About
Benjamin Van Esser is a composer, electronics specialist, pianist, improviser and researcher whose work engages with contemporary and experimental music practices. Alongside his artistic projects, he teaches as a professor of Computer Music (Composition), Creative Programming, and Live Electronics at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels.
Having begun his career as a pianist specializing in contemporary solo and chamber music, Benjamin currently focuses on computer-based performance and composition, guided by a deep passion for creative programming. He earned a PhD in the Arts with a dissertation on artistic performance strategies for live electronics, developing the hypothesis that the electronics performer is inherently a multi-threaded performer, creating artistic micro-universes in which performance, composition, and digital lutherie are inseparably connected. This research culminated in Coalesce, a cycle of compositions exploring this phenomenon, alongside several software applications such as Control, a dynamic mapping platform that has become widely used within the global monome community. Building on this work, Benjamin has released additional tools such as the generative effects processor Ultomaton and Upshot, a Max Package for live and generative composition and electro-acoustic performance.
As a composer, Benjamin has been commissioned by organizations such as Transit Festival, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, and Theatre Ainsi Maastricht, as well as by ensembles including I Solisti, Nadar Ensemble, and Spectra Ensemble, and choreographers such as Michael Lazic and Federico Ordoñez. His works are regularly presented on international stages and performed by renowned soloists and ensembles. Although stylistically wide-ranging, from children’s piano pieces to glitch/noise/drone works and multimedia installations, Benjamin’s music is unified by a recurring artistic concern: metrical ambiguity. This focus is also central to his ongoing research, which bridges and interweaves the three core dimensions of the contemporary multi-threaded performer: composition, programming, and live interpretation.
Music
find released albums, EPs and collabs on
Spotify (etc)
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listen to unreleased tracks and live recordings on SoundCloud
view score videos, application demo's and live music on YouTube
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see electronic and electro-acoustic performance videos on Vimeo
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purchase published scores on prestomusic and sonolize
A full list of works can be found here
Contact me if you're looking for scores and/or other performance materials
Programming
UPSHOT
Upshot is a Max package comprised of audio effects, event generators, trackers, instruments and many other tools/utilities. Upshot was originally created to open up the Ultomaton platform and create a more flexible environment for building generative patches. Read about the Upshot package and download it in the Max Package Manager.
FLEURIE
Fleurie is a real-time composition system which guides up to 4 participating musicians by proposing playing techniques, dynamics, pitches, note density levels, etc. Apart from acoustic guidance, Fleurie's progression also generates electronic effects based on the pointer positions within Fleurie's playing field. Download Fleurie on GitHub.
BVE.DEVICES
bve.devices is an collection of experimental M4L devices created between 2015 and 2025, containing samplers, sequencers, hybrid devices, audio utilities, MIDI-utilities, video utilities, generators, mappers and other devices, geared towards live and generative electronics performance. Find some featured devices on maxforlive.com or Download bve.devices on GitHub.
Download this software and more on GitHub
↳ Monome Control, Ultomaton, MGCVM, Elements, ...
Research
Abstract
Performer-audience communication can easily be regarded as one of the biggest and therefore most debated problems the contemporary computer musician faces in a live performance situation. One could attribute this to a disassociation between the performative gestures and the sounds they produce. This notion of disconnection, which is absent in most traditional instruments, is intrinsic to the computer musician’s instrument. Furthermore, it’s inextricably linked to the idiomatic nature of the compositions which are performed on it.
While it seems impossible to detach the choices made in regard to the formation of the instrument from the idiomatic nature of the performed compositions, the instrument has an undeniable influence on the aesthetic nature of these compositions. This conundrum is a common fact for the multi-threaded performer burdened with pursuing a balance between all given factors in order to create as much artistic freedom as possible in the context of the composition of the instrument, the aesthetic language applied in the compositions and the applied performance practices.
In order to guarantee a meaningful yet understandable electronics performance, I propose a performance practice that is based on connecting performance gestures to visual animations which are projected onto the performance platform of the computer musician’s instrument. These visual animations can, in their turn, be linked to the sonic result of the performer’s actions, thus creating a positive feedback loop, capable of optimising the communication model which exists between the computer musician and the audience in a concert situation.
With this research project I aim to demonstrate that the computer musician is indeed an artistic performer, maintaining a similar degree of artistry comparable
to that of acoustic instrumentalists.
