanghai radio broadcasts for Radiospace. Local English language monthly Shanghai Talk (which evidently has no web page) had a woman on the scene who described the "overlapping monk-esque chanting, chimes, and bells" of Psalmus as "church music on acid." While she was thwarted in her search for Chinese punks at Harley's (which often presents local metal bands), doesn't that sound like an interesting thing to stumble across at a bar in Shanghai? Check out pictures of the show on the images page. October 30, 2005 Sound Currents lives again! The concert series that Ben founded in Seattle will be reincarnated on November 19 at Harley's Bar in the Xujiahui district of Shanghai. The Nakatani-Chen Duo, comprising Baltimore-based vocalist and cellist Audrey Chen (who knows Ben via Dennis Rea and Christopher DeLaurenti) and her percussionist collaborator Tatsuya Nakatani, will perform two sets of experimental free improvisations as part of their Asian tour in support of their new album Limn. As the opening act, Ben will present several new aleatoric electronic works, including a live performance version of his 2004 composition Radiospace. Tickets, available at the door, cost 45 RMB, which includes one drink. The show starts around 8pm. For full details and directions, check out the substantially bilingual Sound Currents website. The Nakatani-Chen Duo have several other dates planned while they're in town, including a show with Shanghai noise band Torturing Nurse the following night at Live Bar. Check out their tour itinerary for more information. October 21, 2005 Here's another interview, courtesy of G Soundtracks. In it, Ben discusses music from Arcanum and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, as well as his conception of game audio design as a kind of meta-composition. He also hints tantalizingly about his current project. August 27, 2005 Music4Games just published an interview with Ben, in which he discusses Passage to Arcanum, his new arrangement of the main theme from Arcanum for string orchestra. The Symphonic Game Music Concert 2005 in Leipzig last week was a tremendous success, selling out in three days! The German game publication 4Players also conducted an interview with Ben last March, and Game-Vision posted a concert review, for the German speakers among you. According to the review (as translated by Torsten Reinl), Passage to Arcanum "enchanted the venue/house with dramatic yet magnificently beautiful string passages." May 1, 2005 Tickets are now available for the Symphonic Game Music Concert 2005, to be held in Leipzig, Germany, on August 17. Ben's Passage to Arcanum, a freshly-minted work for string orchestra incorporating themes from his Arcanum soundtrack, will be premiered at this event. In addition, the program features music from Ben's most recent project, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, composed by Stephen Harwood. Tickets are available from Music by Design or, if you live in Germany, directly from the Gewandhaus, where the concert will be held. For more information, including recently announced additions to the program, see also this preview article at Music4Games. March 29, 2005 Following a whirlwind production, Ben's first project for Ubisoft since moving to Shanghai, the PlayStation 2 edition of Gearbox Software's World War II game Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, has been completed and is now available wherever fine videogames are sold. Brothers in Arms is unique among World War II shooters for the tactical element it introduces to the genre, as well as for its unprecedented historical accuracy. This marks Ben's fourth collaboration with Gearbox since 1999, following two Half-Life expansion packs and the PlayStation 2 release of Half-Life. February 27, 2005 The German magazine Gamestar recently announced the first six game soundtracks to be represented at the Symphonic Game Music Concert 2005, which will be held at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, on August 17, in conjunction with the GC Games Convention, August 17-21, 2005. Ben is preparing a string orchestra arrangement of excerpts from his Arcanum soundtrack to accommodate the forces of the 90-piece FILMharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Andy Brick. In addition to Ben's music from Arcanum, selections from Battlefield 2, Morrowind, Silent Hill 2, International Karate and Spellforce 2 will also be performed. Watch the official concert website for the latest information as additional titles are announced, or to sign up for the newletter. More information will be posted about this exciting and unique event as the date approaches! November 27, 2004 Ben will be returning to Seattle to attend the premiere of his Laudate Dominum by the acclaimed a cappella chorus The Esoterics on December 11th and 12th. Ben will give a presentation on his work prior to the Saturday evening concert, and a reception will follow. There are