Ard Bit is the artist project of Ard Janssen, based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. A composer, sound designer and field recordist who creates audio sculptures which are subtle, layered and characterized with great detail. His musical forms come about through free improvisation and systematic composition with a focus on minimalism.

“…it seems there are very few steps that keep the work of the Dutch composer from becoming an example of modern classical music rather than just ambient…”Data.Wave

Ard studied electronic music composition at the Institute of Sonology of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in June 2003. While working in composition and sound design for advertising and the cultural sector, he began developing musical ideas leading to his debut album Spanon, released on Symbolic Interaction in Japan in September 2009.

In 2011 Table For Two was released, a split EP with the artist Astroposer on Shipwrec Records, and in 2012 and 2014, the EPs Yelleen and Ellioth on Lowriders Recordings. Ard’s works has been remixed by prominent artists and included in multiple electronic music compilations.

In 2019, Ard released his fourth EP, Six Scores One, blending field recordings, soundscapes and rhythmic sources into melancholic and atmospherically-layered constructions. Continuing on this new path, he created and released Amazing Bubble, a drone, noise, and ambient composition resulting from spontaneous improvisation sessions with modular synthesizers and field recordings as main ingredients. In February 2021 he followed up with Amazing Bubble II, with a mastering re-treatment in October 2021 by Jochem Paap (Speedy J) at STOOR.

During his travels to Sri Lanka in the summer of 2019, Ard took his field recorder and captured a variety of sonic spots and hidden beauties that felt real and genuine. Wanting the world to hear these wonderful and peaceful environments, Ard created an ongoing new Field Recordings series, based on continuous curiosity, explorations, and awareness of sound fields in our environment. His latest episode was recorded in the Balkans in the summer of 2022 and is his fourth release in the serie. Graphic designer Niels Vrijdag has helped shape the concept and created the visual identity of the series.

Most recently, based on work initiated between Amazing Bubble I and II, Ard has been finishing up a new album, Music For Delirious Episodes, released on Shipwrec Records’s sublabel Phainomena in September 2022.