Author: Bendu

Bendu is Ben Vance, an electronic musician living in Los Angeles California.

Recent Inspirations

I’ve been listening to this box set put out by Basta called, “Popular Electronics: Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories 1956-1963.” It includes the complete electronic work of Kid Baltan and Tom Dissevelt. Electronic music created for ballet by Henk Badings, film scores by Dick Raaijmakers, and a disc of alternate takes and stems from Baltan’s work.

I ordered it from them directly as I couldn’t find a copy anywhere else and I’m glad I did. The packaging is great – there are a couple of printed scores, a small timeline poster, and extensive track notes to read while you listen. The album is available as a download from Amazon but the packaging is so wonderful I recommend tracking down a physical copy. After the break are some tracks from the album that Basta has on their Soundcloud account. Continue reading “Recent Inspirations”

Cipher

In May of 2010 I was presented with an opportunity through the magic of Facebook. Paul Holmes, one of my best friends in grade school (!) contacted me asking if I was interested in making a soundtrack for his game. I was on his radar because I had just started my modular synthesizer and couldn’t resist putting photos and soundcloud links up on facebook. Naturally, I assumed that he was making a video game and needed background music. However, Paul’s game Cipher is not a video game but a pen and paper role playing game. I was confused but excited to help out. Paul’s brilliant idea was to have secret codes imbedded in the Cipher rule book that would lead the most clever readers to a web page where they could download an album of ‘mood music’ made specifically for listening while playing. Continue reading “Cipher”

An Update

“Writing regularly is even harder than pressing ‘record’!” -John Noble

John Noble is right, it’s really hard. He’s referring to a conversation we had a the last LA Trash_Audio meet where we discussed the technique of ‘just record everything.’ During that conversation I admitted to John that I only record about half of my patches and immediately saw the error of my ways. See, I have this quirk relating to things I record: enjoy while I’m doing it, hate it when I play it back, and the older the recording the more it grows on me. Actually, if the file is old enough that I don’t even remember recording it then it seems magical and great. In fact, the modular has contributed quite a bit to this quirk. I generally don’t make patch notes and there are no presets so the recording is the only evidence. I like that. So, I’ve recorded everything ever since. Continue reading “An Update”

The Premise

My name is Bendu and I’m starting a blog. Started a blog I guess. The one you’re reading now. This is the first post wherein I lay out all the reasons why the blog exists. Hopefully, it will also be a roadmap on how to avoid the pitfall of being a navel gazing bore. This blog is about experimental electronic music. Specifically my electronic experimental music.

Continue reading “The Premise”