Brian Transeau

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Brian Transeau

Brian Transeau (* 4. October 1971 in Rockville , Maryland , USA as Brian Wayne Transeau ) is a musician , who under his stage name BT produced. He enjoyed a classical music education since the age of 13 and went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston , which he left after a year before moving to Los Angeles and back to Washington, DC . He has been playing the piano since he was three years old.

Overview

Transeau's music was not very well received in the United States, but he temporarily moved to Europe where his music was discovered and introduced to the nightclub scene by British DJ Sasha . The instantly popular album " Ima " from 1996 had a great influence on the future of the progressive house scene, which over the course of time merged with the trance style, which it later helped define. While "Ima" consisted exclusively of "progressive" sounds, the 1997 album "ESCM" could be described as much more experimental, although it still broke some records in the EDM scene. BT's album "Movement in Still Life" (1999) continued his willingness to experiment outside of the trance genre, which he helped define, through a growing, interesting dichotomy between his more adventurous work and the more structured, commercially oriented pieces. This album also contains strong influences from "nu skool breaks", a genre that BT coined with the classic "Hip-Hop Phenomenon" together with Tsunami One. In 2003 “Emotional Technology” was released with more vocal pieces than usual, six of which were with vocals by Transeau himself. BT also provided the vocals for Tiësto's single "Love Comes Again" and recently collaborated with David Bowie on the song "(She Can) Do That," which was produced for the film Stealth , for which BT also wrote the score .

In recent years he has also increasingly occupied himself with film music, including “ Go ” (1999), “ Under Suspicion ” (2000), “ Driven ” (2001), “ The Fast and the Furious ” (2001), and “ Monster "(2003). He has recently completed work on the soundtrack for “ Stealth ” (2005) and “ The Underclassman ” (2005).

It's also worth noting that BT often performs live, which is not widely used in the scene. In 2004 he gave an extremely well-attended concert called “last night of summer” at the “BT Tower” in London (which is not named after Transeau, but British Telecom).

On December 14, 2002, Transeau invited more than twenty fans to their home to give a preview of his at that time unreleased album " Emotional Technology " (2003) at a private party .

BT's pseudonyms are "Kaistar", "Libra" (as "Libra Presents Taylor"), together with John Selway "Dharma", with Deep Dish and John Selway "Prana", with Shaun Keng Collins "Elastic Reality", with Taylor " Elastic Chakra ”, with Guy Oldhams and Taylor“ GTB ”, and together with Sasha“ 2 Phat Cunts ”.

Brian Transeau has a daughter named Kaia. He lives and writes his pieces in his home studio in Los Angeles.

Musical career

The diversity of BT's music is cited as one of its most important characteristics. In his early career (around 1995-2000) he was principally referred to as a trance artist, or with the ambiguous term DJ , based on the motto "I am still not a DJ". However, since BT has always been keen to experiment with music, it becomes almost impossible to attribute him as an artist to any particular genre.

On Transeau's first complete album "Ima" (1996), simple, bright melodies play the leading role together with a variety of rhythm riffs and electronic accents. On the album, released as a 2-disc set, only three of the pieces are with vocals ( Loving you more [BT's final spiritual journey] vocals: Vincent Covello, Blue Skies vocals: Tori Amos, The Delphinian Days mix ). "Ima" is assigned to the progressive trance genre.

In 1997 “ESCM” appeared, on which more complex melodies and more classical harmonies with increasingly more vocals could be found. The atmosphere is a bit darker and less playful than with “Ima”, and the individual pieces are also denser and more cohesive. This album, taken as a whole, is a lot more versatile than BT's debut album. If Lullaby for Gaia and Remember (both with Jan Johnston ) can be described as trance , the other tracks fit more in the directions of other electronic sub-genres that emerged around the 1990s. Love, Peace, and Grease is one of breakbeats , Flaming June (probably the best-known single on the album) and Nectar are again examples of trance . The most experimental track on the album is “Solar Plexus”, which can be split into two parts. The first part is dark and suspenseful with a louder and more intense chorus of strong vocals that proclaim, “I burn!” This half of the song was used for some movie trailers, such as Blade II and Hellboy . The second half is quieter and more withdrawn with only one piano and slowly building up electronic accents. The singing of the second part is clear and hardly audible from the volume. The puzzle of which text is actually sung in "Solar Plexus" has been a kind of inside joke among BT fans since the album was released.

BT moved, despite its persistent claims not to be a DJ, also in the DJ scene and produced a mix album consisting of 3 CDs in 1998 together with David Morales and Dave Seaman. This album was released in 1998 under the name Renaissance Worldwide Singapore by the English label Passion Music . The album also contains the song Ride , known from the album Movement in Still Life , which he released together with Sasha under the pseudonym 2 phat cunts . On the CD inlay he writes: PS: This album was mixed on a Pro Tools D-24 system using Logic Audio and various-plugins. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone. I am STILL not a DJ!

