Ben Neill

Biography

Trumpeter Ben Neill successfully bridged the space between ambient music as well as the avant-garde, further blurring cosmetic boundaries using the advancement of his mutantrumpet, a groundbreaking electro-acoustic cross of conventional trumpet and synthesized audio. A indigenous of NEW YORK and something of classical teaching, Neill relocated to NEW YORK during the middle-’80s, immersing himself within the downtown experimental music picture; increasingly captivated by minimalism, he analyzed under the famous La Monte Youthful, and using the synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog designed the very first mutantrumpet, a musical instrument match three bells, six valves, a trombone slip and an analog digesting program which allowed him to generate a variety of open up, muted and digital noises. In 1984, Neill finished Orbs, his initial major structure for mutantrumpet, percussion, and audiovisual projections; parts including 1985’s Mainspring, 1987’s Cash Chat, and 1988’s Abblasen Home followed ahead of his breakthrough function ITSOFOMO (Within the Darkness of Forward Movement), a 1989 cooperation with visual musician David Wojnarowicz. A season later Neill journeyed to Amsterdam’s Steim Studios to build up a fresh, MIDI-capable mutantrumpet; the update led to the addition of several switches, knobs, and pressure-sensitive pads permitting the gamer to result in and modify a number of seems and sequences, in addition to lamps and projections, all instantly. After Haydn, a cooperation with digital composer Nicolas Collins, adopted in 1991. Neill after that started a six-year stint as curator from the downtown N.Con.C. overall performance space YOUR KITCHEN, a posture which offered as his gateway in to the burgeoning digital music picture. Presenting shows by everyone from John Cage to Jim O’Rourke to Long term Sound of London, he started increasingly absorbing digital affects into his function and was especially fascinated by the neighborhood “illbient” motion; originally created mainly because an set up/overall performance piece, Neill’s 1995 recording Green Machine rather evolved right into a full-blown dance music task, filled with 12″ remixes from famous brands Solitary Cell Orchestra and DJ Spooky. The second option resurfaced on 1996’s Triptycal, and Neill also spent the greater section of 1997 showing up with Spooky and on the “Sci-Fi Lounge” tour of video-sampling innovator Gardner Post. Following the appearance of Goldbug in 1998, Neill was fairly silent until 2002, whenever a group of productions carried out for Volkswagen advertisements was converted into a complete LP, Automotive. From then on, Neill made up for tv, film, and stage productions in addition to installations in museums and galleries. He started a redesign from the mutantrumpet in 2004 which was finished in 2008; he also began collaborating with LEMUR (the Little league of Electronic Musical Urban Robots) in 2008. Those two advancements led to Night time Technology, released in Sept 2009. Neill also branched into teaching, and was co-billed with Mimi Goese on 2011’s Tunes for Persephone.

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