Estevan Carlos Benson
Composer, Artist, Creative Technologist
SELECTED WORKS
BIO
Estevan Carlos Benson is a first-generation artist, sound designer, and composer based in Los Angeles, California. His work addresses technology, culture, and creative exploration through custom-built tools. He has toured as a VJ with Erykah Badu, teaches generative design in Southern California, and co-founded a virtual music instrument company, Gesture Audio.
As an artist and sound designer, Estevan reflects on the visual language and its relationship to sound. Each story could have its own identity and language. His instrument building—the creation of sonic devices and new sounds—can take a project into a unique world.
"I really like the direction you've chosen with this mix. Smart, tasteful"
TRENT REZNOR, COMPOSER, NINE INCH NAILS
In 2010 Estevan won a remix contest held by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, for The Social Network soundtrack. He was recently invited to attend the VIFF AMP program for composers. He was a resident artist with the GFS/Konsonant/Sony Music Emerging Composer's program.
Once he almost drowned in Walden Pond. His friend Ian said,
"How transcendental."
UPCOMING:
Expression and Identity through Music Instrument Creation
Greaves Seminar at the Blackstar Film Festival
This seminar will guide participants through the theory and process of creating music instruments as a means of uncovering unique expression.
UPCOMING:
Lua Programming in UVI Falcon
Independent Online Workshop
A workshop aimed for sound designers interested in understanding Lua language fundaments for the technology, UVI Falcon.
Sonic Possibilities - How sound creates story
The Orchard Audio Lab
Presented concepts relating how we connect to sound and how it communicates tone, mood, and feeling.
User Interface Design in Max/MSP
Independent Online Workshop
Created and presented online education for user interface design using Figma for the audio technology, Max/MSP.
Sound, Cinema and the Subconscious
The Islamic Scholarship Fund
Discussed the impact of subconcious influence of sound and creative means of employing this in projects.
AI + Music: A SWOT Analysis
A National Music Organization
Led a team of Berklee graduate students on research of Artificial Intelligence in the music industry.
The short film I composed music for, "Blue Veil", from director Shireen Alihaji, was a recipient of an honorary recognition from the New Orleans Film Festival.
Released a free version of Chiaroscuro, Piano Textures—a UVI Falcon instrument—through Gesture Audio.
Accepted into the Vancouver Film Festival, AMP program. The program provides a week long series of lectures, seminars, and events for under-represented communities in scoring and music supervision.