Benjamin Wynn, (Benjamin Matfield Wynn, born 1979) known also as Deru, is an American composer, sound designer and music producer mostly known for creating the sound design for the TV series ''

Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...

''. He has collaborated with composers such as

Joby Talbot Joby Talbot (born 25 August 1971) is a British composer. He has written for a wide variety of purposes and an accordingly broad range of styles, including instrumental and vocal concert music, film and television scores, pop arrangements and wo ...

. He also produces electronic music under the name "Deru". He is the grandson of neurosurgeon

Joseph Ransohoff Dr. Joseph Ransohoff, II (July 1, 1915 – January 30, 2001) was a member of the Ransohoff family and a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery. In addition to training numerous neurosurgeons, his "ingenuity in adapting advanced technologies" saved ...

Background

Wynn studied electronic music at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

, where he focused on synthesis, signal processing, acoustics, music theory and composition, and earned a bachelor's degree in music technology.

Collaboration

In 2007, Wynn (as Deru) collaborated with British composer

on the score to

Wayne McGregor Wayne McGregor, CBE (born 12 March 1970) is a multi award-winning British choreographer and director. He is the Artistic Director of Studio Wayne McGregor and Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet. McGregor was appointed Commander of the ...

's ballet, "Genus", based on

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's book, ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'', commissioned by the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded ...

. The ballet premiered at the

Palais Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

in October 2007 and was commissioned for a second round of performances in November 2009. The eight-part score combines electronics with a 10-part choir and string instruments. The score is available on Ant-Zen and Dear Oh Dear Records and was featured in the 2009 documentary, " La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet". Genus had its North American premiere by the

National Ballet of Canada The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...

at the

Four Seasons Centre The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at the southeast corner of University Avenue and Queen Street West, across from Osgoode Hall. The land on which it is located was a gift f ...

in March 2017 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada.

The Track Team

Wynn is co-owner of a music and sound design company in Los Angeles called The Track Team. He was the force behind the sound design for all three seasons of

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

's hit television show, ''

'', which won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

in 2008. Wynn was nominated for a Motion Picture Sound Editor's Golden Reel award in 2009 for his sound design work on ''

''. He started The Track Team with co-founder

Jeremy Zuckerman Jeremy Zuckerman (born July 31, 1975) is an American composer of concert music, film and television music, music for modern dance, and experimental music. He is best known as the composer for the animated series ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' an ...

in 2004. Together they have created music for the Nickelodeon TV series, '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness'', the score for the feature films ''

Just Peck ''Just Peck '' is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Michael A. Nickles and written by Marc Arneson. Plot A skinny high school sophomore dreams up a science project that will make him a living legend, and win him the heart of a pretty senior ...

'' and ''

A Leading Man ''A Leading Man'' is a 2013 American drama film written and directed by Steven J. Kung as his feature film debut, starring Jack Yang, Heather Mazur, and Tsai Chin. The film is distributed by Mance Media, and premiered on October 17, 2013, at the ...

'' and music and sound design for

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

shorts. Wynn also worked on the sound design for the sequel to ''

'', ''

The Legend of Korra ''The Legend of Korra'' (abbreviated as TLOK), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Korra'' or simply ''Korra'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko for Nickelode ...

''. Ben and Jeremy won a 2012

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for music editing for '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness''. In 2013, they were nominated for another

for music editing for '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness''. They received their third

nomination in 2014; and in 2015, they won their second

for music editing for '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness''. In 2017, Wynn and Zuckerman were nominated for their fifth

nomination, for music editing for '' Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness''. In 2017, it was announced on The Track Team's Facebook page that Wynn and Zuckerman had decided to dissolve their company to pursue their own creative endeavors.

The Echo Society

Wynn is a founding member and Creative Director of The Echo Society, a Los Angeles-based composer collective and non-profit organization that premieres new orchestral works in singular, one-night only events throughout Los Angeles. The Echo Society's shows bring orchestral and electronic music to new audiences through uniquely immersive experiences. The collective consists of composers

Joseph Trapanese Joseph Trapanese (born 1984) is an American composer, arranger, and producer. He works in the production of music for films, television, records, theater, concerts, and interactive media. Early life and education Raised in Jersey City, New Jers ...