two additional performances the previous weekend in Tacoma and Medina. Below are the dates and locations for all four concerts; for complete information and to order tickets, please visit the Esoterics' web page. Sat, 4 Dec, 8 pm, Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma Sun, 5 Dec, 3 pm, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina Sat, 11 Dec, 8 pm, St. Joseph's Church, Seattle Sun, 12 Dec, 3 pm, Holy Rosary Church, West Seattle The work represents a synthesis of several areas of activity. It is the most recent in a stream of sacred choral works, but it is unique in that it incorporates random elements, suggested by Ben's work designing audio for videogames. In this regard, it resembles other recent open form works, such as Mobile 1, premiered by the Ensemble Sorelle last spring, the real-time sonic environment Radiospace, and various Seattle School pieces, such as Relay and A Reading from _____. These performances are supported by a generous grant from Meet the Composer. October 31, 2004 Last year, Ben was commissioned to write several liturgical works for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Renewing Worship project, and some of this music has been published for congregational use by Augsburg Fortress. "God is Love," Ben's acclamation for the rite of marriage, is included in the Life Passages resource, and his "O Come, Let Us Sing to the Lord" (a setting of the traditional Venite, commissioned as part of Ben's Morning Prayer setting in 1998 and originally published in the Worship & Praise hymnal) is included in the Daily Prayer resource. "God is Love" has an optional random element (not included in the published score). After the acclamation has been introduced and sung once, each member of the congregation may repeatedly choose one of the three phrases to sing independently of the other singers over a sustained low G drone. This may continue indefinitely, until the drone stops, and each congregation member finishes the current phrase before the service continues. The result should be a static, meditative sonic environment, mirroring the unified diversity of the church. October 1, 2004 Since moving to Shanghai, Ben continues to maintain a presence in Seattle's musical landscape. At midnight on October 16th, a half-hour rendering of Ben's composition Radiospace will be featured on KEXP's Sonarchy program. An archived recording will remain available on-line for two weeks following the broadcast. Radiospace is a real-time sonic environment that digitizes, manipulates, and re-disperses an audio signal from a radio. The rendering to be broadcast on Sonarchy was recorded last month in Ben's new Shanghai home, incorporating local broadcasts. It succeeds in capturing some of the strange, disorienting, exhilarating buzz of discovering a huge, foreign city. This will be Ben's second appearance on Sonarchy, an adventurous radio show curated by veteran producer/engineer/sound artist Doug Haire. In May 2003, Ben appeared on the show as a member of Seattle School, premiering his A Reading from _____ and Variations on _____ simultaneously. July 25, 2004 "Big news! I've accepted a position as Senior Audio Designer with the French videogame company Ubisoft and will shortly be relocating to their Shanghai office (where the hit game Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow was recently produced) to head up audio for a forthcoming PlayStation 2 title. This position is a perfect match for my experience and interests; not only is Ubisoft a forward-thinking company committed to innovation in digital entertainment, but my international upbringing has uniquely prepared me for the opportunity to live and work in China. I'm really looking forward to this adventure! "The most difficult thing about moving away from Seattle will be leaving behind all the friends and colleagues I've gotten to know over the last eight years. Through my involvement with the Seattle Composers Alliance and the Washington Composers Forum, I've come to appreciate Seattle's close-knit musical community, and I don't think this kind of creative environment is easily duplicable elsewhere. I've made great friends and learned an immense amount through my work in games, and Seattle remains a hotbed of industry talent. In the arena of public performance, I'm particularly going to miss the indefatigable Korby Sears and the inscrutable Mike Min, who together comprise the common core behind Sound Currents, Seattle School, and Subpoenaed Lemur, three creative outlets that have conspired to make the last several years particularly fulfilling. "This web site will probably remain largely inactive during this time of transition, but with any luck the site and email address will continue to function uninterrupted. I can only imagine the sonic adventures ahead, but I'll update this page with audio news from Asia as soon as possible." -Ben. June 10, 2004 Concurrent with his work in games over