Michiel van den Bos (born 23 May 1975), is a Dutch musician and electronic composer. He has composed soundtracks for over 20 games including Unreal, Deus Ex, Sonic, and the Age of Wonders series. He is also known as M.C.A. in the demoscene and tracker community. Van den Bos also performs as an indie/alternative DJ under the name Mike Boss.

Early life Michiel van den Bos was born in Rotterdam on 23 May 1975. He attended the former Caland Lyceum in Rotterdam. Since childhood, he wanted to become a composer, and he started making music with the Commodore 64 and the Amiga in the 1980s. He learned to play piano and guitar as a hobby, and performed as a guitarist in several bands. At the age of 19, he experienced some upheaval and moved house four times following the death of his father.

Career

1990s From the early 1990s, Van den Bos composed under the alias MCA, as part of the group 'Vicious'. He later transitioned from demoscene composer to writing music for video games. He worked full time at a games store and a DVD/Laserdisc store, while overcoming the limitations of Impulse Tracker, to make soundtracks for Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and Age of Wonders based on textual map descriptions. Around this time, he was hired to compose music for Epic Games' Unreal and Triumph Studios and was given complete creative freedom. Van den Bos worked closely with Alex Brandon on the Unreal soundtrack and wrote an adaptive score. However, for Unreal Tournament, they received direction from Cliff Bleszinski, and handed in songs to spec.

2000s Van den Bos composed four tracks for the original Deus Ex of Ion Storm CD with the Impulse Tracker in 2000. He declined an offer to compose OSTs for Age of Wonders 2 and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic due to the death of his mother. At 27, he founded his own company and was then hired by Triumph Studios to make music for the Overlord series. Since 26 March 1999, Van den Bos has posted over 60 tracker music files on the Mod Archive. The module files are mainly of Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Age of Wonders.

2010s In 2012, Van den Bos collaborated with other composers for One Big Album, a charity album, of which 80% of the proceeds were evenly donated between Starlight Children's Foundation and Save the Children. Subsequently, he scored music for various mobile games. Most notable are Hardlight's Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash and Sonic Jump Fever. Van den Bos returned to the Age of Wonders franchise with Planetfall in 2019.

2020s In 2020, Van den Bos collaborated with Alex Brandon to reimagine iconic songs of Deus Ex for the album Conspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Van den Bos made the full OST of Age of Wonders 4 which released in 2023. It is composed predominantly of completely new material with a few nods to legacy songs. In 2023, Van den Bos crafted the music for mobile game Sonic Dream Team. On 15 May 2023, Van den Bos released a composed and mixed lo-fi soundtrack called Age of Wonders 4 LoFi Fantasy which includes a few AoW 1 and 3 songs. Van den Bos made soundtracks for the AoW 4 expansions: Empires & Ashes (November 2023), and Eldritch Realms (June 2024).

Musical style and influences Van den Bos' musical style is primarily energetic electronica, natural orchestral and soundscapes. His speciality is music sequencing. His studio consists of multiple, custom built audio PCs with a myriad of high end sample packages. He uses high end music samples such as EastWest Sounds, Vienna Instruments, Steinberg, Cinesamples. Spectrasonics and Native Instruments.

Van den Bos' greatest musical influences are John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, LTJ Bukem; Commodore 64 composers Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Jeroen Tel, Ben Daglish; metal bands Carcass, At the Gates, Insomnium; and electronic artists PFM, Underworld and Artemis.

Van den Bos is also an indie/alternative DJ with the alias Mike Boss. His debut EP was Taking the Fifth (deep house), followed by Drifting Through Static (techno), both released in 2014.

Works

Composer +Video gamesTitleYearSystemNotesUnreal (and the mission pack, Return to Na Pali)1998Microsoft Windows, Mac OSAge of Wonders1999Microsoft WindowsUnreal Tournament1999Windows, Linux, Classic Mac OS, PlayStation 2, DreamcastDeus Ex2000Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 2Overlord2007Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, OS X, LinuxOverlord: Raising Hell2008Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, OS X, LinuxOverlord: Dark Legend2009WiiOverlord II2009Linux, OS X, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue2009Wii, Nintendo DSAge of Wonders III2014Microsoft Windows, OS X, LinuxUnreal Tournament (cancelled)2014Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, LinuxDeus Ex: Revision2015Microsoft WindowsVoidrunner2017Microsoft WindowsAge of Wonders: Planetfall2019Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, MacOSThe Stranger VR2020Microsoft WindowsAge of Wonders 42023PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S

+Mobile gamesTitleYearSystemNotesFlick Golf!2010MobileZombie Flick2010MobileCup stack2011MobileSonic Jump2012MobileSamurai Beatdown2012MobileSonic Dash2013MobileIcebreaker: A Viking Voyage2013MobileSonic Jump Fever2014MobileChuChu Rocket! Universe2019MobileSonic Dream Team2023Mobile

Discography +CreditsTitleYearTypeNotesDeus Ex: Game of the Year Edition Soundtrack2001AppearanceA history of Unreal Music2006AppearanceOne Big Album2012CollaborationEpic Games 20th Anniversary Original Soundtrack2012AppearanceTaking the Fifth2014EPDrifting Through Static2014EPConspiravision: Deus Ex Remixed2020CollaborationAge of Wonders 4 | LoFi Fantasy2023 RemixTournament Rematch: Unreal Tournament Remixed2025Collaboration

References

External links IMDb page Discography at VGMdb Michiel van den Bos on YouTube Michiel van den Bos - Topic on YouTube Michiel van den Bos at The Mod Archive