Benjamin Van Esser is an electronics performer, software developer, pianist, composer and improviser, mainly active in contemporary and experimental music. He also works as a researcher and professor at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussels (KCB). He is behind the 'Music & Technology' programme, as coordinator and co-founder (2018). He also teaches piano and composition at the Kunstacademie Zaventem.
Benjamin's artistic work manifests in various forms. As a composer, he has received commissions from organizations such as Transit Festival, Festival Voorwaarts Maart, Musica, and ensembles like Nadar Ensemble, I Solisti, ChampdAction, as well as various directors and choreographers. Driven by his hybrid performance practice, where piano and electronics converge, Benjamin has developed numerous music programmes and plugins, including Ultomaton, Control, bve.devices, and Upshot, a modular patch environment hosted in Cycling 74’s Max Package Manager.
Despite a wide range of idioms, there is a clear Leitmotif in Benjamin's work: metric ambiguity. In his compositions, improvisations, and software, he explores possibilities related to a 'trompe-oreilles' effect concerning the parameter of 'time.' His research on the performance practice of computer musicians incorporates this phenomenon and focuses on the execution of these processes and the communication models they establish between performer and audience.
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