the last two years, Ben has been living a secret double life as a graduate student at the University of Washington. This bifurcation of acoustical effort ended this week, when Ben defended his thesis and fulfilled the final requirements for a Master of Music degree in composition. Ben’s thesis composition is a computer program called Radiospace 1.0, which is intended to function as the basis for a sound installation. The work was programmed in Cycling ‘74’s Max/MSP, a graphical programming language for audio applications. Radiospace 1.0 digitizes an incoming audio signal from a radio, then fragments and redistributes the sound using granular synthesis techniques. Unlike many installation pieces, the work does not loop; rather, musical events are concatenated and overlapped to form an additive structure, as the incoming radio stream constantly replenishes the source material. The result is a continually evolving aural environment that ranges from disjunct and tumultuous to lush and meditative. At UW, Ben studied composition with Juan Pampin and Richard Karpen and digital art with Bret Battey. Much of Ben’s work has focused on digital art, sound synthesis, and algorithmic procedures, trajectories that were significantly influenced by his work designing audio for digital games. Now that the degree is complete, Ben will continue to create music and sound art drawing on these techniques, to seek connections between academic and commercial disciplines, and to explore the sonic and artistic potential of the burgeoning game industry. June 2, 2004 Ben's chamber work Mobile 1, scored for flute, piano, soprano, and cello, will be premiered by the acclaimed Ensemble Sorelle on June 20 at the Seattle Art Museum. The work is in three movements, "Amoeba," "Filament," and "Cipher," which may be played in any order. Mobile 1 continues Ben's exploration into open form and aleatory procedures, inspired by his work developing audio for video games. The individual components of the score are fixed, but they may be recombined in a number of ways for any given performance, according to procedures indicated in the score. Sorelle's concert is another fine production of the Washington Composers Forum. Also on this engaging program are Sofia Gubaidulina's Zwei Lieder nach Deutschen Volksdictungen, Peter Maxwell Davies' Anakreontika, Lukas Foss' Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, and Bern Herbolsheimer's Albina. May 18, 2004 In addition to tomorrow's Composers Workshop performance of Ben's Variations on _____, the work will be reprised at the Seattle Composers' Salon on May 28, 8pm, at Benaroya Hall's Soundbridge (Second Avenue entrance). The lineup will be slightly revised for this second performance, featuring Michael Chinen, guitar; Korby Sears, accordion; Dale Speicher, percussion; Chris Stover, trombone; and Tom Swafford, violin. May 12, 2004 This Saturday, May 15th, Ben will appear live on Wisconsin Public Radio's Here on Earth radio program to discuss the cultural significance and impact of video games from an aesthetic (specifically musical) point of view. Other guests on the program are MIT's Henry Jenkins and the German media artist Tilman Reiff, co-inventor of the PainStation. The program will be broadcast at noon on Saturday, Seattle time (i.e., 2pm Wisconsin time). It's a call-in show, broadcast live on the web using RealPlayer. May 2, 2004 Ben's composition Variations on _____ will be performed at the May 19th Composers Workshop concert in the University of Washington's Brechemin Auditorium (in the Music Building). The concert is free and starts at 7:30. The work explores non-linear form, inspired by Ben's work designing audio for video games, and is scored for one or more performers on any instrument. The score consists of a transparency that is placed over an existing score of the performer's choosing, plus a chart that describes how to progress through the material exposed through the transparency. On this concert, the piece will be performed by a quintet consisting of Greg Bowers, harpsichord; Michael Chinen, guitar; Jon Haek, flute; Sean Osborn, clarinet; and Josh Parmenter, saxophone. April 6, 2004 Wow, there must be a lot of Yoko Ono fans in Seattle! In addition to the Seattle Weekly interview, Wednesday's Grapefruits performance at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, organized by Seattle School, is featured in the current issues of The Stranger (a concert preview as well as a Stranger Suggests recommendation) and Tablet, and was also recognized with a pick in the Seattle Times. March 31, 2004 Ben and his outspoken cohorts in Seattle School were interviewed by the Seattle Weekly to talk about their upcoming Grapefruits performance, a tribute to Yoko Ono and the Fluxus movement. Incidentally, the person biting his lip about halfway down is Ben, an ardent Cage admirer who doesn't think there's anything inherently wrong with "the concert realm." In an