Dean De Benedictis

Last updated
Dean De Benedictis
DeanDeBenedictisatGathering.JPG
De Benedictis at The Gathering 2008
Background information
Birth nameDean De Benedictis
Also known asSurface 10
BornNew York City
Genres Electronica, experimental, ambient, IDM, Berlin school, jazz fusion, progressive rock, tribal, down tempo, drum & bass
Instrument(s) Piano, synthesizer, guitar, voice, Native American flute, percussion
Years active1996—present
Labels Hypnotic/Cleopatra, DiN, Spotted Pecarry, Fateless Music, Novabeats
Website thestratosensemble.com

Dean De Benedictis is an American composer, musician, performer, and producer of experimental and alternative music. He is a trained musician and has released albums as a solo artist as well as played with groups such as Brand X [1] and The Strato Ensemble.

Contents

De Benedictis has recorded under his own name and under the alias "Surface 10", a project in which he gained attention in ambient and experimental electronic music circles. His discography crosses over several genres, but he is primarily known for merging these genres into techno tribal and ambient music. De Benedictis is the founder of both Fateless Records, and the Fateless Flows Collective, a Los Angeles group of electronic composers. He has released three albums with the Fateless Flows Collective through the Fateless Music label.

De Benedictis is the co-founder and producer of Cyberstock, an outdoor music concert and visual arts display held in the Santa Monica Mountains. In its long history, the event has showcased such artists as Nels Cline, Thomas Ronkin, and Richard Derrick. [2]

Early musical career

De Benedictis was educated in Southern California. He is the son of theater and television composer Richard DeBenedictis. His first influences included Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Kraftwerk and Soulsonic Force. Later, he found influence in the progressive jazz fusion, and the Berlin School ambient music genres. When De Benedictis was barely out of high school, he began scoring and composing television source music for several years. Here, he created music in a wide variety of pop styles. At the same time, he was experimenting with electronic music on the side. In his early career, he moved through many jazz fusion and progressive rock bands. In 1996, De Benedictis released his debut ambient electronic music CD on Hypnotic/Cleopatra Records. It had a borderline space rock sound. Early on, he was inspired by such artists as Tangerine Dream and Mark Isham but he has since recorded in several other styles. In A Lone Reply (Fateless, 2001), he produced a more tribal sound, and credited artists such as Steve Roach, Robert Rich, and Loren Nerell. Several reviewers called A Lone Reply "among the very best" of tribal music, [3] and "earns a place alongside essential works like Undercurrents inDark Water (o yuki) and Soma (Roach and Rich)." [4]

After his debut album as Surface 10, De Benedictis's music continued to grow more experimental and sentimental, and he began to diverge from the dance format of Cleopatra. The label wanted more dance music, but De Benedictis was taking a different path. De Benedictis left Cleopatra in 1999, and began recording on independent labels, including his own, at that time.

Fateless Records

The label was founded in 2001 De Benedictis. It specializes in electronic music, ambient music, and experimental music. It began with the release of "A Lone Reply".

Before 2011, De Benedictis was the only artist on the label. In April 2011, he announced the official relaunch of the Fateless Records and that he would, for the first time, begin carrying other artists on the label. The announcement was made on April 17, 2011, on KXLU [5] in Los Angeles. Some of these artists are veteran recording artists, while others are debuting on this label. [6]

Roster

Discography

Full-length releases as Dean DeBenedictis

Full-length Releases as Surface 10

Compilations featuring Surface 10

Full length compilations

Full-length releases with The Strato Ensemble

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tangerine Dream</span> German electronic music group

Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning. He was joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane in 2011, Ulrich Schnauss in 2014 and Paul Frick in 2020.

Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.

Krautrock is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in West Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music, among other eclectic sources. Common elements included hypnotic rhythms, extended improvisation, musique concrète techniques, and early synthesizers, while the music generally moved away from the rhythm & blues roots and song structure found in traditional Anglo-American rock music. Prominent groups associated with the krautrock label included Neu!, Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II and Harmonia.

Dark ambient is a genre of post-industrial music that features an ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones. It shows similarities with ambient music, a genre that has been cited as a main influence by many dark ambient artists, both conceptually and compositionally. Although mostly electronically generated, dark ambient also includes the sampling of hand-played instruments and semi-acoustic recording procedures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Communion</span> British band

Bass Communion is a solo project of English musician Steven Wilson, best known for his lead role in the rock band Porcupine Tree. Records released under the name "Bass Communion" are in an ambient or electronic vein - lengthy drone-heavy compositions. They come about as experiments in texture made from processing the sound of real instruments and field recordings.

