BGSU Alum, IUPUI Assistant Professor Doug Bielmeier, releases debut Ravello Records album

Doug Bielmeier, a 2006 MM Graduate in Composition with Dr. Elainie Lillios, recently released his debut Ravello Records album, BETTY AND THE SENSORY WORLD.

IUPUI Press Release

July 25, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS -- The School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis has announced that Doug Bielmeier, assistant professor of music and arts technology, has released "Betty and the Sensory World," a new album debuted through Ravello Records.

Bielmeier is a member of the Purdue graduate faculty and vice chair of the Audio Engineering Society Education Committee. He also is the designer/manager of the Critical Listening Environment for Audio Research Laboratory as well as internet recording activities at IUPUI. The CLEAR Lab is a new state-of-the-art facility for the recording, production and mixing of musical projects. Additionally, students can use the internet to record music technology projects and live performances anywhere on campus. The lab is outfitted with cutting-edge equipment and software, allowing students to develop research and projects using DIY circuit-building and high-resolution/multichannel recording.

Bielmeier also creates commercial drone and experimental electronic music tailored for boutique audiences and media. As an experimental electronic music composer, he has created this new electronic composition that "soothingly twists time into a languid river of sound." Bielmeier's skills as an audio engineer and control of the stereo field – or how he simulates space in distance in the production of music – shine throughout the album.

"I composed this work to function like a guided meditation, so it is best, if possible, to experience it as a singular statement," Bielmeier said. "The musical proportions in this work are unusually large, which changes our experience of the work's basic characteristics, because what might occur in a few measures in a more conventional piece takes place over the course of a few minutes."

As the album focuses on concrete sounds, listeners will recognize sounds, such as church bells, among the vast array of processed and synthesized material that dominates the work. Please visit these links for more information and to hear the album .

"At any point in the piece, close your eyes and listen to where the sounds are coming from," Bielmeier said. "You should be able to hear ideas occurring all around you, moving left to right, getting closer and more present and drifting off into the distance."

His love of combining technology and music was first cultivated while studying with composer Robert Carl, a student of Iannis Xenakis, at the Hartt School of Music in the late 1990s. After earning a master's degree in composition, Bielmeier shifted his attention to recording popular music as a staff engineer in Washington, D.C., and then as a freelance engineer in Nashville, Tennessee.

Bielmeier has written several pieces that have been performed internationally at The Brooklyn Arts Gym, The Art of Digital Show, The Illinois International Film Festival, The Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, June in Buffalo, and The Muse Gallery in London. The mediums of his works include stereo and multichannel tape, video, and live instrument with computer. Though a loyal student of acoustics and technology, Bielmeier searches for the meaning and expressive quality sometimes ignored in electronic music.

About the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI:
The mission of the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI is to be one of the best urban university leaders in the disciplines of engineering and technology recognized locally, nationally and internationally. The school's goal is to provide students an education that will give them the leverage to be leaders in their communities, industry and society.

Updated: 03/30/2020 01:26PM