Composers

Game Music, Miscellaneous

SoundTrack Cologne – Announces Composer Lineup for “Music in Games” Event

July 6, 2018 | Harry Gill | Comments Off on SoundTrack Cologne – Announces Composer Lineup for “Music in Games” Event Share this

If you haven’t heard, SoundTrack_Cologne is Germany’s largest music event on music and sound in films, games, tv and other media. The event takes place on 22 – 25th August 2018, this year. The event itself is divided into three days, separately themed as: Games (August 23rd), Film (August 24th), TV (August 25th). For this article, we’ll focus on the “Music in Games” day of the event!

Most importantly though, they recently announced what gaming composers will be attending the event – who are completely new to the event: Takeshi Furukawa (The Last Guardian), Pieter Schosser (Destiny 2) and returning guest Garry Schyman (BioShock). The day of the event will involve them talking about what makes videogames scores special (their characteristics), their personal experiences and any upcoming projects they have to share. There will also be a QA section.

By the end of the day, Gareth Coker (Ori and the Blind Forest) and Richard Jacques (James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Mass Effect, Headhunter) will be in attendance for a panel discussion. These two previously attended SoundTrack_Cologne.

Interested in attending this one-in-a-kind event? You’re able to get a discount for your ticket if you book before July 8th, EST time.

If you need to communicate with them, or just snoop in to see what else they’re up to, then here’s their Facebook and Twitter.
Indie Music, Music Production

Jeremy Soule’s The Norther Diaries Symphonic Sketches Now Available

July 5, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Jeremy Soule’s The Norther Diaries Symphonic Sketches Now Available Share this

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?
Featured, Game Music, Japanese

Matron Maestras – Junko Tamiya (Spotlight)

May 25, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | 9 Comments Share this

Capcom has produced and nurtured a variety of female composers over the past few decades. It’s not a huge exaggeration to say that they have been probably one of the most prolific in terms of having so many of their titles featuring women composing the music. The names Manami Matsumae and Yoko Shimomura are well known in the VGM community as legends for their work on the early classic Capcom titles, but there is a score of women who have their names listed as top composer credits in several well-known titles who deserve some spotlight as well for their accomplishments. Junko Tamiya certainly is one of them.

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Events, Game Music, Music Production

2018 PAX East composer panel “Maestros of Video Games” Announced

March 6, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on 2018 PAX East composer panel “Maestros of Video Games” Announced Share this

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/.
Game Music, Indie Music

PC Indie Game “They Are Billions” Features French Composer Nicolas Diteriks

February 14, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on PC Indie Game “They Are Billions” Features French Composer Nicolas Diteriks Share this

Zombie apocalypse games seem to be a dime a dozen these days. Even so, it’s nice when they have good music attached to them, and can even be a defining point for a genre some might consider stale.

Numatian Games studio decided to throw one such game at PC players. They Are Billions is about humans who colonized an alien planet and have to fight a zombie epidemic. A few survivors have to find a way to manage in the world occupied by the infested. To describe the events and to tell the story using music, the developers from Numatian Games decided to hire French composer Nicolas Diteriks, and will include a recording session with Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, which will add even more flavor to the soundtrack by Diteriks.

After studying composition, orchestration and arrangement at the American School of Modern Music (Paris, France) and Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA), Nicolas quickly started his career in the video-game industry, and has since worked with studios all over the world as a Composer and Music Editor. He’s since composed for Eminence: Xander’s Tales and The Vermilion Pact before working on They Are Billions, which features a dramatic score of a post-apocalyptic atmosphere tinged with a sense of hope and triumph against the undead hordes.

You can listen to the “Main Theme” of They Are Billions on Diteriks‘ personal website. The original soundtrack to They Are Billions will be releasing for purchase later this year.
Game Music, Indie Music

Surreal and Experimental Sounds in GoNNER Soundtrack

July 10, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

If you’re looking for a little bit of strangeness in your gaming and music experience, GoNNER: Press Jump to Die might be the indie game soundtrack you’re looking for.

GoNNER is a tough as hell procedurally-generated 2D platformer with roguelike elements, following the largely misunderstood and altruistic Ikk on a journey to cheer up his only friend in this world – a giant landbound whale named Sally – by searching for just the right trinket in the deep and dark places nearby.– Steam

Composed by Norwegian musician Joar Renolen and sound design by Martin Kvale, GoNNER‘s soundtrack features pop-like electronica and synth ambiance which pairs with the oddness of the game’s visuals and platforming gameplay in a interesting way. An almost ethnic quality pervades the game’s music, which compliments the stylistic art design of the game.

<a href="http://foregroundset.bandcamp.com/album/gonner-press-jump-to-die">GoNNER: Press jump to die by Regular Graphics</a>
<a href="http://foregroundset.bandcamp.com/album/gonner-press-jump-to-die">GoNNER: Press jump to die by Regular Graphics</a>

A little surreal, a little weird, and a little unique, GoNNER: Press Jump to Die is available on Bandcamp for a $3.99 purchase as a standalone soundtrack. The game, which has mostly positive reviews, plus it’s OST is also available to nab on Steam as a full bundle.
Game Music

Kamil Orman-Janowski Talks Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath OST

July 6, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Kamil Orman-Janowski Talks Path of Exile: The Fall of Oriath OST Share this

Composer Kamil Orman-Janowski (Warplane Legends, Beyond Space and Isleron: The Rending) has expanded upon his composing for indie online RPG game Path of Exile with the new expansion, The Fall of Oriath.

The newest expansion will feature six new acts in total. Orman-Janowski relates to the new music in a developer diary featured on the Path of Exile website.

When it comes to the sheer amount of work and attention to detail, The Fall of Oriath takes Path of Exile’s music and composition to another level. The fifth act is also the first act for which the soundtrack was composed as a complete “package”, with tracks notably relating to each other.

Path of Exile was released in 2013 free-to-play on Steam by Grinding Gear Games and follows a similar style as that of the Diablo games. Orman-Janowski was one of several composers working on the game’s music throughout the first four acts of the game, with the new expansion being worked on by him alone.

With Path of Exile we are also lucky in that we can keep on improving the music. Instead of having one deadline for finishing the game, and then moving on to the next game like most game companies would, we can continually expand on and improve old content. Path of Exile’s music is something that is constantly evolving and expanding, not only with each major expansion, but sometimes in smaller patches as well. The small and often-seen patch note, “Incrementally improved effects, animations, sounds and world areas” sometimes hides very big musical changes.

The six new acts introduced in The Fall of Oriath is currently available for pre-purchase with a beta playable. The full release will be launched later this month. You can also check out more by Kamil Orman-Janowski on his website and preview more tracks from the Path of Exile expansion on his Soundcloud.