Ben Leonard (BJ Leo)

Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and Victoria University’s New Zealand School of Music —Te Kōkī (NZSM) are delighted to announce Ben Leonard as the 2023 Toi Pōneke Sound Artist in Residence.

Ben Leonard is a sonic artist, musician and composer based in Te Whanganui ā Tara (Wellington). He is a recent graduate of the sonic arts programme at the NZSM, where he focused on ambisonic and spectral techniques. His residency will focus on research into ‘spectral fusion/fission’ and processing of sounds related to the movement of air.

Under his BJ Leo moniker, Ben has released works on labels Project Mooncircle (DE) and Strange Behaviour (NZ). He has two new works due for release in 2023, including ambisonic works and a full album. Ben has played live throughout New Zealand, including recently at Club 121 and Pyramid Club.

During his studies at the NZSM, Ben focused on developing new techniques in spectral fission within the ambisonic environment. This involved the use of the scripts and plugins using the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) to decompose and recompose sounds based on their spectral qualities. These spectral ‘streams’ can then be combined and separated in the three dimensional sound field. This work resulted in a suite of ambisonic pieces composed for 16 channel periphonic loudspeaker array.

Ben was awarded the 2022 Susan Rhind Award and exhibited one of these multi -channel works at the Adam Art Gallery alongside other NZSM staff and students. He also had works exhibited at the Australasia Computer Music Conference 2022 and gave an artist talk on his recent work.

Ben Leonard starts his residency in September and will exhibit at Toi Pōneke gallery in April 2024.

 For more information on other Toi Pōneke Residencies click here