Events

Events, Game Music

APPROACHING LIGHT SPEED: VIDEO GAMES LIVE LEVEL 6 (REVIEW)

November 28, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | 1 Comment Share this

Video Games Live has just released their latest album, Level 6 after yet another successful Kickstarter campaign. If you missed our reviews of the previous two albums you can read the reviews for both Level 4 and Level 5, which both earned high praise for the calibre of their arrangements and production value.

The latest album boasts 12 tracks and includes an arrangement of the Classic Arcade Medley that’s been featured during live shows since the beginning. Read on for my full track by track review.

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Events, Film, Game Music, Miscellaneous

Vince DiCola to Debut New Game Soundtracks and Band at Upcoming Show

August 30, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Vince DiCola to Debut New Game Soundtracks and Band at Upcoming Show Share this

Vince DiCola, composer of Transformers: The Motion Picture, Rocky IV and Angry Birds has started venturing into live performances more this year. At this past Super MAGFest, he played live with VGM band LonelyRollingStars and performed pieces from his aforementioned media which has gained him a underground nerd following. Having tasted the love of video game music geeks, he’s now venturing into other live performances and specifically will be debuting new music in West Hollywood, California on September 20, 2018 at the famous Whiskey-a-Go-Go.

Several months ago my daughter took it upon herself to start up a dialog with the folks at the Whisky about the idea of her father performing there. After all the details had been worked out I decided to use this opportunity to perform material from my film work and some videogames I scored with my partner Kenny Meriedeth. This will be the first live performance of some of this music, including tracks from the arena fighter Mighty Fight Federation and the sequel to Saturday Morning RPG! I will also be debuting a new progressive rock band called SAGA STAR at this show. This promises to be an exciting night of music so we hope to see you there! – Vince DiCola

DiCola will be debuting the new game music along with a progressive rock ensemble with his writing partner Kenny Meriedeth, film and game composer Cody Carpenter, George “norg” Nowik of the LonelyRollingStars and more. You can check out more information about the show and nab tickets over at Brown Paper Tickets.
Events, Game Music

PAX WEST 2018: MAESTROS OF VIDEO GAMES COMPOSER PANEL ANNOUNCED

August 20, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on PAX WEST 2018: MAESTROS OF VIDEO GAMES COMPOSER PANEL ANNOUNCED Share this

PAX West will be commencing in Seattle from August 31st to September 3rd, and sure enough will be featuring a bevy of video game composers available in the “Maestros of Video Game Music” panel. The panel will have some of the most well-known music makers of the modern age of video gaming, including Marty O’Donnell (Halo, Destiny), Inon Zur (Fallout 3 & 4, Dragon Age), Jack Wall (Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Mass Effect 1 & 2), Jesse Harlin (Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mafia III, Yoku’s Island Express), and Brian D’Oliveira (Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Batman: Arkham Knight).

The panel will be hosted by Emily Reese, award-winning radio host and producer of “LEVEL with Emily Reese” podcast. Following the panel you can join the composers for a meet & greet / autograph session at the Westin’s Cascade Ballroom from 3:30pm-4:30pm.
Events, Game Music, Indie Music

POST E3 2018: MY MOST ANTICIPATED SOUNDTRACKS (Updated)

June 26, 2018 | Ryan Paquet | 1 Comment Share this

E3 wrapped up earlier this month and I finally took some time to watch most of the trailers and gameplay videos that were shown during the event. Game music was showcased at the event this year once again, which included some really cool live performances.

In past years I’ve written about my most anticipated game soundtracks. After this year I’ve settled on 10 titles that I’m most excited to hear their soundtracks. Read on for my full list ordered from number 10 to 1.

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Events, Game Music

New Video Game Music Festival Debuting in Helsinki Finland This May

April 24, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on New Video Game Music Festival Debuting in Helsinki Finland This May Share this

Europe seems to be exploding with new video game music events. As we reported last week with the debut of the Game Music Festival in Poland later this year, now Finland will be getting it’s own event to pay tribute to the music of video games across the decades.

