Ben Neill

”...a musical powerhouse, a serious and individual talent…”
Time Out London


“Ben Neill is the mad scientist of dancefloor jazz…an inventive and stimulating voyage.”
CMJ


“Ben Neill is a mad scientist, and he has discovered the formula that breaks musical barriers.”
Mixmag


“Calling Ben Neill a trumpeter is like calling Mr. Spock a frequent flyer…adventurous and artful”
Boston Phoenix


“Neill’s astonishing mutantrumpet blends brass and computer with wit, beauty and solid musicianship.”
Village Voice


“Ben Neill masterfully blurs the lines dividing traditional jazz and electronic dance sounds.”
Billboard

TWO NEW BOOKS FEATURING BEN NEILL

ART OF THE DIGITAL AGE, edited by Bruce Wands, Thames and Hudson

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ-A Definitive History of Five or Six Years on the Lower East Side, edited by Giancarlo Ambrosino, Semiotexte/MIT Press

BEN NEILL is a composer, performer, producer, and inventor of the mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Neill’s music blends electronica, jazz and ambient, blurring the lines between DJ culture and acoustic instrument performance.

Neill has recorded seven CDs of his music on the Astralwerks, Six Degrees, Universal/Verve, New Tone and Ear-Rational labels. His music has been featured on numerous compilations including Wired Magazine’s “Music Futurists”. He has performed his music extensively in a wide variety of international settings including the Cite de la Musique France, Berlin Love Parade Germany, Spoleto Festival Italy, Umbria Jazz Italy, NIME Conference 2005 Vancouver, Bang On A Can Festival New York, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival Turkey and the Edinburgh Festival UK to name a few.

Neill’s current projects range from club sets to more experimental electroacoustic pieces, an ongoing collaboration with VJ Bill Jones, and collaborating with LEMUR, the League of Musical Urban Robots. In Neill’s live performance, laptop computers merge his three-belled, digitally interfaced mutantrumpet with live MIDI controlled digital audio and video. In addition to controlling digital audio in real time, Neill literally plays the moving pictures, making the images an extension of his electrified horn. In 2008 Neill constructed a new mutantrumpet with the help of a residency at the STEIM Studios in Amsterdam.

Neill began developing the mutantrumpet in the early 1980s. Initially an acoustic instrument (a combination of 3 trumpets and a trombone combined into one), Neill made the instrument interactive with electronics in the mid 1980s when collaborating with the synthesizer inventor Robert Moog. In 1992, while in residency at Steim¹s research and development lab for new instruments in Amsterdam, Neill made the mutantrumpet fully computer interactive. In 2008 Neill created a new version of his instrument and returned to Steim for another residency. The new mutantrumpet is greatly expanded in terms of its electronic capabilities.

Neill also performs with XIX, a band with vocalist Mimi Goese (Moby, Mimi, Hugo Largo), John Conte on bass, Jim Mussen on drums, and Neill on mutantrumpet. The group is currently working with Ridge Theater on a production for the Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In 2007 Neill composed the music for 911-911, an animated film by Mel Chin. The film premiered at the LA Short Film Festival and Tribeca Cinema in New York. In 2005 Neill presented his collaboration with Bill Jones titled Palladio, an interactive movie based on Jonathan Dee’s 1998 novel of the same name. Palladio was premiered at the New Territories Festival in Glasgow, Scotland, and at the Thalia Theater/Symphony Space in New York City.

Neill is also active as a sound and installation artist. His collaborative works with Bill Jones have been exhibited in museums and galleries including Sandra Gering Gallery New York, Exit Art New York, Wellcome Gallery London and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Neill’s installation/performance Green Machine was shown at Paula Cooper Gallery New York in 1994. ITSOFOMO, his major collaborative piece with the late artist David Wojnarowicz, has been exhibited widely in venues such as The New Museum New York and PPOW Gallery New York, and was featured in the PBS documentary Imagining America.

In 2002, Ben Neill “made music industry history” (MSNBC News) by releasing Automotive, an album entirely comprised of extended versions of music he originally wrote for Volkswagen TV and Internet commercials. He supported the release of the album by performing on an 18 city tour of the House of Blues and other major music venues in the US and Canada. Television appearances have included CNBC Power Lunch, Tech TV Screen Savers, Wall Street Journal Report, and Media Television Canada. Neill and Jones video remixes were presented at Sundance 2004 and have been aired on Fox TV network. Nite Nite, a video remix of a track from Automotive , was exhibited in 2003 Sandra Gering Gallery, New York.

