Bjørn Lynne

Bjørn Lynne

Bjørn Lynne in 2006
Background information
Birth name Bjørn Arild Lynne
Also known as Dr Awesome
Divinorum
Dr Awesome/Crusaders
Born December 31, 1966 (1966-12-31) (age 45)
Origin Stavern, Norway
Genres New Age, progressive rock, fantasy rock, symphonic rock, electronic, space rock, electronica, funk, techno, celtic, electronic dance
Occupations Sound engineer, composer
Years active 1991–present

Bjørn Arild Lynne (born December 31, 1966) (also known as "Dr. Awesome" and "Divinorum") is a Norwegian sound engineer and music composer, now living and working in Stavern, Norway. He has been widely known as a tracker music composer under the name "Dr. Awesome/Crusaders" in the late 1980s–early 90s when he released numerous tunes in MOD format and created music for some Amiga games. His work during that time period was mostly released into the demoscene world.

In 1995 Bjørn moved to England and started working for the video game company Team17 as a sound designer and composer. He recorded most of his studio albums in England, including the Timura trilogy, inspired by the books of Allan Cole. Some of these albums have become quite popular, mostly among fans of indie music. In June 2005 Bjørn moved back to Norway and now works as a freelance composer and owns a plasma display shop.

Bjørn is known for his soundtracks for the Worms and Seven Kingdoms games as well as his own albums in various genres, from fantasy-medieval to progressive rock or even trance (released under the pseudonym "Divinorum"). His tunes have also been used in several TV-shows/movies.

Contents

Demoscene

In the later 1980s and 1990s, Bjørn worked in the demoscene using the name Dr. Awesome (the chosen pseudonym is a joke and doesn't mean anything special). As a member of "Crusaders" demo-group he has created numerous demo soundtracks and standalone tunes in Amiga tracker format. During his demoscene period Bjørn has also made music for several Amiga games like "Qwak", "Brat" and some others (see discography for more info) and recorded his first studio albums: "Hobbits & Spaceships" and "Montage". Later on, some of these "oldschool" tracks would become parts of "Decade" and "Revive" albums. The last one also features some of Dr.Awesome's most popular tunes, recorded with live instruments.

Divinorum

Divinorum (Latin: Divine, Prophet) is Bjørn's project for writing electronic dance/trance music. Under this name he has recorded and published three albums, including a collaborative work with Aural Planet, called "Power Liquids". Although Divinorum music is very different from Lynne's fantasy/space tunes, it has got numerous positive reviews and got quite high rating on trance charts.

Note, that there's also a Brazilian trance project, named Divinorum which has released the "Lemon Flavored Kiss" album. Even though both band names are identical and genres are very close, neither "Lemon Flavored Kiss" nor the people behind it have anything to do with Bjørn Lynne's Divinorum.

Discography

Bjørn Lynne

Official release albums

  1. Quiet Places (2008). Self-published.
  2. Undercover (2006). Self-published audio CD with crime/spy style music. Cocomposition with Adam Skorupa ("Skorpik").
  3. Beneath Another Sky (2006). Self-published after 3.5 years in production. Similar in mood to Colony.
  4. Soothe (2004). Self-published, audio CD. Soothing, meditation music.
  5. Soothe (2004). Self-published. Music DVD with relaxation/meditation music natively mixed and recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Endorsed by Dolby.
  6. Statement (2004-03). Self-published dance music CD.
  7. Return to Witchwood (2003–07). Self-published. A sequel to the original Witchwood.
  8. Colony (2002-05-28). Self-published.
  9. Accelerator (2001–12). Self-published.
  10. The Gods Awaken (2001–04). Third album in the Timura trilogy. Based on the book by Allan Cole.
  11. Revive (2000–03). An album of some of Bjorn Lynne's older works in the MOD demoscene, performed with real instruments.
  12. Worms Armageddon Original Soundtrack CD (1999). Team17.
  13. Wolves of the Gods (1999-03). Published by Cyclops/GFT. The second album in the Timura trilogy, based on the book by Allan Cole.
  14. Worms 2 Original Soundtrack CD (1998), SynSoniq Records.
  15. Wizard of the Winds (1998-04). Published by Cyclops/GFT. Adventure / progressive rock. First album in the Timura trilogy, based on the book by Allan Cole. Read Allan Cole's review of the album.
  16. The Void (1997-03). Published by Cyclops/GFT. Published again in March 2004 by LynneMusic. Vibrant electronic progressive psychedelic melodic space-rock.
  17. Witchwood (1996-03). Published by Mellow Records. Adventure / soft progressive rock.
  18. Dreamstate (1995-03). Published by Centaur Discs. Melodic/progressive electronic.
  19. Montage (1994). Published by DENS Design.
  20. Brave New Virtual World (1993) Self-published MC. Music for a theatre production.
  21. Hobbits & Spaceships - The Extras (1992) Self-published MC. Contains some bonus materials which didn't fit the original album.
  22. Hobbits & Spaceships (1992). Joint effort with "Fleshbrain" Seppo Hurme.
  23. Bjorn Lynne Demo Tape No. 1 (1991) Self-published MC.