The Helsinki Game Music Festival is the first video game music festival to be organized in Finland and will be taking place on May 5th in the Helsinki Hall of Culture. The event will see the performance by the Game Music Collective, the first professional game music orchestra in Finland, as well as several other guest performers including Dutch pianist Ramon van Engelenhoven and Japanese acoustic band Meine Meinung.

“Game Music Collective’s wildly popular debut concert at Finlandia Hall showed that game music is a significant part of our popular culture. The game music audience needs their own orchestra and festival. Game Music Collective will also perform in Tampere Hallon May 26th and in Turku’s Logomo on May 29th.” – Lukas Stasevskij, Game Music Collective Founder

The event will feature musical tribute to more modern games such as Civilization IV, The Witcher 3, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, as well as honoring the music of older games and franchises of the Gameboy, NES, SNES and Commodore 64 generation.

Tickets are currently on sale for the Helsinki Game Music Festival on the event’s website, where you can also get the full lineup of performing artists and game music tributes.
Events, Game Music

Game Music Festival to take place in Poland This October

April 19, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Game Music Festival to take place in Poland This October Share this

Having more video game music events in the world is never, ever a bad thing. When you have more things like MAGFest and VGMcon, it helps bring the video game music community together and helps legitimize the desire for game music to be more mainstream. Having the first inaugural Game Music Festival in Poland coming this fall is just one more event to help reach those goals.

Two days, four concerts, workshops, meetings with composers, and panel discussions. The details of the first edition of the Game Music Festival (gmfest.com) in Wroclaw, Poland, have been unveiled. The Game Music Festival will be a unique event – the soundtracks of video games finally receive a large dedicated space. During the 26^th and 27^th of October 2018, a total of several hundred musicians will appear on the stage of the National Forum of Music.

The event will feature several “Symphony” concerts over the course of the two days. “Symphony of the Heroes”, featuring the music Heroes of Might and Magic will be the first top open the event, “Symphony of the Forest” will be dedicated to the soundtrack of Ori and the Blind Forest, and “Symphony of the Storm” will pay homage to the music of Blizzard titles Diablo, World of Warcraft and Starcraft. These, along with an evening gala featuring music from Grim Fandango, as well as guests including composer Neal Acree taking part of the festival should make for a fun event for game music lovers and industry professional both.

The first Game Music Festival will be held in Wroclaw, Poland on October 26th and 27th and is produced by the team from gamemusic.pl. Tickets are on sale now for both passes to the entire event and to individual concerts held throughout the event. You can find out more information on the event’s website.
Events, Game Music

Katakis Live World Premier Orchestral Performance in Germany this June

April 16, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Katakis Live World Premier Orchestral Performance in Germany this June Share this

It’s refreshing to see more obscure video games from the bygone era of the Commodore 64 getting recognition almost 30 years after their hey-day. Much like the Symphonic Shades concert held back in 2008 celebrating the music of Amiga-era composer Chris Huelsbeck (Turrican II, Great Giana Sisters), a new concert series in June will be honoring his work on a lesser-known C64 game Huelbeck worked on called Katakis.

A side-scrolling shmup that release on the Commodore 64 in 1988, and was later re-released on the Commodore Amiga, Katakis (also called Denaris when re-released) is a simple space-fiction story that features the same mechanics as another Huelsbeck-composed game, R-Type. (Which almost got the game into some trouble with Activision.) It also sports a multiplayer mode and featured 12 levels of play. Now it’s getting tribute in the orchestral realm this summer.

I am very excited and honored to announce that, as part of the Symphonic Selections concert at the gorgeous Konzerthaus Dortmund on June 11th, the Dortmunder Philharmoniker will be presenting a world premiere performance of my music from Katakis in what will be an incredible evening of video game themes.

I’m doubly pleased that the arranger of the piece is Andreas Hedlund, who was also responsible for the fan favorite tracks Techno Dungeon and Air Combat on my recent Kickstarter album Turrican – Orchestral Selections, and I can promise you that the quality is amazing. I love what Andreas has done and I can’t wait for you to hear it too. – Chris Huelsbeck

Katakis may not be one of Huelbeck’s more well-known games, but it does feature more of his style used in other games and, as I said, it’s nice to see obscure game music be given some spotlight.

Tickets for Symphonic Selections – Video Game Music in Concert, which also features music from Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana are available now.