unpublished portion of the interview, Ben explained the impetus behind his involvement in Seattle School. "Whenever you're involved in artistic creation, you're taking certain things for granted, unless you're a true titan like Harry Partch or somebody, building your own instruments, devising your own tuning system, inventing your own occasions for performance. You're always taking something off the rack, such as what it means to write for violin or to write a sonata. These things come with their own context. Seattle School is about questioning what we're taking off the rack, making sure that the things we use are really important to us." February 5, 2004 Muziko Nova, St. Olaf College's new music organization, is presenting a Leap Day concert on Feb. 29, 2004, 2pm, at Minneapolis' Southern Theater. To celebrate the centennary of St. Olaf's music department, the concert will showcase works by St. Olaf alumni. Ben will be represented by his open form work A Reading from _____, in which four readers read from a text of their own choosing according to a chart and a set of instructions. In addition to the concert on Leap Day, festivities include a new music forum on Saturday, Feb. 28th, and a student recital on Friday, Feb. 27. For a full schedule of events, times, and ticket information, visit the Muziko Nova web page. January 1, 2004 In a list of Seattle's classical highlights of 2003, Seattle Weekly's Gavin Borchert singled out Sound Currents for providing the Most Tasteful After-Concert Reception: an array of freshly made waffles, real butter, and 100% maple syrup. It's a fitting closure for a breakthrough year. After years of planning, the Sound Currents series finally became a reality with concerts in February and October. Sound Currents spawned a spinoff, the composers' collective Seattle School, first convened to perform the music of Mike Min at Sound Currents 1 and subsequently presenting a full evening of works by Mike, Ben, Korby Sears, and Guy Whitmore at Polestar Music Gallery and on KEXP. And lest any of this tempt a composer to turn stuffy, spazzy space-pop duo Subpoenaed Lemur began working local clubs, providing a needed leavening agent. Meanwhile, Ben continued his efforts to elevate video games to an art form, providing audio for projects by Sierra, ArenaNet, and Microsoft Game Studios. He also managed to squeeze in a liturgical commission from the ELCA for their Renewing Worship project. Of course it's not surprising that these disparate sonic endeavors end up informing each other in interesting ways. With all of these projects going strong and plans for new ones already underway, here's to a sonorous 2004! December 1, 2003 This weekend, odeonquartet will perform Ben's Music from Arcanum (musica arcana) as part of Advent services at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Bellevue, WA. Ben will be in excellent musical company with Bach's beautiful Cantata 61, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, or Savior of the Nations, Come. Services are at 9am and 11:15am. November 11, 2003 Next week, on November 20, Ben will participate in a concert by Seattle School, a composers' collective operating at the frontiers of performance. Ben will assist in performing some of his recent investigations into process and open form: A Reading from _____, Relay, and Study for Air Guitar. Other works on the program include Guy Whitmore's music for his sculptural, custom-built chain instruments; Korby Sears' party in a box; and Seattle School ringleader Mike Min's explorations of the karaoke phenomenon, including a work for karaoke singers and paintgun. The concert is presented by the innovative, celebrated Polestar Music Gallery; visit their web page for complete details. October 29, 2003 Sound Currents 2 was another success! An enthusiastic audience packed the pre-concert discussion, and the energy continued unabated throughout the concert, all the way to the exclusive waffle afterparty. Another round of favorable press coverage is chronicled on the Sound Currents press page. Keep your ear to the ground for information about Sound Currents 3, currently being planned for next spring! October 5, 2003 It's happening again; the second Sound Currents concert will occur on October 21, 2003, at Town Hall in Seattle. Cutting an even wider swath across Seattle's musical landscape than its predecessor, Sound Currents 2 will feature new works by Tom Baker, Greg Bartholomew, Nathan Grigg, Ben, Scott Selfon, Kevin Siegfried, and Donald Skirvin. Ben will present two works for voice and piano, which will be performed by soprano Beth Ann Bonnecroy, accompanied by Peter Mack. Stranger Personals is a song cycle of personal ads drawn from the "Girls Seeking Boys" section of The Stranger, one of Seattle's alternative weekly newspapers. Libera me was composed for the computer game Homeworld 2, with a text from the traditional Latin Requiem mass. Interestingly, Homeworld 2 was releas |