Michiel van den Bos
Dutch composer (born 1975) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michiel van den Bos (born 23 May 1975), is a Dutch musician and electronic composer.[1][2] He has composed soundtracks for over 20 games including Unreal, Deus Ex, Sonic, and the Age of Wonders series.[2][3] He's also known as M.C.A. in the demoscene and tracker community.[4] As indie/alternative DJ he uses the alias Mike Boss.[5]
Michiel van den Bos | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michiel van den Bos |
| Also known as | M.C.A., Mike Boss |
| Born | 23 May 1975 |
| Origin | Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| Genres | energetic electronica, orchestral music, soundscapes |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician, DJ |
| Instrument(s) | Keyboards, guitar, PC |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Materia Collective |
| Website | Michiel van den Bos (YouTube) |
Early life
Michiel van den Bos was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 23 May 1975.[1] He attended the former Caland Lyceum in Rotterdam.[2] Ever since he was a young boy he wanted to become a composer and started with the Commodore 64 and the Amiga in the 1980s.[6][1] As a hobby he learned playing the piano and became a self-taught guitarist in bands.[6] At the age of 19 his father died and he moved homes 4 times.[6]
Career
Summarize
Perspective
1990s
Since the early 90s, Van den Bos wrote music under the alias MCA of the group Vicious.[4] He later transitioned from demoscene composer to writing music for video games.[4] He worked full time at a games store and a DVD/Laserdisc store while overcoming the limitations of Impulse Tracker to make soundtracks for Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Age of Wonders based on textual map descriptions.[6] At the time, he had complete creative freedom to compose music for Epic Games' Unreal and Triumph Studios.[6] Van den Bos worked closely with Alex Brandon on the Unreal soundtrack and wrote an adaptive score.[6][7] However, for Unreal Tournament they received direction from Cliff Bleszinski and handed in songs.[7]
2000s
Van den Bos composed 4 CD tracks for the original Deus Ex of Ion Storm with the Impulse Tracker in 2000.[6] His mother passed away when he was 25 years old thus he declined making OSTs for Age of Wonders 2 and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic.[6] At 27 he founded his own company and was hired by Triumph Studios to make music for the Overlord series.[6] Since 26 March 1999 Van den Bos has posted over 60 tracker music files on the Mod Archive.[8] The module files are mainly of Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Age of Wonders.[8]
2010s
In 2012, Van den Bos collaborated with other composers for One Big Album of which 80% of the proceeds were evenly donated to Starlight Children's Foundation and Save the Children.[9][10] Subsequently he scored music for various mobile games. Most notable are Hardlight's Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash, Sonic Jump Fever[11][12][2] Van den Bos returned to the Age of Wonders franchise with Planetfall in 2019.[13]
2020s
In 2020, Van den Bos collaborated with Alex Brandon to reimagine iconic songs of Deus Ex for the album Conspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed to celebrate the 20th anniversary.[14][15] Van den Bos made the full OST of Age of Wonders 4 which released in 2023.[16] It is composed predominantly of completely new material with a few nods to legacy songs.[16] In 2023, Van den Bos crafted the music for mobile game Sonic Dream Team.[4][17] On 15 May 2023, Van den Bos released a composed and mixed lo-fi soundtrack called Age of Wonders 4 LoFi Fantasy which includes a few AoW 1 and 3 songs.[18] Van den Bos made soundtracks for the AoW 4 expansions: Empires & Ashes (November 2023), and Eldritch Realms (June 2024).[19][20]
Musical style and influences
Van den Bos' musical style is primarily energetic electronica, natural orchestral and soundscapes.[2] His specialties are music sequencing.[2] His studio consists of multiple, custom built audio PCs with a myriad of high end sample packages.[2] He uses high end music samples such as EastWest Sounds, Vienna Instruments, Steinberg, Cinesamples. Spectrasonics and Native Instruments.[2]
Van den Bos' greatest musical influences are John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, LTJ Bukem;[6] Commodore 64 composers Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Jeroen Tel, Ben Daglish;[6] metal bands Carcass, At the Gates, Insomnium;[6] and electronic artists PFM, Underworld and Artemis.[6]
Van den Bos is also an indie/alternative DJ with the alias Mike Boss.[1][5] His debut EP is Taking the Fifth (deep house) followed by Drifting Through Static (techno) in 2014.[5][21] The UNATCO remix of the album Conspiravision was on NTS Radio Node w/ Avant on 22 December 2016.[22]
Works
Composer
| Title | Year | System | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unreal (and the mission pack, Return to Na Pali) | 1998 | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS | |
| Age of Wonders | 1999 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Unreal Tournament | 1999 | Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast | |
| Deus Ex | 2000 | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 2 | |
| Overlord | 2007 | Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux | |
| Overlord: Raising Hell | 2008 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, OS X, Linux | |
| Overlord: Dark Legend | 2009 | Wii | |
| Overlord II | 2009 | Linux, OS X, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 | |
| Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue | 2009 | Wii, Nintendo DS | |
| Age of Wonders III | 2014 | Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux | |
| Unreal Tournament (cancelled)[23] | 2014 | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux | |
| Deus Ex: Revision | 2015 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Voidrunner[24] | 2017 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Age of Wonders: Planetfall[13] | 2019 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, MacOS | |
| The Stranger VR[25] | 2020 | Microsoft Windows | |
| Age of Wonders 4 | 2023 | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S |
| Title | Year | System | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flick Golf! | 2010 | Mobile | |
| Zombie Flick | 2010 | Mobile | |
| Cup stack[26] | 2011 | Mobile | |
| Sonic Jump[2] | 2012 | Mobile | |
| Samurai Beatdown[27] | 2012 | Mobile | |
| Sonic Dash[11] | 2013 | Mobile | |
| Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage | 2013 | Mobile | |
| Sonic Jump Fever[12] | 2014 | Mobile | |
| ChuChu Rocket! Universe[3] | 2019 | Mobile | |
| Sonic Dream Team[17] | 2023 | Mobile |
Discography
| Title | Year | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition Soundtrack[28] | 2001 | Appearance | |
| A history of Unreal Music[28] | 2006 | Appearance | |
| One Big Album[9] | 2012 | Collaboration | |
| Epic Games 20th Anniversary Original Soundtrack[29] | 2012 | Appearance | |
| Taking the Fifth[5] | 2014 | EP | |
| Drifting Through Static[21] | 2014 | EP | |
| Conspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed[14] | 2020 | Collaboration | |
| Age of Wonders 4 | LoFi Fantasy[18] | 2023 | Remix | |
| Tournament Rematch: Unreal Tournament Remixed[30] | 2025 | Collaboration |
References
External links
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