Ben Swire - Equilibrium (CDEP) fou17
2002. First release in the Foundry EP series -- only about 18 minutes of music; quirky, rhythmic electronic music, perhaps similar to Jonathan Hughes TRILLIUM, also on Foundry.
The Foundry press release:
The first in the FOUNDRY EP SERIES is Ben Swire's Equilibrium, bringing together the strands of beat, melody, and atmosphere to create an intoxicating travelogue in sound. The detail in these compositions is remarkable, each piece picking up the thread of the others as well as developing its own unique character. This release will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Jonathan Hughes' Trillium CD, the output of City Centre Offices, or Susumu Yokota's Grinning Cat and Sakura.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Early on Ben Swire's interest in music took the form of building a studio in the basement of his home in Newton, MA (a suburb of Boston) and engineering for a variety of acts. He played drums with the band Bode, and gradually became interested in exploring different unique production techniques and creating his own music.
Ben graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2000 with a BA in Media Arts. While there he studied electronic music composition with Charles Bestor, winner of the 1999 Bourges (France) International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition (Dr Bestor had studied with Vladimir Ussachevsky). In 2000 Ben released a split 7" record with the band Audio Explorations which caught the attention of Riz Maslen (aka Neotropic) with whom he later collaborated on an NTone (a division of Ninja Tune) 7" that included the work of ex-Verve guitarist Nick McCabe. During this time time Ben was living in London and performed as a member of the act "Minus" crafting live experimental and improvisational electronic music. More recently Ben scored "FM," an animation piece by Australian artist Rebecca Cannon which was premiered at the 2002 Transmediale Festival in Berlin.
Ben relocated to San Francisco in January 2002. Equilibrium is Ben's first work for The Foundry.