Game soundtracks


Demoscene
Concepts
Demo - Intro - Demoparty - Effects - Demogroup - Compo - Music disk - Diskmag - Module file - Tracker
Alternative demo platforms
Amiga - Apple IIGS - Atari ST - Commodore 64 - Vic-20 - Text mode - ZX Spectrum
Parties
Current: Alternative Party - Assembly - Buenzli - Evoke - The Gathering - Sundown - X
Past: Breakpoint - Mekka & Symposium - The Party
Websites
Hornet Archive - Scene.org - Mod Archive - Trax in Space
Software
ProTracker - Scream Tracker - Fast Tracker - Impulse Tracker - ModPlug - Renoise
Tracker musicians
Demosceners
  1. Geneforge 4: Rebellion (2006) Intro music
  2. Squirrel Escape (2005) Sound effects for a small Flash game.
  3. Lemmings (2005) Sound effects for a PSP game.
  4. Zombieball (2005) Game effects, voice recorded by Bjørn Lynne. Some music licensed from Bjørn.
  5. Lost City of Gold (2005) Arcade game featuring Bjørn's music.
  6. Worms 4: Mayhem (2005). Team17.
  7. Midnight Strike (2005) Online game. Sound effects by Bjørn Lynne. http://www.arcadetown.com.
  8. BumpCopter 2 (2005) Little online game. Sound effects by Bjørn Lynne. http://www.arcadetown.com.
  9. Multiaire (2004) PC puzzle/strategy game by Lost Port software. Custom sound design by Bjørn Lynne and custom music soundtrack developed with DirectMusic interactive music system.
  10. Worms Forts: Under Siege (2004). PC, Xbox; PlayStation 2 video game published by Sega. All music, sound effects and voice arrangement / editing / recording by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  11. Blox Forever (2004) PC Puzzle game published by Arcadetown. Custom sound design by Bjørn Lynne.
  12. Worms 3D (2003). PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox video game published by Sega. All music, sound effects and voice arrangement / editing / recording by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  13. Restaurant Empire (2003) Restaurant tycoon type simulation game for PC. Developed with DirectMusic interactive music system (DirectX 8).
  14. Catch the Sperm 3 (2003) Humoristic downloadable “sexual education” game developed by Black Pencil Entertainment AG for the Swiss ministry of public health. http://www.cueni.ch/blackpencil/.
  15. Maximum Capacity: Hotel Giant (Titled “Hotel Giant” in Europe) (2001) Hotel business simulaton developed by Enlight Software and published by JoWood. All music, sound effect and voice recording/processing by Bjørn Lynne.
  16. Worms Blast (2001) Arcade/puzzle game for PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube & Game Boy Advance. All music, sound effects and voice editing by Bjørn Lynne (not GBA version). PC music developed with DirectMusic interactive music system (DirectX 8) Team17.
  17. Capitalism II (2001) Business simulation developed by Enlight Software. All music & sound effects by Bjørn Lynne.
  18. Worms World Party (2001). Single- or multiplayer humor/strategy game for PC and Dreamcast. All music, sound effects and voice recording/processing by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  19. Bomberman (2001) Online arcade/action game developed by Elkware, featuring 4 tracks of music by Bjørn Lynne.
  20. Stunt GP (2001) Car stunt/racing game for PC, Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. Music and sound-fx by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  21. Gate (2000) Gothic sci-fi first-person shooter from GateSoft, Korea. Features two pieces of music by Bjørn Lynne. (Note by Bjørn: Sadly, it now seems that this game might not get released at all in its current form.)
  22. Ford Racing (2000) Car racing game for PC and PlayStation - music by Bjørn Lynne. (Not sound-fx.)
  23. Siege of Avalon (2000) Episodic role-playing game for PC. All in-game General MIDI Music by Bjørn Lynne. (Not the front-end music.)
  24. Spin Jam (2000) Puzzle game for PlayStation. All music and sound-fx by Bjørn Lynne.
  25. Phoenix - Deep Space Resurrection (2000) "Space opera" 3D action/drama game for PC. Music by Bjørn Lynne (not sound-fx).
  26. Virtual-U (2000) University simulator / game. Features classical music by Handel – arranged for the game by Bjørn Lynne. Also music for animated intro, composed by Bjørn Lynne.