A native of North Carolina, Neill is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music. He studied composition with minimalist composer La Monte Young, and has collaborated with numerous other composers and musicians including Helmet’s Page Hamilton, Rhys Chatham, Nicolas Collins, David Behrman, John Cale, John Cage, Coil, DJ Spooky and DJ Olive.


DISCOGRAPHY


Ben Neill, Automotive, Six Degrees Records
Ben Neill, Goldbug, Verve Antilles CD 314 557 085-2
Ben Neill, Triptycal, Verve Antilles CD 314 533 184-2
Ben Neill, Green Machine, Astralwerks CD ASW 6159
Ben Neill, Torchtower, New Tone CD 6723
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO, New Tone CD
Ben Neill, Mainspring, Ear-Rational LP/CD 1002
Ben Neill, After the Gold Rush, (Neil Young), Wired Magazine Presents: Music Futurists compilation, Rhino
Ben Neill, Perfume, remix of Latin-Grammy winning artist Bajofondo, Universal Latin Records
Ben Neill, Somnabula, Excursions in Ambience compilation CD/LP/cass, Astralwerks 6153
Ben Neill with Andrew Montgomery, Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel), Leaves from the Tree,Vitamin Records
Ben Neill, Turbonium X, Street Mix vol.1 compilation CD, Volkswagen/Rock River /Universal Music
Ben Neill Fred Jorio, Comatose remixes of song by Lisa Hall, Reprise Records 9 44544-2
Ben Neill and Bill Jones, Color Bar Remix, Eyewash DVD
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO excerpt, Optic Nerve CD-ROM, Red Hot Organization
Ben Neill, Tunnel Vision, 12” single, Antilles remixes by Spring Heel Jack, DJ Krust, X-Ecutioners
Ben Neill, Pentagram/Flotation Device, 12” single, Antilles remixes by DJ Spooky, DJ Soulslinger
Ben Neill, Flotation Device OK Jungle mix by DJ Soulslinger, Liquid Sky Music CD JS116
Ben Neill, Green Machine, Astralwerks CD ASW 6159
Ben Neill, Sistrum, 12” single, remixes by DJ Spooky, Single Cell Orchestra, Astralwerks 6159
Ben Neill, Ether, Ambient No. 1 Fantasy compilation, Sub TerraneanBen Neill, Sistrum, Nicotine Beat Mix, Werks Like a 12” compilation, Astralwerks 6179-2
Ben Neill, 678 Streams, Century 21 compilation, New Tone
Ben Neill, Bal, Utopia Americana compilation, New Tone
Ben Neill, Money Talk, Virtuosity with Purpose compilation, Ear-Rational
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO excerpt, Tellus
Ben Neill, Music for ‘The King of Thule’’ Tellus CD #27 “Mini-Mall”
David Behrman, Unforeseen Events, XI CD 105
David Behrman, Leapday Night, Lovely Music LP/CD VR 1042
John Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Wergo CD
John Cale, Walking On Locusts, Hannibal/Rykodisc Rhys Chatham, Die Donnergotter, Dossier
Nicolas Collins, 100 of the World’s Most Beautiful Melodies, Trace Elements CD
Nicolas Collins, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, Trace Elements CD
Nicolas Collins, Still Lives, Unknown Public Cassette Magazine 1994
DJ Spooky, Songs of A Dead Dreamer, Asphodel CD/LP 0961
DJ Spooky, Riddim Warfare, Outpost/Geffen CD OPRD-30031
DJ Spooky, Necropolis, Knitting Factory Records CD
Deep Listening Band, Tosca Salad, DLB 001 CD
Marcel Duchamp, Erratum Musical, Edition Rene Block CD 202
Echo Art, Coreografie, New Tone CD 6712
Electric Owthaus, Co-rage-us, Live at the Knitting Factory, Vol. 5
Fast Forward, Same Same, XI CD 108
Petr Kotik, Solos and Incidental Harmonies, Ear-Rational CD 1007
Pilgrimage-9 Songs of Ecstasy, Point Music
Paul Schutze, Abysmal Evenings, Virgin AMBT 19 7243 8 42175 2 5
Dave Soldier, Smut, Avant CD 019
La Monte Young, The Second Dream of the High-Tension Stepdown Line Transformer, includes liner notes essay by Neill, Gramavision CD R279467