On January 10, 2019, composer Jeremy Soule tweeted “I have two upcoming albums in 2019! “The Northerner: The Moon and the Night Sky” and “The Northerner Symphony” – I hope you enjoy the music!” Many of you will recall that the composer ran a kickstarter campaign several years ago for The Northerner: Soule Symphony No. 1 which had an expected completion date of September 2013. Little information about the symphony’s status was known until late 2017 when Jeremy Soule released The Northerner Diaries Symphonic Sketches album which got a wide release via the Materia Collective on July 5, 2018. Composer Neal Acree’s comments on the album’s wide release remain with me to this day:
Jeremy Soule has also confirmed in replies to his tweet that both of these new albums will be available on bandcamp, and features live instruments and singers.
In the meantime, be sure to check out The Northerner Diaries Symphonic Sketches below, it’s a stunning work.
Check back with OSV in March for news on The Northerner: The Moon and the Night Sky. If you want to be the first to know what’s up I recommend following Jeremy Soule on Twitter. Are you looking forward to these albums?
Back in early 2013, Jeremy Soule, composer of the scores to Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim ran a Kickststarter campaign for The Northerner. The campaign details stated that Symphony No. 1, “The Northerner” (Opus 1) will mark Jeremy’s first foray into the grand traditions of classical music. This symphonic work is planned to feature live players and singers in addition to the innovative technologies for which Jeremy has become known.
The project was successfully funded and had an expected delivery date of September 2013. Contributors eagerly awaited for the promised results and received nothing until December 20, 2017. The composer shared the liner notes for this release on the project’s Official Facebook page and I have reproduced a portion of them below:
As a composer and performer, The Northerner Diaries are my virtual orchestra and choir sketches as I work towards the completion of my Symphony No. 1. The recordings represent wild and unfiltered ideas created in the same vein as concept art you might see from an artist prior to the commencement of an oil painting. At this stage, I have not paid any attention to structural and compositional forms as abstraction from “GINNUNG” or the “MIGHTY VOID” is never a predictable process. And while the musical instruments and vocal sounds are computer generated, I performed each instrument and vocal using specialized software, digital keyboards and control interfaces. This process required me to play each element individually, one by one, while I recorded into a multi-track digital audio workstation.
Jeremy Soule, Composer
The Northerner Diaries is a 12 track album that runs just under 54 minutes. We don’t know when the Symphony No.1 will be ready, but we’re happy to listen to this until it makes itd eventual debut. Look for it this Friday across digital platforms, including iTunes.
The composer also took to Facebook during E3 this year when Bethesda announced the Elder Scrolls VI to say “While I appreciate all the questions about TES VI, I can’t comment about the game. I can only confirm that I didn’t produce the music heard in the teaser that was released today.” We can’t confirm yet that the composer is involved in the music for the upcoming game, but we hope so!
Have you listened to The Northerner Diaries? What did you think of these symphonic sketches?
PAX East has had an ongoing series of panels the past couple of years that invite composers of AAA and indie games to panel and discuss the intricacies of making music for wildly popular games. This year’s event is going to be no different, inviting several big-name composers from all over the game music industry to come speak to con-goers and answer questions.
The 2018 PAX East composer panel “Maestros of Video Games” will feature the following music star lineup:
Kristofer Maddigan
Cuphead.
Wilbert Roget, II
Call of Duty: WWII, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.
Cris Velasco
Dauntless, Overwatch, Resident Evil 7 biohazard, Bloodborne, God of War.
Darren Korb
Pyre, Transistor, Bastion.
Tom Salta
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, Killer Instinct Season 3, Halo: The Fall of Reach, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
The panel will be moderated by Emily Reese, award-winning radio host and producer of “LEVEL with Emily Reese” podcast. Following the panel join the composers for a meet & greet / autograph session at the Queue Room from 6:30pm-8:00pm. For information on PAX East visit: http://east.paxsite.com/.
Playstation Europe recently shared a video featuring Joe Hisaishi talking about his upcoming score to Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. In the video he talks briefly about composing and recording the music for the game, and working with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Details of the game’s soundtrack have not been revealed yet. The soundtrack to the first game, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was released by Wayo Records, and if you missed it you can still grab a copy from their store. There is a Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Music CD Collection Album available with the Collector’s and Premium Editions of the game. The European King’s Edition of the game will also include a vinyl soundtrack.
Wayo Records has hinted that they have some great soundtracks coming this year. They liked my tweet reply on December 31, 2017 suggesting that #NiNoKuniII might be one of them. So here’s hoping that it does get a gorgeous release like the last game.
Are you looking forward to this upcoming Joe Hisaishi score?
Celeste is a recently released indie game from Matt Makes Games that is available on multiple platforms. The game has been getting a lot of attention for its stunning visual design, and challenging gameplay. More important to us here at OSV is the game’s soundtrack. The music was composed by Lena Raine (aka Lena Chappelle, and Kuraine), and who has been working as a composer for over 11 years.
She recently took some time to talk to us about her musical background, her inspirations, and her experience working in game audio. Read on for our full interview.
It’s yet again the time of year to batten down the proverbial hatches for Black Friday chaos. Thankfully, the internet makes the whole daunting task of taking advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales a lot easier, what without the stabbings and trampling. We’ve put together a list of some of the Black Friday Sales we’ve found for video game soundtracks, game audio production software and gear, and anything else game music related. (Disclosure: Some products may include affiliate links)
Video Game Soundtracks & Albums
Game Audio Software
Audio Gear
Miscellaneous Albums & Music
Music & Rhythm Games
Waves Audio is having themselves some “screaming” deals for this Halloween season with a bunch of their plugins and sound production software being marked down for Pumpkin day!
You can also “Build Your Own Bundle“, with 20% off the second plugin you choose, 30% off the 3rd – 5th plugins and 40% off the 6th plugin and beyond! With so many plugins on sale, it’s worth taking a look at for anyone looking to pad their audio software repertoire.
The sale does not have a expiration date, but will likely only last this week at best, so nab those plugins while you can!
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