Rob Simonsen Rob Simonsen is an American composer based in Los Angeles. Early life Simonsen began playing the piano by ear at an early age. His grandmother was a voice teacher and music was around him in his family home. He later studied music at Southern Or ...

Nathan Johnson (musician) Nathan Tyler Johnson (born August 4, 1976) is an American film composer, director, and producer. Early life Johnson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Colorado. After living in England in the mid-2000s, Johnson relocated to the East c ...

Eskmo Brendan Angelides, better known by his previous stage names Eskmo and Welder, is an American electronic music producer and composer. He has released music on the record labels Interscope, Ninja Tune, Planet Mu, and Warp Records. In a 2010 revie ...

, and Judson Crane, as well as sound engineer Satoshi Noguchi and visual artist Effixx.

Deru

Wynn is also an electronic music producer under the name "Deru". He is signed to the label Friends of Friends and has released three albums on

Mush Records Mush Records is an American independent record label. It was founded by Robert Curcio and Cindy Roché in 1997. History Originally known as Dirty Loop Music, Mush Records started out as a recording studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the label for ...

Merck Records Merck Records (2000– 2007) was a record label based in Miami and run by Gabe Koch. It released electronic music. Background Their releases cover a wide range of styles, from cut up vocal hip hop by their most prominent artist Machinedrum, to ...

, and Neo Ouija and many remixes and tracks for compilations for labels like Hometapes,

Ghostly International Ghostly International is an American independent record label founded in 1999 by Samuel Valenti IV and currently headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. Chief artists include Matthew Dear, Dabrye (a.k.a. Tadd Mullinix), Com Truise, Tycho, Gol ...

, Hymen Records, 1320 Records, Unseen, and

Mille Plateaux ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborativ ...

. His album, ''1979'', was released on June 17, 2014, as a limited-edition sculptural object, featuring nine tracks by Wynn and accompanied by nine short films by video artist Anthony Ciannamea, that are housed in a custom handheld video projector. He released another album, ''Torn In Two'', on October 19, 2018. In 2010, Deru and fellow electronic music producer

Free the Robots Free the Robots (born Chris Alfaro) is an underground hip hop producer from Los Angeles, California. Style Free the Robots pulls together jazz, dubstep, psychedelic music, electronic music and hip hop. History Free the Robots started as a sid ...

joined the electronic music group

The Glitch Mob The Glitch Mob is an American electronic music trio from Los Angeles, California. It consists of edIT (Edward Ma), Boreta (Justin Boreta) and Ooah (Josh Mayer). Chris Martins of '' LA Weekly'' noted that they "have undoubtedly found the largest ...

on their nationwide "Drink the Sea" tour. Deru scored the music and curated the soundtrack for the feature-length film, ''Outliers, Vol. I: Iceland''. The score is based on his field recordings from a trip to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in October 2011. The film premiered in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in July 2012. He also composed the music for a digital arts installation by

Julie Weitz Julie Weitz (born in 1979 in Chicago) is an American visual artist from Los Angeles. Weitz was trained as a painter and taught painting at the University of South Florida for eight years. She began to experiment with video in 2010. Her recent wor ...

that was entitled ''Touch Museum'' and inspired by the phenomenon known as

Autonomous sensory meridian response Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia a ...

. In 2018, Deru scored the music for the American science fiction web television show,

Impulse (TV series) ''Impulse'' is an American science fiction drama television series based on the 2013 Steven Gould novel ''Impulse''. The novel was one of a series following Gould's novel '' Jumper''. The series is a loose sequel to the 2008 film adaptation of t ...

The series is executive produced by Lauren LeFranc, Doug Liman, David Bartis, and Gene Klein. In 2019, Deru won a Webby award for his score for the Marvel podcast, “Wolverine: The Long Night”.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynn, Benjamin 1979 births Living people American male composers 21st-century American composers Record producers from Illinois 21st-century American male musicians