BT's third album “ Movement in Still Life ” showed a little less willingness to experiment and unsettled the fans a little. The strong hip-hop influence on Madskillz-Mic Chekka and Love on Haight Street was the cause of this concern, as hip-hop and trance are completely opposite styles. Because of its similarity to “Solar Plexus Part 1”, “Smartbomb” provided the missing link to BT's previous works and used a lyric sample from Love on Haight Street . This song can only be found on the additionally released US version of the album. The album creates a spectrum full of genres. "Shame", "Satellite" and "Running Down the Way Up" tend towards alternative rock, while "Godspeed" and "Dreaming" belong to classic trance. "Never Gonna Come Back Down" was the most famous single on the album and appeared in the soundtrack of "Just 60 Seconds" as a radio version. "Mercury and Solace" did not match the commercial success of "Never Gonna Come Back Down", but is considered the best single by many of its fans.

Emotional Technology had success as BT's most experimental album, much to the relief of the fans. Although it starts with the hip-hop-tinged “Knowledge of Self”, the rest of the album features catchy riffs with almost exuberant electronic influence. “Superfabulous” with Rose McGowan's vocals is the quietest here, but the title inserts a short conversation in the middle about Rose showing someone in the Geddy Museum the finger. The album's biggest single, "Somnambulist", has a strong breakbeat and new wave influence from New Order and Depeche Mode , which BT names as great sources of inspiration. The rest of the album for the most part defies any categorization in genres and ranges from dark guitar sounds in "Circles" to "The Only Constant is Change", which is reminiscent of "Satellite". Here genres are mixed up or changed in the middle of a song, and there is no fear of atonality.

It is difficult to place the film soundtracks produced by BT in his overall work, as each of them was of course strongly influenced by the respective film. It is worth mentioning that after “The Fast and the Furious” BT turned down some offers for the soundtrack for similar films because it wanted to work on as many different types of film as possible.

On September 4, 2006, the album This Binary Universe was released , which was recorded in Australia and Los Angeles.

On February 2nd, 2010, BT's last album, These Hopeful Machines, was released.

Discography

Singles

  • 1993: Moment of Truth
  • 1993: Relativity
  • Embracing the Sunshine
  • 1995: Loving You More with Vincent Covello
  • 1996: Blue Skies with Tori Amos
  • 1996: Divinity
  • 1997: Quark
  • 1997: Flaming June
  • 1997: Love, Peace & Grease
  • 1997: Remember
  • 1997: Shineaway
  • 1998: Godspeed
  • 1999: Believer
  • 1999: Mercury and Solace
  • 2000: Fibonacci Sequence
  • 2000: Never Gonna Come Back Down with M. Doughty
  • 2000: Dreaming
  • 2001: Shame
  • 2003: Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved) # 98 US
  • 2009: Rose Of Jericho
  • 2009: Every Other Way (feat. JES)
  • 2010: Suddenly
  • 2010: Forget Me
  • 2010: The Emergency
  • 2013: Skylarking
  • 2015: All these Wounds with Ilan Bluestone (feat. Stef Lang)

Albums

  • 1995: Ima
  • 1997: ESCM
  • 1999: Movement in Still Life
  • 2003: Emotional Technology
  • 2003: Instrumental 2003
  • 2004: Monster - Music From and Inspired by the Film
  • 2005: Stealth - Original Motion Picture Score
  • 2006: This Binary Universe
  • 2007: Emotional Technology - Special Collectors Edition
  • 2009: The Rose Of Jericho
  • 2010: These Hopeful Machines
  • 2011: These Re-Imagined Machines
  • 2012: Nuovo Morceau Subrosa
  • 2012: If The Stars Are Eternal So Are You And I
  • 2013: A Song Across Wires
  • 2015: BT & Gregory Tripi - Dark Places
  • 2015: Electronic Opus
  • 2016: _

EPs

Compilations

  • 2001: R&R (Rare & Remixed) - A collection of BT's remixes
  • 2001: Still Life In Motion
  • 2002: 10 Years In the Life - Best of album.

Remixes

Music in films and film music

Appearance in video games and music for games

Mix albums

  • 1998: Renaissance Worldwide Singapore mixed by David Morales, Dave Seaman and BT

Sample CDs

  • 2002: Breakz from the Nu Skool
  • 2002: Twisted Textures

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Transeau, Brian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Transeau, Brian Wayne; BT (artist name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Rockville , Maryland