Kurt Harland

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[edit] Biography

Kurt Harland is a singer, composer, and video game developer/audio engineer.
He is best known as the former lead singer of Information Society and composer of the soundtracks for the Legacy of Kain video game series.

He was born Kurt Harland Larson, on January 25, 1963 in Minnesota. Starting at the age of six, he took piano lessons,
and by the end of high school, this had expanded into choral and theatrical singing and stage performing.

During college, he and Paul Robb, a high school friend, started a recording group they called Information Society,
which would become a decades-long involvement with music, electronic audio, and recording/programming.

After living in New York, Vienna, and Minneapolis, Kurt moved to California, where he now resides in San Francisco with his wife and son.

[edit] Names

The name I was born with was Kurt Harland Larson. when we started Information Society, we decided to use pseudonymous last names.
This was not an important or well-considered idea. We just thought it would be cute.
I kept on using Valaquen, which was a huge mistake, because by 1988, when we had a top-40 single, I had come to find the whole thing very embarrassing.
So I decided I'd just use my middle name as my last name, (it was my grandfather's first name) and drop Valaquen altogether.
To make a smooth transition, I used Kurt Harland Valaquen on our second album, and then just Kurt Harland on the third.
From InSoc.org

[edit] Career

Kurt Harland Larson has twenty-five years of experience with electronic audio gear and recording, beginning in 1982.

[edit] Information Society

Formed in 1982, synthpop band Information Society achieved mainstream success for a while in the late eighties and early nineties.
They are most widely known for their 1988 hit single "What's On Your Mind? (Pure Energy)".

In early concerts and albums, Harland was credited under the pseudonym "Kurt Valaquen."
After the band had achieved mainstream success, he began using his own middle name as his professional last name.[1]

After Information Society broke up, Kurt kept the rights to the name of the band and released a solo album, Don't Be Afraid, in 1997.
In 2006, he turned the name back over to Paul Robb and James Cassidy, who reformed the band with a new singer.
Harland cited family obligations and a demanding career in not returning full time; he has since been involved nonetheless,
performing at a few concerts, and is featured as a vocalist on the upcoming album Synthesizer.

[edit] Game Audio

After 16 years as a full-time recording artist, Kurt moved to San Francisco and began his career in video game audio engineering.
Over the years he has been involved with eighteen different projects, notably six years with Crystal Dynamics and a stint at Electronic Arts.
He is currently the Audio Director of a game development company in San Francisco.

  • 1995: Scooby-Doo Mystery — Sunsoft, Mega Drive
  • 1995: X-Men 2: Clone Wars — Headgames / Sega, Mega Drive
  • 1995: Ballz — PF Magic, 3DO
  • 1995: Nightmare Circus — Funcom Oslo / Sega, Mega Drive
  • 1997: Gex: Enter the Gecko — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation
  • 1999: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation / Dreamcast
  • 2001: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 — Crystal Dynamics, |Windows / PlayStation 2
  • 2002: Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2 / Xbox / GameCube
  • 2003: Whiplash — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation 2 / Xbox
  • 2003: Legacy of Kain: Defiance — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2 / Xbox

[edit] Other

Kurt Harland Larson has participated in several projects for and with other musicians, and continues to occasionally participate in live performances with Information Society.

[edit] Trivia

  • Early versions of "Closing In" and "On The Outside" had been used in the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer version of Ballz.
  • The instrumental track "Ozar Midrashim" would later be used as the intro theme of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.
  • A 2004 episode of VH1's Bands Reunited caused a brief controversy when Kurt Harland refused to appear in an Information Society reunion performance, despite apparently accepting the invitation on-camera by signing a copy of their first album. In an account of the incident written by Harland and available on his website [2], Harland disputes VH1's depiction of the events and his portrayal on the show, claiming that the show was edited to make it look as if he had accepted the invitation and then backed out of it. [3]

[edit] External Links

Retrieved from "http://www.insocpedia.com/wiki/Kurt_Harland"