Meet Ben Nobuto, a British/Japanese composer, pianist, and producer from Kent, UK. Known for his cutting-edge musical style, he's been labeled as 'postmodern' by Nonclassical, 'utterly contemporary' by Manchester Collective, and 'sonically dazzling' by the RPS Awards.
When discussing his creative process, Ben admitted "I find it hard to talk about process because it’s usually super messy and non-linear - lots of trial and error, false starts, dead ends - and I rarely feel like I actually know what I’m doing! Sometimes I just start with a sound, something fresh, striking, maybe beautiful but in an unfamiliar way. Usually with a commission, there’s an instrument or set of instruments I’ve been asked to write for and a duration, so it’s a case of being creative within those parameters, having something concise and interesting to say within the time they’ve given you."
Describing his multifaceted approach to music creation, Ben explained, "A lot of the stuff I do is notated, written out so other people can perform it, but I also improvise on piano or make stuff on Logic, using samples or recording myself playing instruments or whatever I can find around the house. I like not feeling too tied to one way of making music. I’m not a good singer, but I sing, hum and vocalise things to myself all the time when I write as that feels like the most direct way of communicating an idea. It’s funny because a lot of my music tends to sound complex but it always comes from this simple, intuitive place of singing and improvising - all kind of based in the body."
"I mix electronic sounds with acoustic instruments a lot; there’s all kinds of strange hybrid textures you can make by combining the two that fascinate me. There’s that term in robotics - ‘the uncanny valley’ - where something appears almost human but is eerily just off, evoking this weird mix of horror/revulsion and attraction. I like applying that in a music context, where the distinction between the human sounds and the non-human sounds are so intertwined that it’s disarming and kind of mesmerising at the same time. That’s the effect I was going for in pieces like ‘SERENITY 2.0’ and ‘Tell me again’."
Transitioning to the influence of other artists and genres on his music, Ben reflected on his diverse musical upbringing. "I think like most people my age I grew up listening to bits of everything - I was really obsessed with Debussy, John Coltrane, Steve Reich, electronic artists like Aphex Twin, bands like Deerhoof - but when I got to university to study music, I had this feeling that certain things weren’t allowed, like I had to suppress certain parts of myself to be a ‘serious’ composer. But that’s so silly! I think my whole approach since then has been to allow myself the freedom to do whatever I want, letting the music go wherever it wants to go. I like thinking of music as this virtual environment where you can make impossible things happen, a bit like in The Matrix, like a simulated playground where you can move beyond everyday physics, combine things that shouldn’t be combined together - like a really vibrant lucid dream."
Live performances have been a source of both anxiety and fulfillment for Ben. "I’ve always found live performance really scary! I remember doing piano recitals in school and my legs would shake like crazy just out of fear. It’s never come that naturally to me. That changed a bit when I got older and started to play my own music because the emphasis became more about communicating something personal to the audience, like telling them a story. It’s more honest and vulnerable but I prefer that. I often feel surprisingly calm on stage now."
"A really special gig for me was a 30-minute set I did at Leighton House near Holland Park in January 2023. It was an ensemble of six, a mix of classical and jazz musicians, with me on piano and electronics. It was the first live show where I allowed myself to express very different sides of me - the contemporary classical stuff, jazz/free improvisation, electronic beats, ambient soundscapes - in a totally unashamed way. There’s a bit towards the end of the set - this calm, meditative moment - where we were all supposed to fade out with the electronics, but in the gig we all kept going for a few minutes, gently prolonging the moment together, kind of lost in our own worlds. When the music stopped I felt as though we’d all woken up from a deep sleep. That felt really special."
Reflecting on his journey as a musician, Ben shared candidly about the challenges he faced post-university. "I remember coming out of university and feeling really aimless, having very few connections and no ‘real world’ idea of how music works. I felt like everyone around me was achieving things but I was static. When the pandemic came, I had nothing else to do so I started making little videos on Instagram, these one-minute collaborations with other musicians called ‘BentoBeats’. It sounds lame but I really poured so much love and care into these videos - the animation, editing, sound design - trying to make the most musically engaging, almost addictive, thing possible. As I kept doing them, people started to notice and ask for collaborations, and a string quartet even commissioned me to write a piece for them. It made me realise that there’s no one, proper way of being a musician and you also don’t have to wait for things to come to you; just make what you want to make and if there is love and care in it then people will notice."
When asked about his proudest project, Ben expressed gratitude for the diverse appeal of his music. "I feel really grateful when I see people from different backgrounds appreciate my music. With pieces like ‘SERENITY 2.0’, ‘Tell me again’, ‘Sol’ and ‘Live at Leighton House’, I get the sense (from things people have said after gigs or messages online) that there’s something in the music that appeals to quite a diverse crowd: electronic producers, jazz musicians, singer/songwriters, older people who only listen to classical music or who are sceptical towards new music. It makes me happy because I really care about making music that’s accessible/enjoyable to anyone.
I like the idea that you can throw a bunch of new, unfamiliar music at someone and as long as there’s one element in there that they can relate to, they’ll find it engaging enough to keep listening. It’s finding that perfect balance between challenging and accessible. I love that feeling of hearing something new and being so excited, like just when you thought you’d heard everything, suddenly it’s like a door opens and everything and anything feels possible again. That feeling of wonder, like hearing music with a renewed joy; I’m always trying to chase that."
Looking towards the future, Ben shared, "I have a debut album coming out at some point, I don’t know when, maybe a year or five years, it’s going slowly. It's a scary project for me because it’s a synthesis of everything I love, with all these amazing musicians - classical musicians, jazz musicians, singers/rappers - like bringing together these different worlds.
I have some gigs in the meantime though. On May 8th I’m playing a new piece for ensemble and electronics called ‘BREAK-UP MANTRAS’ at St John’s Waterloo. It’s a really lush, slow, meditative thing based on slowed-down samples of pop music, performed by Southbank Sinfonia and me. And on July 12th I’m doing a new piece for percussion and electronics with a group called Abstruckt quartet, for the label Nonclassical (location tbc)."