Electronic Ensemble (Ben McPeek)

Websites:  https://citizenfreak.com/playlists/1314-ben-mcpeek-composer-arranger-catalyst
Origin: Trail, British Columbia → Toronto, Ontario, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Electronic Ensemble was a studio alias used by Canadian composer, arranger, and producer Ben McPeek for a small body of privately issued electronic and synthesizer-based recordings in the 1970s. While McPeek is best known for his work in orchestral composition, film scoring, musical theatre, and commercial music, the Electronic Ensemble name documents a lesser-known but historically important facet of his creative output: early Canadian electronic experimentation outside academic and institutional studios.

Born in Trail, British Columbia in 1934, McPeek moved to Toronto in the early 1950s to pursue formal musical training. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, where his teachers included John Beckwith, Talivaldis Kenins, Oskar Morawetz, Godfrey Ridout, and John Weinzweig. By the mid-1950s he was active as a pianist in Toronto dance bands and appeared regularly on CBC radio as a vocalist with the Five Playboys.

During the 1960s, McPeek established himself as a highly versatile composer, working across musical theatre, orchestral music, film scores, and popular recording projects. At the same time, he founded Ben McPeek Ltd., becoming one of Canada’s most prolific commercial composers, writing and directing an estimated 2,000 radio and television jingles. His success in this field provided both the financial independence and studio access that later enabled his private electronic work.

McPeek was an early Canadian advocate for synthesizers and non-traditional sound sources. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he actively explored electronic composition techniques, including experimental studio work and visits to National Research Council facilities in Ottawa to test computer-assisted and modular sound systems. Rather than pursuing academic release channels, McPeek issued some of this material himself, under names such as Electronic Ensemble, through his own Captain Audio imprint.

These recordings—most notably the rare 7-inch single ‘Peter & The Wolf’ b/w ‘Monkey Music’—stand apart from McPeek’s commercial and orchestral catalog. They emphasize texture, motif, and playful electronic construction rather than conventional song form, aligning more closely with international experimental and electronic trends of the era than with Canadian pop or broadcast music.

Outside of his electronic work, McPeek played a major role in Canadian popular music infrastructure. He was a founding partner in Nimbus 9 Productions in the late 1960s and served as musical director and arranger on early Guess Who projects, including Wheatfield Soul. He later co-founded the Canadian Film Composers Guild in 1979 and initiated what became the Imperial Oil McPeek Pops Library, a program devoted to symphonic arrangements of Canadian popular music.

Ben McPeek died in Toronto in 1981 at the age of 46. While his mainstream legacy is often framed around orchestral composition, film music, and commercial work, the Electronic Ensemble recordings reveal a parallel trajectory—one in which a leading Canadian composer quietly explored electronic sound well ahead of its wider domestic acceptance.
-Robert Williston

Ben McPeek Bio:
Ben McPeek was a Canadian composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and music industry entrepreneur whose work bridged orchestral composition, popular recording, advertising music, film, and large-scale commercial production. Born August 28, 1934, in Trail, British Columbia, McPeek emerged as one of the most versatile and influential musical figures operating in Canada from the early 1960s through the end of the 1970s.

McPeek received his formal training in Toronto, enrolling at the University of Toronto in 1953 and graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1956. He also pursued studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Rather than following a traditional academic or concert-music path, he entered the professional music world directly, working as a pianist with Toronto dance bands and appearing as a singer on CBC radio with the Five Playboys. These early years established both his technical range and his ability to move easily between genres and formats.

His first recorded album work came through the Canadian Talent Library. In 1966, McPeek released Colourful Configurations Conceived And Conducted By Ben McPeek (CTL M-1080), a mono LP that introduced him as a composer-arranger with a distinctive orchestral voice. The same recordings were subsequently retitled and reissued under various configurations, most notably as The Original Sounds Of Ben McPeek, His Voices And His Orchestra, appearing on Canadian Talent Library, RCA Victor, and later RCA Camden. These releases form the foundation of McPeek’s recorded catalogue and document his early orchestral and ensemble writing.

