Ben Neill is a composer/performer, author, and inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a unique multi-belled electro-acoustic instrument that integrates acoustic brass performance with interactive electronic technologies. For more than four decades, Neill has developed a distinctive musical language that moves between experimental composition, ambient electronic music, minimalism, and improvisation. His work combines technological innovation with an expressive, accessible musical sensibility, creating what Wired magazine described as “art music for the people.”
Neill’s music has been presented internationally at venues and festivals including BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Lincoln Center, Big Ears Festival, the Whitney Museum, the Broad Museum, the Getty Museum, Barbican Centre, Cité de la Musique, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, Bang on a Can, Moogfest, Umbria Jazz, ICA London, and festivals in Istanbul, Vienna, and Edinburgh. Fifteen albums of his music have been released on labels including Verve/Universal, Astralwerks/EMI, Thirsty Ear, Six Degrees, and his own Blue Math label, reflecting a career that has moved fluidly between contemporary composition and popular electronic music.
Neill began developing the Mutantrumpet in the early 1980s as an acoustic instrument combining three trumpets and a trombone into a single instrument. His subsequent collaboration with synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog brought electronic technologies into its design. Residencies at STEIM, the renowned Dutch research center for electronic musical instruments, led to the development of fully computer-interactive versions of the Mutantrumpet. His recent collaboration with New York-based company UseMidi has produced the latest generation of the Mutantrumpet, expanding its capabilities for real-time composition, live sampling, generative processes, and spatial sound.
A longtime close associate of minimalist pioneer La Monte Young, Neill has led international performances of Young’s brass music and played in his raga ensemble. He has also collaborated and performed with a wide range of influential artists and composers, including John Cage, John Cale, Pauline Oliveros, Rhys Chatham, David Behrman, Nicolas Collins, DJ Spooky, and Mimi Goese. From 1992 to 1998, Neill served as Music Curator at The Kitchen in New York City and subsequently curated large-scale concerts at the World Financial Center Winter Garden for the River to River Festival and WNYC New Sounds Live.
Recent projects include Fantini Futuro, an electronic chamber opera inspired by the seventeenth-century trumpet virtuoso Girolamo Fantini; Echo Quarry, a composition reimagining Renaissance polyphony through generative electronics and spatial audio; and ITSOFOMO (In the Shadow of Forward Motion), his groundbreaking multimedia collaboration with artist David Wojnarowicz, which continues to be performed internationally. Recent recordings include Amalgam Sphere, a collection of ambient electronic works featuring collaborations with evolutionary biologist Rupert Sheldrake and Ethiopian electronic artist Mikael Seifu, and Prana Cantos, an album of music for meditation and contemplation.
Neill is the author of Diffusing Music: Trajectories of Sonic Democratization (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), which examines the cultural and technological forces that have transformed musical creativity, production, and access. His compositional approach, which he calls rhytharmonics, uses principles of resonance and tuning to integrate rhythm, harmony, large-scale musical form, and visual media.
Neill holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music and is Professor Emeritus of Music at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he taught for 18 years. His work continues to explore new relationships between acoustic instruments, electronic systems, historical musical ideas, and contemporary culture.
DISCOGRAPHY
SOLO RELEASES
Ben Neill. XIX, unreleased music from multidisciplinary projects 1991-2007, Blue Math,
Ben Neill, Amalgam Sphere, with Rupert Sheldrake, Mikael Seifu, Chrystel Egal, Blue Math, 2025
Ben Neill with Kadence Neill, Prana Cantos (Guided Meditation), Six Degrees Records, 2023
Ben Neill, Prana Cantos (Instrumental Version), Six Degrees Records, 2023
