Brian Transeau ‘89 is creating dance, film, and art music that’s a revelation for the rising generation of laptop musicians.

Most people are going to read this interview because they know it’s about BT – a man that defies introductory clichés. I could sit here and talk of all his achievements, but a quick Google search will give enough information to last … whatever. I’m not here to clog up the bandwidth with any more background. His new album This Binary Universe is now available and it’s essential listening.

Voted in the top 5 of “America’s Best DJs” by the readers of DJ Times, BT’s music – as found on his albums, IMA, ESCM, Movement In Still Life and Emotional Technology – is considered to be classic by today’s standards. For his latest effort, the stirring surround-sound album and DVD, This Binary Universe (DTS), BT flew DJ Times writer Emily Tan from New York to his home in the Hollywood Hills for a private screening in his home theater.

Initially known as the pioneer of trance music, BT has evolved into one of the most visionary artists and producers for a multitude of musical styles. Whether composing intricate scores with 80-piece orchestras for blockbuster films and the Oscar-winning Monster, writing and producing for Sting, David Bowie, remixing evocative epics for Madonna or designing and creating cutting edge proprietary software tools from scratch to make it happen.

He’s known around the world the “Father of Trance,” but Brian Transeau (BT) is no one-trick pony. Whether he’s mixing electronics with orchestral scores (for films such as /The Fast and the Furious /and/ Stealth/), collaborating with mega-stars like Sting, or creating epic remixes for Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Madonna, or Seal, BT consistently balances creative and memorable songwriting, sonic innovation, and the latest technology for a cutting-edge, yet organic sound.

BT creates nearly all his work at his home studio, Binary Acoustics, on a setup that’s “very modest and clean, compared to what I’ve used in the past,” he says. The nerve center is an Apple dual G5 running Logic Pro 7, the 30-inch Cinema display we all wish we had, and lots of MOTU interfaces. “When I hear ‘hard’ followed by ‘ware,’” he says, “MOTU is what I think of. My Traveler has never crashed at a gig, and I’ve crashed a ton of interfaces.” His main controller is an M-Audio Radium. “People are surprised I use an unweighted keyboard,” he says. “But it feels like all those vintage synths I spent summers mowing lawns to afford.”

Electronica’s visionary takes off in a new direction.

“Basically, my house is a hard drive,” laughs Brian Transeau. Though BT’s referring to the more than eight terabytes of computer storage at his home studio, the place actually does look like a hard drive, its sparse cubic forms and corrugated metal walls boldly rebelling against the Spanish-tile status quo of residential hills near L.A.’s Griffith Park. “It was designed by Frank Gehry [the architect behind Disney Hall and Seattle’s Experience Music Project building], and I think even the realtor didn’t know that when I first made an offer.”

Deep Throat spilled the beans on Watergate in a cloud of smoke in a darkened parking garage. Brian “BT” Transeau is about to do the same to the recording industry on his living room couch between sips of an Ultimate Ice Blended.

When BT starts talking about music technology, he seems almost like a kid in a candy store; everything to him is mind-blowing, amazing, or insane. He practically bubbles over with enthusiasm about the latest, greatest gear or some cool, new software that he’s used. He could seemingly go on for hours about plug-ins, software instruments, surround mixing, time correction, and the incredible and meticulous detail that he puts into the production of his music. But awed though he might be by the technology at his disposal, he’s in control of it to a degree that few others are bending and twisting digital audio and synthesis to fit his unique musical vision.