Synæsthesia was a Canadian ambient band formed by industrial musicians Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber as a side project of their main band Front Line Assembly. Keyboard magazine writes: "Synæsthesia explores dark tribal ambient sounds, composers have a flair for cinematic electronica, and favor epic pieces that unfold slowly."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space music</span> Tranquil, hypnotic subgenre of electronic music

Space music, also called spacemusic or space ambient, is a subgenre of new-age music and is described as "tranquil, hypnotic and moving". It is derived from ambient music and is associated with lounge music, easy listening, and elevator music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murcof</span> Musical artist

Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona. Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians under the Terrestre project name. In 2000, he returned to Tijuana. Since 2006, Corona has been living in Barcelona, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleopatra Records</span> American independent record label

Cleopatra Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Perera. The record label has since grown into a family of labels, including Hypnotic Records, Purple Pyramid Records, Deadline Music Records, and X-Ray Records, encompassing a variety of genres with emphasis on unique and experimental artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area (band)</span> Italian musical group

Area – International POPular Group, most commonly known as Area or AreA, is an Italian progressive rock, jazz fusion, electronic, experimental group formed in 1972 by singer Demetrio Stratos and drummer Giulio Capiozzo. They are considered one of the most respected, innovative and important bands of the blooming 1970s Italian progressive rock scene.

John Sellekaers is a Canadian-born musician and audio mastering engineer. Born in 1973 in Montreal, Quebec he later moved to Brussels, Belgium. Beginning with his project Xingu Hill in the 1990s, he has released over 60 records under various aliases such as Night Sky Pulse, Feral Cities, Meeple, and Dead Hollywood Stars on labels such as Ant-Zen, Hymen Records, Nova Zembla and Disques Hushush. His style ranges from experimental music to electronica.

Radio Massacre International is a trio of British musicians, Steve Dinsdale, Duncan Goddard, and Gary Houghton. They specialize in improvisational experimental electronic music, utilising vintage synthesizers and sampled sounds alongside electric guitar. They are also exponents of the mellotron keyboard. More recently, they have begun to incorporate Bass Guitar and Drums by varying degrees in an attempt to stretch musical boundaries within the confines of a three-piece. Their music has been described alternatively as ambient music, space rock, Krautrock, New Age, Berlin School, and various other terms, although the band itself prefers the label "organic music". Points of reference include bands ranging from Tangerine Dream to "Rabbit"-era Chas and Dave.

<i>Oceanic</i> (Vangelis album) 1996 studio album by Vangelis

Oceanic is a 1996 studio album by Greek electronic composer Vangelis. It was released in Europe on October 25, 1996 by East West Records, and in the United States on January 28, 1997 by Atlantic Records. A single "Song of the Seas", with b-side "Aquatic Dance", was released simultaneously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Szkieve</span> Musical artist

Szkieve is the stage name of Dimitri della Faille. Szkieve is a pioneering ambient musician and new media artist. He has been performing electronic experimental and noise music since 1997. In 2017, he was co-awarded the prestigious Golden Nica Prix Ars Electronica in digital musics and sound art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demetrio Stratos</span> Greek musician and lyricist (1945–1979)

Efstratios Dimitriou, known professionally as Demetrio Stratos, was a Greek lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, music researcher, and co-founder, frontman and lead singer of the Italian progressive rock band Area – International POPular Group.

Digital Poodle was an electro-industrial/EBM band, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 1986 and remained active until about 1995.

Dilate was an ambient solo project begun in 1996 by composer and synthesizer player Victor Wulf, formerly of the sound collage and industrial music band Vampire Rodents. Wulf released the studio album's Cyclos and Octagon for Hypnotic Records in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypnotic Records</span> American independent record label

Hypnotic Records is an American independent record label specializing in electronic music.

<i>Cyclos</i> (album) 1996 studio album by Dilate

Cyclos is the debut studio album of Dilate, released on February 13, 1996 by Hypnotic Records.

<i>Octagon</i> (Dilate album) 1997 studio album by Dilate

Octagon is the second studio album by Dilate, released on June 24, 1997 by Hypnotic Records. The album was re-released in 2000 by Hypnotic as the first disc of the New Age...Spiritual Healing box set.

References

  1. "Brand X: The Annotated Discography". Pyoing.net. Archived from the original on 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  2. "Cyberstock". Alienairmusic.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  3. "A Lone Reply (reviews)". Fatelessmusic.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  4. "Dean De Benedictis | A Lone Reply | CD Baby Music Store". Cdbaby.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
  5. "KXLU 88.9 FM". Kxlu.com. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  6. "Info musique : Votre webmagazine vous sert l'actu !". Onethousandpulses.com. 27 May 2021.