Ryan Black is a sound artist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, President of REB Records and sound designer. With a vast artistic vision for creating experiences, Black is grounded by two decades of audio production and professional work as a jazz and classical musician.
He holds his Masters of Performing Arts Technology in Sound Engineering from University of Michigan where he also completed his Bachelors of Arts in Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation in addition to a Bachelors in Performing Arts Technology.
Black is a faculty member at Columbia College Chicago in the Audio Arts & Acoustics program and works as a sound designer for Rocketcat Games. He has been a featured speaker at the International Conductor’s Guild and works as a live sound and recording engineer in Chicago.
Black’s audio production and art installation work leans heavily into both his sound design experience and jazz influence. He merges diegetic atmospheres with percussive arpeggiators, mutated synths, audience participation and wistful drum beats. The result is a constructed universe that conveys cinematic imagination and lush realism, pushing audiences to become not only viewer but participants in the experience.
His most familiar work environments include large scale studios, concert venues, production studios, corporate podiums, festival stages and sometimes a laptop by the lake.