Thomas Jacob Bergersen (born 4 July 1980,

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) is a Norwegian composer, multi-instrumentalist, and the co-founder of the

production music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Background ...

company Two Steps From Hell. Bergersen's compositions have featured in many motion picture campaigns, such as ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

'', ''

Pirates of the Caribbean ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' is a Disney media franchise encompassing numerous theme park rides, a series of films, and spin-off novels, as well as a number of related video games and other media publications. The franchise originated with th ...

'', ''

The Twilight Saga The Twilight Saga may refer to: * ''Twilight'' (novel series), a novel series by Stephenie Meyer. * ''The Twilight Saga'' (film series), a film series on based the novel series by Stephenie Meyer * '' The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated ...

'', ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...

'', ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'', ''

Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Langdon ...

'', ''

The Mummy A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse. Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to: Places *Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States *Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...

'', ''

The Dark Knight ''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and the second insta ...

'', '' Tron: Legacy'' and hundreds more. Bergersen has scored over one thousand soundtracks and film trailers.

Career

He started his musical career as a

demoscener Demogroups are teams of demosceners, who make computer based audio-visual works of art known as demos. Demogroups form a subculture collectively known as the demoscene. Groups frequently consist of students, young computer enthusiasts who spend ...

, writing tracked

modules Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...

under the name ''Lioz'' in the group ''Index''. Bergersen worked with fellow Norwegian artist

Boom Jinx Øistein Johan Eide (; born 10 September 1974 in Bergen), better known by his stage name Boom Jinx, is a Norwegian music producer and DJ. Career In 1989, Boom Jinx started making music with SoundTracker developed for the Commodore Amiga comput ...

on the 2007

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

single "Remember September". In May 2010, Bergersen and his business partner,

Nick Phoenix Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Pla ...

, released a debut public Epic Music Two Steps From Hell album titled ''

Invincible Invincible may refer to: Film and television * ''Invincible'' (2001 drama film), a drama by Werner Herzog about Jewish cabaret during the rise of Nazism * ''Invincible'' (2001 TV film), a fantasy / martial arts TV movie starring Billy Zane ...

''. Several additional commercial album releases followed, including ''

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...

'' and ''

SkyWorld ''SkyWorld'' is the fourth public album by the group Two Steps from Hell, released in October 2012; their third major release following the success of ''Invincible'' and ''Archangel''. The album contains 22 tracks written by composers Thomas J. ...

''. Bergersen also performed in a 2013 live concert at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

. In 2010 Bergersen composed the original music for the movie ''

The Human Experience ''The Human Experience'' is a 2008 documentary produced by Grassroots Films and directed by Charles Kinnane. The film tells the story of brothers Clifford and Jeffrey Azize and their travels as they search for answers to the question, "What does i ...

''. The Soundtrack CD was released on 29 March 2011. Bergersen released a solo-produced soundtrack titled ''

Illusions An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may oc ...

'' in 2011. His second solo album, ''

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

'', was released in September 2014. He has also released several commercial singles since 2011, including "Heart" and "The Hero in Your Heart," which were intended to provide disaster relief in the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake and

Typhoon Haiyan Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. On making landfall, Haiyan devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines. It is one of the ...

, respectively. In March 2020, the album series ''

Humanity Humanity most commonly refers to: * Humankind the total population of humans * Humanity (virtue) Humanity may also refer to: Literature * Humanity (journal), ''Humanity'' (journal), an academic journal that focuses on human rights * ''Humanity: A ...

'' was announced. Humanity is intended to be a seven-part set exploring all aspects of human emotion. On 1 July 2020, '' Humanity - Chapter I'' was released. '' Humanity - Chapter II'' was released on 11 November 2020, followed by '' Humanity - Chapter III'' on 6 May 2021, and '' Humanity - Chapter IV'' on 2 September 2021.

Personal life

Bergersen said he moved from Los Angeles to Miami, and then to Seattle between 2010–2014 in the liner notes of his album ''

''. The song "Cassandra" on the same album was inspired by his then-girlfriend. Bergersen considers himself a

gamer A gamer is a proactive hobbyist who plays interactive games, especially video games, tabletop role-playing games, and skill-based card games, and who plays for usually long periods of time. Some gamers are competitive, meaning they routinely ...

and plays games such as ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...

'', ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher * L ...

'', '' Quake'' and Hitman: Absolution.

Music

Bergersen claims to be influenced by musicians from many genres, such as

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

and

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...

. However, he stated that

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

is among his primary influences. He dislikes the concept of

music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from ''musical form'' and musical style, although in practice these terms are some ...

s, which he thinks limit music to certain structures for the purpose of classification. For this reason he generally avoids following genres and industry conventions and follows his own intuition instead. He draws inspiration from his personal emotions and events in romantic relationships, and anything "unique and beautiful" in his surroundings. Thomas is using some sample libraries that are publicly available, however most of his sounds are bespoke and he has sampled many orchestras, world instruments, and other sounds himself from all over the world, those samples are available only to him. According to Thomas, he is using Steinberg's sequencer Cubase in order to compose his music.

Discography

Solo

Studio albums

* ''

'' (2011) * ''

'' (2014) * ''

'' (2020–) ** '' Chapter I'' (2020) ** ''

Chapter II Chapter Two, Chapter 2, or Chapter II may refer to: Film, television, and theatre * ''Chapter Two'' (play), a 1977 play by Neil Simon * ''Chapter Two'' (film), a 1979 adaptation of Neil Simon's play Television episodes * "Chapter 2" (''American H ...

'' (2020) ** '' ''Chapter III'' (2021) ** '' Chapter IV'' (2021)

Symphonies

* '' American Dream'' (2018) * ''

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

'' (2019)

Two Steps from Hell

Studio albums

*''

'' (2010) *''

'' (2011) *''

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

'' (2012) *''

Classics Volume One ''Classics Volume One'', also stylised as ''Classics, Vol. 1'', is the fifth public album by the group Two Steps From Hell, released in June 2013. It consists of 23 tracks written by composers Thomas J. Bergersen and Nick Phoenix. This album is ...

'' (2013) *''

Miracles A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

'' (2014) *'' Colin Frake on Fire Mountain'' (2014) *''

Battlecry A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group. Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious ...

'' (2015) *'' Classics Volume Two'' (2015) *'' Vanquish'' (2016) *''

Unleashed Unleashed may refer to: Art and entertainment Film and television * ''Unleashed'' (2001 film), a film featuring Jeff Anderson * ''Unleashed'' (2005 film), a 2005 martial arts film starring Jet Li * ''Unleashed'' (2016 film), a film starring ...

'' (2017) *''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' (2019) *''

Myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

'' (2022)

References

External links

*
Modules by Lioz
(Playable with VirtualDub) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergersen, Thomas Living people 1980 births Two Steps from Hell Norwegian composers Norwegian male composers Demosceners Tracker musicians Norwegian record producers