During the 1960s, McPeek became deeply involved in musical theatre, film, and television. He served as music director for stage productions including Up Tempo 60 and contributed music to a series of Canadian theatrical works such as That Hamilton Woman, Suddenly This Summer, Actually This Autumn, and Spring Thaw. In 1963 he composed The Bargain, an opera based on the Faust legend, written for tenor, mezzo-soprano, and bass-baritone. The work was later televised on the CBC Montréal network in 1966, and its original piano score remains administered by the Canadian Music Centre.

At the same time, McPeek was becoming one of the most sought-after figures in Canadian commercial music. In 1964 he founded Ben McPeek Ltd., a production company that supplied advertising music for major national clients including Chargex, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Labatt’s, Canadian National, and Speedy Muffler King. Over the course of his career he wrote an estimated two thousand jingles, earning a reputation as one of the most prolific and influential advertising composers in the country. His commercial success provided the financial base that allowed him to pursue ambitious recording and production projects outside the advertising world.

McPeek’s orchestral arranging work reached a national audience during Canada’s centennial celebrations. He created the orchestral arrangement for Bobby Gimby’s “Ca-na-da,” recorded by the Young Canada Singers and released on Quality Records. The single became one of the most successful Canadian recordings of the era, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and generating dozens of subsequent versions. McPeek later revisited the composition with his own instrumental interpretation.

For Expo 67, McPeek was commissioned to compose music for the Canadian Pulp and Paper Pavilion. He supervised the installation and presentation of the pavilion’s audio program, adding another large-scale public work to a résumé that already spanned theatre, television, film, and advertising.

In 1968, McPeek became one of the founding partners of Nimbus 9 Productions, alongside Jack Richardson, Allan Macmillan, and Peter Clayton. The company emerged from collaborative work on major advertising campaigns and quickly evolved into one of the most important independent production houses in Canadian popular music. McPeek’s role within Nimbus 9 was central, both musically and financially, particularly in the early years.

Nimbus 9’s first major release was A Wild Pair, a Coca-Cola–sponsored album pairing the Staccatos and the Guess Who. McPeek served as musical director for the Guess Who tracks, with Richardson producing. Released in 1968, the album sold approximately 85,000 copies in Canada, an unprecedented figure at the time, and remains one of the pivotal recordings in Canadian rock history.

Following this success, Nimbus 9 signed the Guess Who outright. McPeek played a key role in supporting the band’s transition from their Quality Records contract and in financing their early Nimbus 9 recordings. He served as musical director on the Wheatfield Soul sessions recorded in New York in 1968, an album that launched the group’s international breakthrough with “These Eyes.” The success of the single and album established Nimbus 9 as a major force in the industry and confirmed McPeek’s behind-the-scenes influence on one of Canada’s most successful rock acts.

Throughout the 1970s, McPeek continued to balance commercial recording, orchestral writing, and film work. His credits include scores for films such as The Rowdyman, Catch the Sun, and Only God Knows, as well as arrangements for artists including Laurie Bower and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. In 1980, he composed Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered by the Niagara Symphony Orchestra.

As a recording artist in his own right, McPeek released a series of albums that reflected his evolving interests in jazz-pop, orchestral pop, and instrumental reinterpretations of contemporary songs. These included Play Me, Ben McPeek’s Latest Fling At The Record Scene, Peace Train, and Thinking of You. Collectively, these albums document his distinctive approach to arrangement and ensemble writing during the later stages of his career.

McPeek was also instrumental in the formation of the Guild of Canadian Film Composers in 1979, helping to establish an organization dedicated to advocacy, collaboration, and professional support for composers working in film and media. In the final years of his life, he initiated the Imperial Oil McPeek Pops Library, a catalogue of Canadian popular music arrangements for orchestral performance, administered by the Canadian Music Centre.

Ben McPeek died in Toronto on January 14, 1981. Following his death, the Ben McPeek Scholarship Fund was established at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music to support students in the composition program, ensuring that his legacy continues through future generations of Canadian composers.
-Robert Williston