Justin Lassen

Last updated
Justin Lassen
Birth nameJustin L Lassen
Also known asDDH (Digital Dirt Heads), EMT (Empire of Modern Thought), Omnicron, Innerplaid
Born(1981-08-27)August 27, 1981
Denver, Colorado
Origin Denver, Colorado
DiedFebruary 22, 2021(2021-02-22) (aged 39)
Genres Electronic music, romantic music, dirtwave, hard rock, pop, classical, IDM
Occupation(s)Record producer, composer, musician, songwriter, remixer
Instrument(s)Guitar, bass, drums, orchestral strings, vocals, synthesizer, electronics, laptop, softsynth, drum machine, computer, sampler, piano
Years active1994–2021
LabelsNihil Records

Justin Lassen (born August 27, 1981, in Denver, Colorado) [1] was a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and remixer who has worked in the film, sound design, and video game industries. [2] He died on February 22, 2021, of apparent natural causes.

Contents

Early work

One of Lassen's earliest forays into the (public) musical world was Omnicron—an electronica project. It started in November 1996 after Lassen got his first Yamaha keyboard. [3] He released 11 full-length albums through the old MP3.com over the course of Omnicron's existence. [4] Lassen created Digital Dirt Heads, an industrial rock project, in 1999. [5] Lassen released a Digital Dirt Heads track "The Human Condition" on the Midnight Meat Train soundtrack, produced and remixed by Lassen, which was released July 22, 2008, through Lakeshore Records. [6]

Remixes

Justin Lassen has produced several remixes under the moniker "Empire of Modern Thought", including Madonna, Lady Gaga, Garbage, Blue Man Group, Fisher, Lenny Kravitz, Robert Miles, Nine Inch Nails, Linkin Park, Evanescence, The Killers, Avril Lavigne and many others. [7]

And Now We See But Through a Glass Darkly

In 2003, Lassen released his dark chamber symphonic suite "And Now We See But Through a Glass Darkly". Since 2003, this dark chamber symphonic suite has racked up over 100 million downloads. [8] Lassen released a limited edition physical CD release for this work, featuring premium packaging and remastered tracks. [9]

Synaesthesia

Lassen released Synaesthesia—musical tracks he composed that were inspired by the work of several CG artists—in 2006. [10] Since then, the project has gained such popularity that he has done four different synaesthesia releases in all. Lassen released Synaesthesia as a physical CD release, completely remastered, in 2010. [11]

White Rabbit Asylum

In 2010, Lassen compiled the much lauded "White Rabbit Asylum," which was released from Sony. This unique selection of 24 bit audio sound clips is still considered one of the best (and only) horror sound libraries of all time. [12] [13]

Soundtracks

In 2008, Lakeshore Records requested Lassen to do an "inspired by" soundtrack to Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train. It features 14 tracks produced and remixed by Lassen. One review exclaimed, "These remixes are all stellar." [14]

In 2011, Lakeshore Records asked Lassen to do music and remixes for both the soundtrack and score to Underworld: Awakening (2012). Soundtrack features 17 tracks. Lassen's remix, featuring Silent Fury, has been hailed as one of the "best songs" on the CD by at least one reviewer. [15]

In 2013, Lassen mixed another "inspired by" soundtrack to I, Frankenstein, including an original song "Feed Me More." [16] [17]

Video Game Audio

In 2009, Lassen composed the soundtrack for Out of Hell, a high quality total conversion mod based on Unreal Tournament 2004. The game's creator, Long Nguyen, called the soundtrack, "really melancholy [with] somber undertones and you can’t help but feel the desolation in it." [18]

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References

  1. "Justin Lassen". IMDb .
  2. "Justin Lassen : Akai Professional - Iconic music production gear, including the legendary MPC". akaipro.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  3. "SoundClick artist: Omnicron – An Addictive style of music dynamically changing to an evolved state. A young prodigy digital compos". Soundclick.com. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  4. "Justin Lassen : Akai Professional - Iconic music production gear, including the legendary MPC". akaipro.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  5. "sexnrocknroll.com". sexnrocknroll.com. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  6. "Midnight Meat Train [Soundtrack], Music CD – Barnes & Noble". Music.barnesandnoble.com. July 22, 2008. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  7. US. "Search results for "EMT REMIX"". soundcloud.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  8. "Justin Lassen : And Now We See But Through A Glass Darkly". noisetrade.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  9. [ dead link ]
  10. "The Cakewalk Blog " Blog Archive " Artist Spotlight: Justin Lassen". Blog.cakewalk.com. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  11. "Sonoma Wire Works: Interview with Justin Lassen". sonomawireworks.com. April 8, 2010. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  12. "Original Sound Version - Sound Spooky Like Justin Lassen: White Rabbit Asylum Released". originalsoundversion.com. June 25, 2010. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  13. "Sonoma Wire Works: Interview with Justin Lassen". bigfishaudio.com. April 23, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
  14. "Original Sound Version - The Midnight Meat Train Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Review)". originalsoundversion.com. August 25, 2008. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  15. "Amazon.com: Underworld Awakening (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): Various: MP3 Downloads". www.amazon.com. January 17, 2012. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  16. "Justin Lassen - Feed Me More". www.YouTube.com. April 9, 2015. Archived from the original on 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2016-08-29.
  17. "Justin Lassen: Justin Lassen featured on the "I, Frankenstein" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! (2014)". www.justinlassen.com. December 15, 2013. Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-29.
  18. "Creepy As Hell: Interview With Out Of Hell Creator Long Nguyen And Composer Justin Lassen". www.originalsoundversion.com. December 12, 2009. Retrieved 2016-08-29.