Modern Era

From 2014, Jeroen Tel formed the pop duo Tess & Tel with singer Tess Jonker. The project explores contemporary electronic pop — a different register from the chip music that made Tel’s name, but drawing on the same instinct for clean melodic structure and precise electronic production.

Tess & Tel have released original music and performed at events. The project demonstrates that Tel’s compositional range extends well beyond the retro gaming context in which he is best known.

Tel Me More was a proposed remix album campaign that aimed to bring Jeroen Tel’s C64 and Amiga catalogue to a contemporary audience in new arrangements. The campaign launched via crowdfunding (Indiegogo/BackerKit) and generated significant community interest and discussion.

The campaign was ultimately unable to reach its funding goal and did not proceed to completion. However, it generated renewed community engagement with the catalogue and brought new listeners to the original SID and Amiga work.

Tel discusses the campaign and its outcome in The Retro Hour EP496 (“The SID Chip Was My First Love”).

Through the 2010s and 2020s, Jeroen Tel has performed live at retro gaming events across Europe. His live performances have included both original SID-based music and new compositions, typically using a combination of hardware and software synthesis.

The 2024 Cybernoid II live performance — captured on YouTube at the videos page — is the most significant recent live document of his work. It demonstrates that Cybernoid II, composed in 1989 for a three-voice chip, retains its compositional power in a concert setting.

The Commodore C64 Orchestra’s orchestral arrangement of Cybernoid II, also featured in the video collection, represents the most ambitious large-ensemble treatment of the work.

Music on Noise has never formally disbanded. The 2010 release of Echofied 6581 — a C64 demo scene production released on CSDb — demonstrated continued creative engagement with the original hardware that the group was formed to serve.

Tel remains in contact with former MoN collaborators including Charles Deenen and Reyn Ouwehand, and the group’s legacy continues to influence new generations of chip music composers worldwide.

For the full history of MoN, see the history page. For individual member profiles, see the people page.