Ben Neill with Eric Calvi, Trove, 104 track album, Blue Math Music B304-418, 2020-21
Mimi Goese and Ben Neill, Life You Are, Blue Math Music, B419, 2020
Ben Neill, Green Machine (Remastered), Blue Math Music, B303, 2019
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO (Remastered plus remixes), JABS 001 double vinyl/digital, 2018
Ben Neill, Souvenir and Transition Dub, Blue Math Music, B301, B302, 2018
Mimi Goese and Ben Neill, Viscera, Amazon Music Exclusive release, 2017
Ben Neill, Horizonal, Audiokult Records ,2015
Mimi Goese and Ben Neill, Songs for Persephone, Ramseur Records, 2011
Ben Neill, Night Science, Thirsty Ear Recordings, 2009
Ben Neill, Automotive, Six Degrees Records, 657036 1077-2MJ, 2002
Ben Neill, Goldbug, Verve Antilles CD 314 557 085-2, 1998
Ben Neill, Triptycal, Verve Antilles CD 314 533 184-2, 1996
Ben Neill, Green Machine, Astralwerks CD ASW 6159, 1995
Ben Neill, Torchtower, New Tone CD 6723, 1991
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO, New Tone CD 6710, 1990
Ben Neill, Mainspring, Ear-Rational LP/CD 1002, 1988
REMIXES, COMPILATIONS and PERFORMANCES
Ben Neill, The Other Side of Midnight, Echoes live broadcast compilation
Ben Neill, The Other Side of Midnight, compilation on Audiokult Recordings
Ben Neill, Futura, Still:Echoes compilation, produced by Echoes radio program
Ben Neill, Afterimage, 12” single includes remix by DJ Pinch
Ben Neill, Perfume, remix of Latin-Grammy winning artist Bajofondo, Universal Latin Records
Ben Neill and David Rothenberg, Myagostrov in the Deep (Hudsonia Remix), Whale Music Remixed CD
Ben Neill and Bill Jones, Color Bar Remix, Eyewash DVD Volume 2, Forward Motion Theater
Ben Neill with Andrew Montgomery, Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel), Leaves from the Tree compilation, Vitamin Records CD-8597
Ben Neill, Turbonium X, Street Mix vol.1 compilation CD, Volkswagen/Rock River /Universal Music
Ben Neill & Fred Jorio, Comatose remixes of song by Lisa Hall, Reprise Records 9 44544-2
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO excerpt, Optic Nerve CD-ROM, Red Hot Organization
Ben Neill, After the Gold Rush, (Neil Young), Wired Magazine Presents: Music Futurists, Rhino CD R2 75607
Ben Neill, Tunnel Vision, 12” single, Antilles remixes by Spring Heel Jack, DJ Krust, X-Ecutioners
Ben Neill, Pentagram/Flotation Device, 12″ single, Antilles remixes by DJ Spooky, DJ Soulslinger
Ben Neill, Flotation Device OK Jungle mix by DJ Soulslinger, Liquid Sky Music CD JS116
Ben Neill, Sistrum, 12″ single, remixes by DJ Spooky, Single Cell Orchestra, Astralwerks 6159
Ben Neill, Somnabula, Excursions in Ambience compilation CD/LP/cass, Astralwerks 6153
Ben Neill, Ether, Ambient No. 1 Fantasy compilation, Sub Terranean SPV 089-38782
Ben Neill, Sistrum, Nicotine Beat Mix, Werks Like a 12″ compilation, Astralwerks 6179-2
Ben Neill, 678 Streams, Century 21 compilation, New Tone CD 6730
Ben Neill, Bal, Utopia Americana compilation, New Tone CD 6707
Ben Neill, Money Talk, Virtuosity with Purpose compilation, Ear-Rational CD 1034
Ben Neill & David Wojnarowicz, ITSOFOMO excerpt, Tellus CD#25
Ben Neill, Music for ‘The King of Thule’‘ Tellus CD #27 “Mini-Mall”
David Behrman, Unforeseen Events, XI CD 105
David Behrman, Leapday Night, Lovely Music LP/CD VR 1042
John Cage, Concert for Piano and Orchestra, Wergo CD
John Cale, Walking On Locusts, Hannibal/Rykodisc HNCS 1395
Rhys Chatham, Die Donnergotter, Dossier LP/CD 7538
Nicolas Collins, 100 of the World’s Most Beautiful Melodies, Trace Elements CD 1018
Nicolas Collins, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, Trace Elements CD1019
Nicolas Collins, Still Lives, Unknown Public Cassette Magazine 1994
DJ Spooky, Songs of A Dead Dreamer, Asphodel CD/LP 0961
DJ Spooky, Riddim Warfare, Outpost/Geffen CD OPRD-30031
DJ Spooky, Necropolis, Knitting Factory Records CD
Deep Listening Band, Tosca Salad, DLB 001 CD
Marcel Duchamp, Erratum Musical, Edition Rene Block CD 202
Echo Art, Coreografie, New Tone CD 6712
Electric Owthaus, Co-rage-us, Live at the Knitting Factory, Vol. 5
Fast Forward, Same Same, XI CD 108
Petr Kotik, Solos and Incidental Harmonies, Ear-Rational CD 1007
Pilgrimage-9 Songs of Ecstasy, Point Music
Paul Schutze, Abysmal Evenings, Virgin AMBT 19 7243 8 42175 2 5
Dave Soldier, Smut, Avant CD 019
La Monte Young, The Second Dream of the High-Tension Stepdown Line Transformer, includes liner notes essay by Neill, Gramavision CD R279467