Kurt Harland

Kurt Harland is an American singer, songwriter, and audio engineer. He is the lead singer of Information Society. He also works on video game scores, including two of the soundtracks for the '' Legacy of Kain'' video game series ('' Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'' and '' Soul Reaver 2'' in collaboration with Jim Hedges).

Personal life

Kurt Harland Larson was born on January 25, 1963 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He lived in Minneapolis until he was 5, when he moved to New Brighton.

Kurt began learning piano at age 6 and took lessons on and off until age 19. He began singing in the school choirs and theater productions in 8th grade, which he continued through college. Between the ages of 14 and 19, he experimented with painting.

At age 18 he moved back into the city to attend college, in Saint Paul. From 1982 to 1988, he lived in South Minneapolis, except for a 6-month stay in Vienna, Austria.

He graduated from Irondale High School in 1981, and attended Macalester College in Saint Paul for a year before attending the University of Minnesota in 1982.

Kurt has stated he started performing and making music with Information Society at age 19 in 1982.

In 1988, he moved to New York City for 5 years before settling in San Francisco in 1993.

Career

Information Society

In early concerts and albums, Harland was credited under the pseudonym "Kurt Valaquen", Valaquen taken from Tolkien, meaning child of light. After the band had achieved mainstream success, he began using his own middle name as his professional last name.

1982–1990

Formed in 1982, synthpop band Information Society achieved mainstream success for a time in the late eighties and early nineties. They are most widely known for their 1988 hit single " What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)". The band's last major (top 40) charting release was " Think" in 1990, from the album ''Hack''.

1990–1997

After the moderate success of Hack, the band released '' Peace and Love, Inc.'' in 1992. The album did not achieve much commercial success and failed to chart to a notable degree. MTV were reportedly opposed to playing the music video of the title track on its channel.

After Information Society broke up, Harland kept the rights to the name of the band and worked with Steven Seibold of '' Hate Dept.''. The resulting album titled '' Don't Be Afraid'', was released in 1997. The album resulted in a more industrial influenced sound, purportedly fulfilling the wishes of Harland in pursuing a darker approach that he had previously hoped to explore.

1997–present

A 2004 episode of VH1's '' Bands Reunited'', caused a brief controversy when 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, 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.

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 their 2007 album ''Synthesizer''. He later rejoined the band full-time, singing and writing for subsequent releases. These additional albums were ''Hello World'' in 2014 and ''Orders of Magnitude'' in 2016.

Video games

After 11 years as a full-time recording artist, Harland 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.

Harland has worked on the following:

* 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 / Windows
* 2001: '' Soul Reaver 2'' — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2
* 2003: '' Whiplash'' — Crystal Dynamics, PlayStation 2 / Xbox
* 2003: '' Legacy of Kain: Defiance'' — Crystal Dynamics, Windows / PlayStation 2 / Xbox
* 2005: ''The Godfather'' — Electronic Arts, PlayStation 2 / Xbox / PC
* 2005: '' Death Jr.'' – Backbone Entertainment, PSP
* 2006: '' Death Jr. II: Root of Evil'' – Backbone Entertainment, PSP
* 2007: '' Death Jr. and the Science Fair of Doom'' – Backbone Entertainment, Nintendo DS
* 2011: '' PlayStation Move Heroes'' – Nihilistic Software Inc., PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move
* 2012: '' Resistance: Burning Skies'' – Nihilistic Software Inc., PlayStation Vita

Four songs from Information Society's album ''Don't Be Afraid'' were also used in video games that had their soundtracks composed by Kurt Harland:
* Early versions of "Closing In" and "On the Outside" had been used in the 3DO version of '' Ballz''.
* The instrumental track "Ozar Midrashim" would later be used as the intro theme of '' Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver''.

References

External links

InformationSociety.us Official Information Society band website (as of 2007)

InSoc.org Original official Information Society website (largely a historical archive, written by Kurt Harland)

InSoc VS. TELEVISION!
an article/account of "what really happened" on VH1's ''Bands Reunited'', according to Kurt Harland
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harland, Kurt
Living people
American video game composers
Musicians from Minneapolis
American freestyle musicians
American hi-NRG musicians
American synth-pop musicians
Information Society (band) members
Year of birth missing (living people)