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Ben Frost

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Ben Frost
Frost performing in 2014
Frost performing in 2014
Background information
Born1980 (age 43–44)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres
Occupations
Labels
Websiteethermachines.com

Ben Frost (born 1980) is an Australian-born musician, composer, record producer, sound designer and director based in Reykjavík, Iceland as of 2014.[1]

Frost has contributed to albums by Canadian electronic musician Tim Hecker and American experimental rock band Swans.

Career

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Born in Melbourne, Australia, and based in Reykjavík, Iceland, since 2005, Frost composes minimalist, instrumental, and experimental music,[2][3][4] with influences ranging from classical minimalism to punk rock and black metal.[5]

His early releases include the guitar-oriented albums Steel Wound (2003) and School of Emotional Engineering (as part of the band School of Emotional Engineering) (2004). Theory of Machines (2007) marked a radical shift toward more angular aggressive music and was further advanced on the critically acclaimed By The Throat (2009). In 2011, commissioned by Unsound Festival, and as part of a collaboration with Brian Eno and fellow Icelandic composer Daníel Bjarnason, Frost released Solaris, a conceptual album which rescored Andrei Tarkovsky's film of the same name. In 2014 after signing with British record label Mute Records, Frost released the critically lauded and distinctly more rhythmical album Aurora. In 2017 Frost traveled to Chicago to record The Centre Cannot Hold with Steve Albini.[2][3] In addition to his studio albums, Frost has collaborated with contemporary dance companies Chunky Move,[6] the Icelandic Dance Company[7] Contemporary Dance of Cuba[8] and the British choreographer Wayne McGregor.[9] He composed the music for Wayne McGregor's 2010 production FAR.

Frost co-composed Music for Solaris with Daníel Bjarnason, which was inspired by both Stanisław Lem's novel Solaris and the 1972 Tarkovsky film of the same name. It was performed by Frost, Bjarnason, and Sinfonietta Cracovia.[4] He composed the music for the films Sleeping Beauty, the Icelandic drama The Deep,[7] and the 2015 British television series Fortitude. In 2012, he traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo with Richard Mosse, along with Trevor Tweeten to score the sound for Mosse's artwork The Enclave.[10]

In 2013, in his first directorial role, he premiered a critically acclaimed music-theatre adaptation of the Iain Banks novel The Wasp Factory.[11][12][13][14]

In 2015, Frost, in collaboration with Paul Haslinger, created the score for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege.[15]

Two years later, in 2017, Frost scored the film Super Dark Times.[16] In that same year, he premiered a new installation at the Barbican Centre in London, titled Incoming, with Richard Mosse and Trevor Tweeten. The piece used advanced surveillance technology to comment on the refugee crisis in Europe, and later toured worldwide.[17]

From 2017 to 2020, Frost created the score for all three seasons of Netflix's German sci-fi thriller Dark.[18] In 2022, Frost, Mosse and Tweeten premiered their third collaborative installation, Broken Spectre, at 180 the Strand in London.[19] Frost premiered two new sound installations in 2023, Enduring Amazon[20] at the Momentary in Arkansas and The Predatory Chord[21] at the Megaron in Athens.

Collaborations

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In 2005, Frost remixed Björk's song "Desired Constellation", which was featured as the B-side to the "Triumph of a Heart" single.[22] He engineered and played the keyboards on Tim Hecker's albums Ravedeath, 1972 and Virgins, which were recorded by Frost in Reykjavík.[23][24] He was the mixing engineer on Colin Stetson's albums New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges and New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light.[25][26] He was a recording engineer for A Winged Victory for the Sullen.[27] Frost participated in the recording of the Swans albums The Seer, Leaving Meaning and The Beggar; he would also join as a touring member.[28][29][30]

Music for film and television

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  • Sleeping Beauty – Directed by Julia Leigh
  • Super Dark Times – Directed by Kevin Phillips
  • Fortitude – Directed by Kieron Hawkes
  • Dark – Directed by Baran Bo Odar
  • Raised By Wolves – Directed by Ridley Scott
  • What Remains – Directed by Ran Huang
  • 1899 – Directed by Baran Bo Odar

Opera

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  • The Wasp Factory (2013)
  • The Murder of Halit Yozgat (2020)

Discography

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Albums

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EPs and other

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  • Music for Sad Children (2001) – independent
  • Variant (2014) – Bedroom Community
  • Threshold of Faith (2017) – Mute Records
  • All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (2018) – Mute Records

