Dean De Benedictis has earned credits and a small international fan base as a musician, artist and producer, also known to the electronic music community as Surface 10. He is primarily established as an electronic ambient producer, but his body of work and his musical skill has always straddled the unspoken borders between opposing genres, especially those of a progressive nature. Beginning his true exploration of music in the 80's, Dean built the foundation of his understanding by playing with hip hop artists, fusion bands, jazz bands, progressive rock bands and experimenting with electronic music while producing/performing source music for network television. Later, Dean began incorporating and developing additional talents, practically out of necessity, in order to market his music properly; skills such as videography, illustration, literature and conceptual art.

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    Specializing in music the majority of his life, Dean has consistently attempted to utilize a broad spectrum of styles and cultural influences to enrich the quality of his expression and help promote enlightened thinking through the breaking of aesthetic conventions. His body of work aims to locate an essential thread between outwardly opposing music genres, as well as draw from them a natural sense of emotion, expanse and mystery.

    Like other artists, much of De Benedictis’s music is composed as a dedication to, and a utility for, his own life experiences. In his earlier years, many of his pieces were created in part to carry with him and listen to at specific outdoor locations such as deserts, canyons, tropics, mountain regions, coastal regions, and natural locations in general--thus permanently marking the area with the music in his mind. Upon purchasing his first laptop in 2008, and literally putting the power of a full studio in the palm of his hands, Dean soon began making music live out there, in those same outdoor locations, additionally filming and sharing the performances online. As such, he was likely one of the very first adventuring mobile musicians of the contemporary age, and may have even been the first, pending further contention and further investigation by adventurers of a similar nature.

 

    Dean dedicates his work to people, places, events and experiences as much as to feelings, concepts and other inherent effects, and to some degree intends to communicate a similar functionality within the personal narratives of his audience.