User:Overand/Bjørn Lynne

Bjørn Arild Lynne (born December 31, 1966) is a Norwegian composer and musician, formerly known as Dr. Awesome. He is a resident of Stavern in Vestfold, Norway.

Early Career, Demo Scene, Dr. Awesome / Crusaders
Bjørn Lynne showed an early interest in music. His music education was limited to basic music theory, from his expeience playing in school. His interest evolved further when he bought a Amiga 500 home computer in 1988, which he used to make music with the Soundtracker program, a music tracker, (a sample-based music sequencer, with 4 channels of 8-bit sound).

As a Amiga user, he became active in the Amiga demo scene where groups of performers (graphic artists, programmers, designers, animators and musicians) created Demo (computer programming), designed to impress each other with skilled computer programming, as well as creative music and visuals. The demo scene evolved from "intros," originally brief introductions, whichpirate groups like Crusaders created as loading screens for games they had broken the copy protection of. It was common in the demoscene to use pseudonyms; at this time, Lynne chose the name "Dr.Awesome" and joined the Crusaders group, which consisted of Amiga owners from the Skedsmo, Norway. Dr. Awesome became one of the most famous figures in today's computer music culture and today hundreds of Dr. Awesome music pieces are freely available on the internet in soundtracker format (MOD).

During this period he also released his first CD. In collaboration with Finn Seppo Hurme, the CD 'Hobbits & Spaceships' was funded and released in September 1992. Lynne followed up with music for a local drama ('Brave New Virtual World') and also released this music a cassette with the same name. Then followed the CD 'Montage', also self-financed, this time by Bjørn Lynne alone, in January 1994.

In addition to all this, he also played keyboards and songs in the progressive rock band Ab Intra. The band made one professional recording that featured on the CD This Is An Orange, a collective CD with Scandinavian Progressive Rock Band in 1994. The band also had a concert at Chateau Neuf in Oslo and made a lot of amateur recording of its own songs.

Lynne was a writer in the Tekno datasheet and wrote a series of music production on PC for a period of time.

1995 - 2005 in the UK
Bjørn Lynne moved in April 1995 from Oslo to Wakefield in United Kingdom and started working as a composer, music producer and sound producer for the game development company Team17 Software Ltd. One of his first tasks was to create the music and sound effects of the popular game Worms.

At the same time he could use the premises and equipment of Team17 Software for his own music projects. He received his next solo album 'Dreamstate' released by Centaur Discs, a small independent British label, in 1995. Then followed several other solo albums, sometimes with guest musicians, but mostly Lynne on all instruments. These were released on various small recordings, including Mellow Records, Cyclops and Proximity Records.

In the years 1995 - 2005 he created the music for a large number of games for PC, PlayStation, Nintendo and XBox. He also released a lot of CDs with music in the genres progressive rock, electronic music, ambient, fantasy music, relaxation music and techno-trance.

2005 - back to Norway
In 2000, Bjørn Lynne founded and started the internet based music service Shockwave-Sound.Com. Here he sold "royalty-free" music, that is, a company could buy the music for around $ 200 per song, and this price included a license to use the music in a commercial context (such as internet site, video, TV show, multimedia presentation, company CD- ROM, telephone systems, advertising, trade fair etc.). The type of music that Lynne had worked with proved to be well suited for these purposes, and Shockwave-Sound.com eventually achieved the success that Lynne could leave his job in Team17 Software and live exclusively from his own music, through CD sales and licensing music for media use.

The road was thus open to moving back to Norway, and Lynne chose to move to Stavern, having been there on a longer visit in 2004

The road was thus open to moving back to Norway and Lynne chose to move to Stavern after having been there for a longer visit in 2004. He is now working in his own studio in his home in Stavern, where he produces music for royalty free online licensing, own solo albums and other small and large projects.

Released on foreign independent label

 *  Dreamstate  (Centaur Discs, 1995)
 *  Witchwood  (Mellow Records, 1996)
 *  The Void  (Cyclops, 1997)
 *  Wizard of the Winds  (Cyclops, 1998)
 *  Wolves of the Gods  (Cyclops, 1999)
 *  Revive  (Cyclops, 2000)
 *  The Gods Awaken  (Proximity Records, 2001)

Official, self-financed releases

 *  Hobbits & Spaceships  (1992)
 *  Montage  (1994)
 *  Accelerator  (2001)
 *  Colony  (2002)
 *  Return to Witchwood  (2003)
 *  Soothe  CD Version (2004)
 *  Soothe  5.1 Surround Music DVD Version (2004)
 *  Beneath Another Sky  (2006)

Official releases with the band name Divinorum

 *  Isms  (1998)
 *  Talisman  (2000)
 *  Power Liquids  (2003)

Unofficial, "personal" and smaller releases

 *  Alien Broad 3D Soundtrack  (1995)
 *  X2 Soundtrack  (1996)
 *  Decade  (1997)
 *  Seven Kingdoms Soundtrack  (1997)
 *  Seven Kingdoms II The Frythan Wars Soundtrack  (1998)
 *  Pig Detective Soundtrack  (1998)
 *  Worms 2 Soundtrack  (1998)
 *  Worms Armageddon Soundtrack  (1999)
 *  Statement  (2004)

Bootlegs, Cassette Releases, Limited Releases for Special Purposes, etc.

