Zhengyang Wang (Cold Bean) is a composer, electronic music producer, and audio artist whose work explores the intersection of electronic music, sound design, and contemporary media. His music has received recognition in international composition and songwriting competitions, including the Grand Prize and Lennon Award in the Electronic category of the 2024 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, as well as awards from the Sibelius Festival International Composition Competition in Finland and the International Electronic Music Competition (IEMC) in Shanghai. His award-winning work, $IEGE·渊, combines an epic orchestral sound with bass-driven electronic music, reflecting his interest in bringing contrasting musical worlds together.

At the center of Wang’s creative practice is a fascination with sound itself. Drawn to the unique possibilities of electronic music, he uses synthesizers to design sounds that do not exist in the physical world, while also experimenting with transforming sounds from everyday life through sampling, effects processing, and electronic production techniques. Rather than treating acoustic and electronic sounds as separate materials, he is interested in combining them to create new sonic textures and musical experiences.

Wang works primarily in bass-oriented electronic music, exploring styles including Dubstep and Complextro. Under his artist name, Cold Bean, he has independently created more than twenty original works, taking responsibility for composition, arrangement, sound design, mixing, and mastering. Among his current representative works are UMDAMPED, which explores a bass-driven electronic sound, and HELIX, a rhythm game-inspired Complextro work. His broader musical practice also incorporates orchestral and acoustic elements, allowing him to move between highly synthesized sound worlds and more traditional musical textures.

His interest in sound extends beyond music production into game audio and sound design. During his internship with Tencent IEG’s Morefun Studio Group, Wang worked on audio production for the CGs and promotional videos for Ace Force 2, using Reaper to synchronize music with visual pacing, narrative events, and emotional changes. He also created a core musical motif for the first season of a project and contributed to reference music library development, competitive audio analysis, and bilingual music documentation.

Wang is currently expanding his practice into game sound design, experimenting with recording everyday objects and transforming their sounds through editing, sampling, synthesis, and effects processing to recreate the sounds of attacks, impacts, and other gameplay interactions. While this remains an area of active study and experimentation, it reflects his broader interest in discovering how ordinary sounds can be transformed into expressive musical and sonic materials.

Alongside his creative work, Wang has developed extensive experience as a recording engineer at the Peabody Institute, where he has led concert recordings and worked with ensembles and solo performers in a variety of musical settings. His experience includes microphone placement, stereo recording techniques, multitrack recording, signal-flow management, and post-production in Pro Tools. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, double majoring in Computer Music and Recording Arts & Sciences.