London-based composer Jon Opstad is set to release 'Extensions: Music for Computer-Controlled Prepared Piano', an album composed entirely of sounds produced by the Yamaha U3 Disklavier – an upright piano that can be controlled via computer. The album explores a wide range of textures; encompassing expansive ambient soundscapes to eccentric rhythmic percussive patterns, bold cinematic motifs and delicate melodies.

Using both acoustic preparation techniques and electronic processing the Disklavier opened up a whole range of compositional possibilities for Jon – who explains: "When the initial inspiration for this project struck I wanted to really explore this range of musical possibilities in as much depth as possible and so the idea for this project was born – composing an album's worth of material using only the Disklavier as a sound source. There was a huge range of sound and expression to explore – the contrast between the clinical precision and extended technical possibilities of computer control with the more nuanced emotion of human touch; the range of textures possible with acoustic preparation of the instrument (screws or erasers inserted between the strings, felt or duct tape over the strings, etc.); playing the body of the instrument as a percussion instrument, with hands, mallets or brushes; the huge textural scope of electronic processing of the sound using reverbs, delays, pitch shifting, distortion and all the other tools available. It was an exciting world of possibilities to explore and I aimed to push it as far as I could. One of the pieces involved sending such a density of fast notes from the computer to the piano that playing it blew the power supply to the instrument twice – needing replacement on both occasions!"

As a composer, Jon's music spans scores for film & television, game music, music for contemporary dance, concert music and album projects. His drama scoring work includes two episodes of Charlie Brooker's cult dystopian anthology drama Black Mirror (including the feature-length White Christmas episode starring Jon Hamm), alongside scores for BBC period drama The Woman In White, 10-part Amazon Prime sci-fi series The Feed, BBC thriller Thirteen, starring Jodie Comer, the hard-hitting BAFTA-winning Channel 4 docudrama The Murder Detectives and many others. Since early 2018 Jon has been the composer for the major Ubisoft video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, stepping into the shoes of the game's original composers, electronic musicians Ben Frost and Paul Haslinger.

Jon's music often combines his classical training with a progressive approach to electronic music, as shown in his score for The Feed, which is scored for string orchestra, analogue synthesisers, vocals and electric guitars. After graduating from Cambridge University and the National Film & Television School, Jon began his career by working for several different composers, including Jocelyn Pook and Max Richter, on a range of projects, before branching out into his own scoring work and other composing projects.

Jon's classical single "Blue Sky, White Clouds", for string quintet and piano, was released on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label in 2020, as part of the label's Project XII series.

In summer 2019 Jon's composition Ignis IV was used as the score for a trailer for the major Hollywood film Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones. Jon was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2014, in the Stage Works category, for his score for contemporary dance work Ignis, combining solo violin with electronics. He was the winner of the 2011 Presteigne Festival competition for composers. This is the first in a series of 'Extensions' albums, each exploring in depth the musical possibilities of a single instrument or family of instruments.