Thomas Bensdorp

Thomas Bensdorp is an Amsterdam-based composer who operates at the intersection of contemporary music, experimental pop, electronica and the visual arts. In recent work he combines composition and sound design with re-edited archive or amateur film footage and text, to create haunting, fragmented stories that explore memory as a narrative process. Personal histories and found materials – sometimes those of strangers, sometimes those of the performers themselves – are layered into a mysterious, semi-fictional context for the music. A recurring theme in these works is the influence of technology on (collective) remembrance. Thomas Bensdorp has composed for contemporary music ensembles, pop bands, laptops, street organs, automated music boxes, museums, theater, dance and film. His works have been performed in the Netherlands and at international festivals such as Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam/Utrecht), Transit Festival (Leuven), Ultima Festival (Oslo) and the ISCM World New Music Days (Sydney). He studied composition at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, music technology at the Utrecht School of the Arts and film and new media at the University of Amsterdam. His composition teachers have included Gilius van Bergeijk, Martijn Padding, Yannis Kyriakides and Cornelis de Bondt. He has also taught video editing and sound to young Haitian filmmakers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.