Biography

Paul Bijpost (Alkmaar, NL, 1969) grew up in a house full of music. His mother was a classical mezzo-soprano, his father a guitarist and choir tenor, his eldest brother a singer-songwriter and guitarist. In the early eighties Paul got interested in electronics and sound engineering. With some friends he constructed a local radio station and made sound collages and remixes by overdubbing on analog Compact Cassettes.

From the age of 12 Paul played drums and percussion in several bands and a jazz/popular orchestra. As an autodidact in electronics he became keen on building and modifying guitar effect-boxes at user request and recorded demo sessions for local bands on analog 4 track reel-to-reel machines.

Regarding sound engineering merely as a time consuming hobby, Paul commenced his post high-school studies with Modern History in Utrecht. Soon bored by the books he switched to a course of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

This study combined music history, theory of sound and acoustics,composition and usage of IT technology for digital sound manipulation. Sonology offered access to then state-of-the-art systems for digital sound editing and manipulation like Digidesign Sounddesigner and Ircam AudioSculpt. These techniques enabled unprecedented control over the spectrum (analyses and re-synthesis) and time domain (time stretching) of sound by computer rendering.

Creating experimental soundscapes invited for imagery, so a logical next step was the Dutch Film and Television Academy, where he specialized in sound design for picture. Digital sound editing was just introduced in film audio post-production and Paul grew up with these technologies right from the start. He spent days -and nights- in one of the Film Academy's sound studios, mastering the skills of sound design and editing on the very first Digidesign (now Avid) systems on early Apple PowerPC computers.

In 1997 he was asked to team up at Warnier Studios Holland. This enabled Paul to commence a career in audio post-production for film and television, working on a number of award-winning or nominated projects like Character,Oud Geld,Familie and Cloaca.

In 2004 Paul started his own company,specializing in sound design and editing for television drama,features and documentaries. He also picked up his Sonology roots, composing experimental music and soundscapes.

In 2005 Paul received the Dutch Academy Award,Het Gouden Beeld,for outstanding television sound design.
- IMDb mini biography by: J.Kurz