Soundtracks

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  • The Invisibles (2010) – for Amnesty International
  • FAR (2013) – independent[31]
  • Sleeping Beauty (2013) – independent – soundtrack for Julia Leigh's movie of the same name.
  • Black Marrow (2013) – independent
  • Tom Clancy's Siege (Original Game Soundtrack) (with Paul Haslinger) (2015) – Ubisoft Music
  • The Wasp Factory (2016) – Bedroom Community
  • Super Dark Times (2017) – Super Dark Times Soundtrack – soundtrack for Kevin Phillips's film of the same name
  • Catastrophic Deliquescence, Music From Fortitude (2015-2018) – Mute Records – soundtrack for Fortitude (TV series)
  • Dark – Netflix series Dark Cycle 1 Soundtrack (2019) – Invada Records
  • Dark – Netflix series Dark Cycle 2 Soundtrack (2019) – Invada Records
  • Dark – Netflix series Dark Cycle 3 Soundtrack (2020) – Invada Records
  • Broken Spectre (2022) – The Vinyl Factory
  • 1899 (Original Music From The Netflix Series) (2022) – Invada

Collaborations

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  • School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004) – Architecture
  • Sólaris (with Daníel Bjarnason) (2011) – Bedroom Community[32]
  • Francesco Fabris & Ben Frost – Vakning (2023) – Room40
  • Ben Frost & Francesco Fabris – Meradalir (2023) – Room40

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Death of Ben Frost". 10 July 2014.
  2. ^ a b "BBC - Music - Review of Ben Frost - By the Throat". BBC. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b Grayson Currin (8 January 2010). "Ben Frost: By the throat". Pitchfork. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  4. ^ a b Cripps, Charlotte (3 June 2011). "Music for Solaris: the mentoring process". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  5. ^ Buchanan, John D. "Ben Frost biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Chunky Move". Southbank Centre. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Jane Campion Presents a film by Julia Leigh: Sleeping Beauty" (PDF). Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  8. ^ "Ben Frost and Contemporary Dance of Cuba Will Premiere Work by Julio César Iglesias". Cuba Si. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Inside choreographer Wayne McGregor's brain". London Evening Standard. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  10. ^ Telekom (16 December 2014). "Ben Frost Speaks to Richard Mosse— "Your work will be distilled into a plugin in Photoshop."". Electronic Beats. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  11. ^ "The Wasp Factory". Royal Opera House. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  12. ^ Church, Michael (3 October 2013). "Opera review: The Wasp Factory". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  13. ^ "The Wasp Factory, Linbury Studio Theatre, London – review". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  14. ^ "The Wasp Factory – review". The Guardian. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  15. ^ "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege soundtrack by Ben Frost and Paul Haslinger released". 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  16. ^ O'Malley, Sheila. "Super Dark Times movie review (2017) | Roger Ebert". Roger Ebert. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  17. ^ Ravens, Chal (5 January 2017). "Ben Frost reunites with Richard Mosse for installation about refugee crisis". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  18. ^ "'1899' Composer Ben Frost on Recording the Soundtrack Inside of a Ship". Netflix Tudum. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  19. ^ Fact (27 September 2022). "Richard Mosse's new installation transports you into the heart of the Amazon's ecological red zone". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  20. ^ "Enduring Amazon: Ben Frost". The Momentary. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  21. ^ "ROLEX ARTS FESTIVAL: The Predatory Chord". Megaron Athens Concert Hall. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  22. ^ Adams, Sean (18 March 2011). "Spotifriday #82: Raekwon, Bjork, Bieber, FlyLo, The Smiths". DrownedInSound. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  23. ^ "Album Review: Tim Hecker - Ravedeath,1972". DrownedInSound. 14 March 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  24. ^ WEINGARTEN, CHRISTOPHER R. (13 October 2013). "Tim Hecker: Attack of the Drones". Spin.
  25. ^ "Colin Stetson New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges". Exclaim!.
  26. ^ Finlayson, Angus (26 April 2013). "New History Warfare Vol. III: To See More Light". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  27. ^ "A Winged Victory for the Sullen - The Undivided Five". Echoes And Dust. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  28. ^ Fact (29 May 2012). "Swans new album details: Ben Frost, Jarboe, Karen O and amazing cover art feature". Fact Magazine. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  29. ^ Richards, Sam (6 September 2019). "Swans announce new album, Leaving Meaning". UNCUT. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  30. ^ Fu, Eddie (22 March 2023). "Swans Announce New Album The Beggar, 2023 Tour Dates". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  31. ^ "Ben Frost". Bandcamp. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  32. ^ John D. Buchanan. "Ben Frost – Discography – AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
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