 *  Bjørn Lynne Demo-Tape # 1  (Cassette, 1991)
 *  Hobbits & Spaceships, The Extras  (Cassette, 1992)
 *  Brave New Virtual World  (Cassette, 1993)
 *  Acoustic Adventures  (Collecting CD for Promotional Use, 2001)
 *  Ambient Sea  (for local promotion, 2006)

Video game music

 * Brat (Amiga, 1991)
 * Cubulus (Amiga, 1992)
 * Airline (Amiga, 1992)
 * Escape from Colditz (Amiga, 1992)
 * Fantastic Voyage (Amiga, 1992)
 * Project-X (Amiga, 1993)
 * Qwak (Amiga, 1994)
 * Worms (Amiga, PC, Mac, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Gameboy, SNES, 1995)
 * Dominion Storm (PC, 1996)
 * X2 (PlayStation, 1996)
 * Dark Corona (Mac, 1996)
 * Seven Kingdoms (PC, 1997)
 * Addiction Pinball (PC, 1998)
 * Worms Pinball (PlayStation, 1998)
 * Worms 2 (PC, PlayStation, 1998)
 * Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy (PC, 1998)
 * Seven Kingdoms II: The Frythan Wars (PC, 1998)
 * Worms Armageddon (PC, PlayStation, Gameboy, Sega Dreamcast, 1999)
 * Virtual U (PC, 1999)
 * Arcade Pool II (PC, 1999)
 * Phoenix: Deep Space Resurrection (PC, 2000)
 * Spin Jam (PlayStation, 1999)
 * Siege of Avalon (PC, 2000)
 * Ford Racing (PC, 2000)
 * Stunt GP (PC, PlayStation2, Sega Dreamcast, 2001)
 * Bomberman (PC, 2001)
 * Worms World Party (PC, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, 2001)
 * Capitalism II (PC, 2001)
 * Worms Blast (PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, 2001)
 * Maximum Capacity: Hotel Giant (PC, 2001)
 * Restaurant Empire (PC, 2003)
 * Worms 3D (PC, PlayStation 2, X-Box, Nintendo GameCube, 2003)
 * Worms Forts: Under Siege (PC, PlayStation2, 2004)
 * Blox Forever (PC, 2004)
 * Multiplayer Solitaire (PC, 2004)
 * Icy Spell (PC, 2004)
 * Blotto Lotto (PC, 2004)
 * Worms 4: Mayhem (PC, PlayStation 2, X-Box, 2005)
 * Rock Around the Slots (PC, 2004)
 * Turbo Spirit XT (PC, 2005)
 * Bumpcopter 2 (PC, 2005)
 * Midnight Strike (PC, 2005)
 * Spinning For Gold (PC, 2005)
 * Worms Open Warfare (Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, 2005)
 * Lemmings (Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, 2006)

Movies and TV
Most of these are not ordering works, but the manufacturer has purchased a license for already existing music composed by Lynne, and used in these products, among other things:


 * BBC 'Meet the Ancestors''
 * CBS 60 Minutes
 * Vampire Sisters (movie)
 * The Oracle (movie)
 * Granada Television UK: Uncovered
 * *Alwaleed - Businessman Billionaire Prince* (documentary)
 * "The Crashes That Changed Flying» (Documentary)
 * "Power and Precision - an Introduction to Explosives» (documentary)
 * 'Virtual of Cordtland Park' 'and' 'Virtual Chicago' '(training videos)
 * It's Itches, It Burns, It Kills '' (Independent Movie Production)

Other
Because Bjørn Lynne's music is available to any company to purchase a license to use his music commercially, it has been used in literally thousands of productions worldwide, by big and small companies. Some of the more notable ones who have used the music in their productions are:


 * MBNA Bank, Plc (music to phone system)
 * London Planetarium
 * AOL, Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo, Prudential and others (music for online advertising)
 * Raffles Hotel, Singapore (Music for Internal TV Information Channel)
 * Starbucks
 * BBC, Granada Television, CBS (TV use)
 * "The Pocket and the Pendant" (audiobook)
 * Plasma Aquarium, Plasma Art, Plasma Nature, etc. (DVDs for decorative use of flat screens)
 * Sky Television (use in interactive digital TV)