  27. Worms Armageddon (1999) serious game for PC, PlayStation, Dreamcast. Music and sound effects by Bjørn Lynne. Microprose, Team17.
  28. Seven Kingdoms II – The Frythan Wars (1999) Realtime Strategy game for PC. All music and sound effects by Bjørn Lynne.
  29. Arcade Pool 2 (1999) Pool/Snooker game for PC. Music & sound-fx by Bjørn Lynne. Team17
  30. Pig Detective on Wacky Adventures (1998) PlayStation roleplaying game for kids. All music and sound fx by Bjørn Lynne. (Bjørn's note: Unfortunately, this game was never released – it was canned when it was about 90% finished.)
  31. Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy (1998) Point-and-click adventure for PC. In-game music by Gianluca Verrengia and Bjørn Lynne. FMV music by Bjørn Lynne. Voice editing and processing by Bjørn Lynne.
  32. Worms 2 (1998). Humoristic single- and multiplayer strategy/puzzle game for PC. Microprose. Team17.
  33. Worms Pinball (1998) Pinball simulation game for PlayStation. All music and sound effects by Bjørn Lynne. (This is in fact more or less the same game as the below Addiction Pinball. The publisher decided to rename it to “Worms Pinball” for the PlayStation version).
  34. Addiction Pinball (1998) Pinball simulation game for PC. All music and sound effects by Bjørn Lynne. (Rory McLeish on additional guitar). Team17.
  35. Seven Kingdoms (1997) RealTime Strategy game for PC. All music and sound effects by Bjørn Lynne.
  36. Dark Corona (1997) Arcade game for Mac. Music by Bjørn Lynne.
  37. Dominion Storm (1997) PC game. General MIDI music by Bjørn Lynne. (note by Bjørn: "Actually I’m not sure if this game ever got released. I lost touch with them.")
  38. X2 (1996) Shoot 'em up arcade game for PlayStation. All music, sound effects and voice editing/processing by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  39. World Rally Fever (1996) PC racing game. Sound effects by Bjørn Lynne (not music).
  40. Worms (1995) Humouristic turn-based combat/strategy/puzzle game for PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari Jaguar, Amiga, Mac, Game Boy, SNES. All music, sound effects and voice editing/processing by Bjørn Lynne (not Game Boy version). Team17.
  41. Alien Breed 3D (1995) First-person shooter game for Amiga 1200 and CD32. Music & sfx by Bjørn Lynne.
  42. Qwak (1994) Arcade/platform game for Amiga. Music composed by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  43. Project X (1992) Arcade/shooter game for Amiga. Includes one music track composed by Bjørn Lynne. Team17.
  44. Escape from Colditz (1992) Adventure game for Amiga. Music composed by Bjørn Lynne.
  45. Fantastic Voyage (1992) Arcade/adventure game for Amiga. Music composed by Bjørn Lynne.
  46. Cubulus (1992) Puzzle/strategy game for Amiga. Music composed by Bjørn Lynne.
  47. Brat (1991) Arcade Amiga game featuring Bjørn's music.

Divinorum

"Divinorum" is Bjørn's pseudonym for electronic/trance music.

  1. Power Liquids (2003). Collaboration with Aural Planet. Self-published.
  2. Talisman (2000). Self-published.
  3. Isms (1999). Self-published.

Dr. Awesome

  1. Decade (1997). Published by Studio17 under Dr.Awesome. Contains 55 minutes of music plus lots of MIDI, MOD and MP3 files from Bjørn's demoscene period.
  2. X2 (1995). Official soundtrack CD of the game X2.

Miscellaneous records

  1. Photo exhibition music (2005–2006) - music for a photo exhibition of Svenn Dvergastein in Stavern, Norway.
  2. Open Interactive / Sky Digital TV games (2001) Games section for Sky digital interactive TV, developed by Open Interactive. Main game section features music by Bjørn Lynne.
  3. Solnatt - ambient track available in MP3 format at http://www.soundlift.com/bjornlynne
  4. The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Course Video (2000) Special interest video about training for Chicago Marathon, features music by Bjørn Lynne.
  5. Virtual Van Cortlandt Park (2000) Special interest video about the Van Cortland Park cross country race, features music by Bjørn Lynne.

External links