Laura Shigihara

Featured, Game Music, Interviews

Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway!

October 5, 2016 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway! Share this

Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to catch up with everyone’s favorite Irish musical duo. Okay, maybe not everyone’s favorite … there are probably loads of Irish musical duos out there. But if we narrow it down to Irish VGM duos, it might be safer to say that Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough of HyperDuck SoundWorks top the category.

In the past few years, their work on Dust: An Elysian Tail and Penny Arcade’s On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness 4 have defined their sound and given them a strong fanbase. In the following interview, we get set for what’s to come, as well as how you can win a free digital version of the upcoming Cosmic Star Heroine OST when it arrives (digitally, via Bandcamp) on December 7th of this year. (more…)
Game Music, Indie Music

C418 Surprise Launches New Album, 148

December 21, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on C418 Surprise Launches New Album, 148 Share this C418 Surprise Launches New Album, 148

C418, the German composer best known for creating the soundscapes of Minecraft, has stealth/surprise launched his first new album in nearly two years, titled 148. Included in the 19 tracks are original vocal works, Minecraft remixes that had only been heard at live shows and collaborations with some darlings of the indie game scene. In the works since 2011, C418 explains the surprise release as an effort to move ahead and to re-confirm that, yes, he’s still making music.

“It just has been plaguing me for too long. I think that you can’t be happy with anything if you’ve stared at it too close for too long. Which is why I decided to stealth release it without any announcement. I’ve had incredibly unproductive years recently, and a lot of it had to do with being burnt out and partly being somewhat depressed. This album didn’t really help my psyche either. By releasing this, right now, I hope I can get to a clean slate and start beginning work on new stuff. And, of course, maybe it stops making everyone worried that I stopped composing altogether.”

<a href="http://c418.bandcamp.com/album/148">148 by C418</a>

He goes on to describe the album as “highly energetic and full of house and Drum & Bass tunes”. Sampling it this morning I can say it’s definitely more upbeat than Minecraft and the collaborations between Disasterpeace, Baiyon, Big Giant Circles and Laura Shigihara add variety to the overall sound. 148 is available now from Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, or Google Play.
Game Music, Reviews

To Far Away Times: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album (Review)

October 17, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | 6 Comments Share this

On October 14, 2015, Square Enix Music released the long awaited To Far Away Times: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album and after listening to it I’m sharing with you my thoughts on the album. All of the album details have now been added to the Video Game Music Database including the English tracks names and details for each track. The album has been a long time coming for fans of Yasunori Mitsuda and the Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross series.

Read on for my track by track review of the album, and if the links are still up – listen to the tracks and make your own decision on whether you want to add this album to your collection. (more…)
Game Music

New Super Meat Boy Soundtrack Released Across 3 Albums

October 15, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on New Super Meat Boy Soundtrack Released Across 3 Albums Share this

For those interested in last week’s Super Meat Boy soundtrack shake up, here’s a little recap and follow up. After Danny Baranowsky refused to license his original Super Meat Boy soundtrack for use in the new Fifth Anniversary release on PlayStation platforms, Team Meat had some work to do. Collaborating with Ridiculon, Scattle and Laura Shigihara, they created a new soundtrack to the game which Tommy Refenes from Team Meat elaborated on in a blog post.

“Thank you all so much for filling some pretty big shoes when it came to replacing the old sound track. Your work is amazing and I love you all. Your soundtrack helped breathe new life into the game and I’m proud of the work you’ve done. […] Like always, we pay for these tracks to be made but we also make sure that the artists retain the rights to sell their work.”

As part of the game’s debut on PlayStation 4 and Vita it’s “free” for PlayStation Plus subscribers for the month of October so you can play AND listen to the new music. If you’re not a subscriber or don’t own either PlayStation product you can still check out the music on Bandcamp. Laura Shigihara, Ridiculon and Scattle have each released their own contributions to the game as individual albums. You can even queue up Danny B’s original soundtrack on Bandcamp to compare.

Now that the new soundtrack has been out for over a week (or if you just started listening to it), what do you think of the change?
Game Music

Listen to Samples of the New Chrono Cross/Trigger Arrangement Album!

September 22, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | 4 Comments Share this

Samples from the upcoming Harukanaru Toki no Kanata e: Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross Arrangement Album have been posted by Square Enix Music. You can find the samples and listen to them here.

There are currently five samples and to be honest they are not what I expected, but they sound incredible. The five tracks include:

“Corridors of Time” arranged by Yasunori Mitsuda and English vocals written and performed by Laura Shigihara.

“To Far Away Times” arranged by Sachiko Miyano and English vocals written and performed by Sarah Alainn.

“Time’s Scar” arranged by Tomohiko Kira and Japanese vocals written and performed by Koko Komine.

“Radical Dreamers” arranged by Sachiko Miyano and English vocals written and performed by Sarah Alainn.

“Marbule” arranged by Yasunori Mitsuda – no vocals.

The final tracklist has not been announced but you can pre-order the album at the retailers listed at Square Enix Music. What do you think about the addition of vocals to the above tracks?

Source: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/
Featured, Game Music, Indie Music

Bandcamp Weekly Podcast Focuses on Videogame Soundtracks

November 21, 2013 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Bandcamp Weekly Podcast Focuses on Videogame Soundtracks Share this

Recently the Bandcamp Weekly, a podcast hosted by Andrew Jervis, had a special show featuring interviews with various videogame music composers. During the podcast, Jervis spoke with Danny Baranowsky, Laura Shigihara, Austin Wintory, Jim Guthrie, Disasterpeace, and Big Giant Circles about their careers, the nature of game music, and their approaches to writing music. The show of course featured music by the composers themselves, as well as some selections from other videogame music albums.

It’s a great 90 minutes of discussion about various aspects of the game industry and how composers and their music are involved. For those of you looking to learn about some of the artists in the game music world, especially the indie games, it’s a great introduction and you may just find yourself checking out some new tunes to add to your library. Definitely give this podcast a listen.
Featured, Game Music, Reviews

Fresh Sunlight: Plants vs. Zombies OST (Review)

June 4, 2012 | Brad Dyck | Comments Off on Fresh Sunlight: Plants vs. Zombies OST (Review) Share this

As you may have heard, the Plants vs. Zombies soundtrack by Laura Shigihara is one of the 5 albums available now in the “pay what you want” offer from the Indie Music Bundle 3.

If you are like myself, once Plants vs. Zombies was first loaded up, it was a point of obsessive fixation for several weeks afterwards. Accompanying myself on this journey was a soundtrack that seemed to match the theme and visuals so effortlessly that at first, it felt quite strange listening to the music on its own. It does what any great game music should do — it doesn’t call attention to itself but acts subliminally to enhance the overall immersion into the game experience. (more…)