Alexander Brandon

Game Music

HyperDuck’s Soundtrack for “Dust: An Elysian Tail” is out now!

October 1, 2012 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on HyperDuck’s Soundtrack for “Dust: An Elysian Tail” is out now! Share this

The beautiful, new-ish XBLA game featuring anthropomorphized animals finally has its soundtrack available for download!

For 5 GBP (that’s about $8 USD currently), you can download the entire, hour-plus length soundtrack for Dust: An Elysian Tail. As you may have expected, it is indeed available via bandcamp.

We’ll have a full review of this massive album, which features some compositions from VGM veteran Alexander Brandon and is otherwise composed by Chris Geehan and the rest of HyperDuck SoundWorks, later this week.
Game Music

Alexander Brandon’s Earthscape is Live: Go Listen!

February 11, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

It was only a few weeks ago that we posted about Earthscape, a new original album from composer Alexander Brandon. It was written specifically to sound like old game music, and is somewhat of a backlash against all the generic Hollywood soundtracks that seem to be pumped into Western games these days. Sounds like a damn good premise to me, and even better, it’s done!

I highly recommend heading over to Alexander Brandon’s Bandcamp page to check it out. You can currently stream the entire album for free, and purchase it in mp3, flac, or a variety of other formats if you think his efforts are deserving of some cash (trust me, they are!). Enjoy, and watch for our review in the coming weeks!

What do you think of Earthscape? Do you wish more modern games sounded like this?
Game Music

Miss Good Music? Alexander Brandon’s Earthscape Has You Covered

January 19, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

“Over the years, popular music seems to have stagnated and congealed into far fewer styles. No more rock ‘n’ roll, no more heavy metal, no more pure synth, and music videos are now reality shows.” Agree with Alexander Brandon’s assessment of modern day music? Well, he intends to bring all that good stuff back with his Earthscape album due out in February.

For those who don’t recall, Alexander Brandon was one of the brilliant musical minds behind Unreal and Deus Ex, and is to this day known around the world within the demoscene for his releases throughout the 1990s (and he also conducted this lengthy interview with Spencer Nielsen on OSV). He recently posted the above trailer for his upcoming album, Earthscape, and it looks set to please. Not only does it sound promising from a musical standpoint, but it’s hard not to be impressed by the album’s premise. Be sure to watch for it early in February when it’s released.

Have you followed Alexander Brandon’s long career in the demoscene and in videogames? Do you agree with his assessment of modern music, and think he’s on to something with Earthscape?
Game Music

First GDC 2010 Audio Track Sessions Announced: Hell and Emotion

December 11, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

Can’t believe it’s already that time of year again. The Game Developer’s Conference is one of the best places in the world for game audio as it provides an opportunity for composers, sound designers, and audio directrors to get together and discuss the latest and greatest in the industry. The first batch of sessions have just been announced, and we of course hit the directory to see what to look forward to from the audio track.

First and foremost, I got excited when I saw Final Fantasy XIII, but as it turns out, Yoshinori Tsuchida and Tomohiro Yajima will be discussing audio programming of the game’s sound effects, and not the game’s music. Bioshock composer Garry Schyman will be discussing his score for Dante’s Inferno (which Gideon is ecstatic about), and a lecture will be held discussing the sound design in the Halo series by Bungie’s Jay Weinland. Two other highlights include a panel that will explore the lessons of the 8-bit era in terms of audio titled “Where It All Began / Lessons That Can Be Learned From ‘First Generation’ Music” featuring panelists Rod Abernethy, Alexander Brandon, and Brian Schmidt, and another panel titled “The Musical Recipe of Emotion” featuring Tom Salta, Laura Karpman, Marty O’Donnell, Jason Hayes, and Chance Thomas. Sounds like it’s already shaping up to be a great GDC, and there are surely more panels to be announced in the near future, so stay tuned!

Is there a particular game or topic that you think needs to be discussed at this year’s GDC? Are you as curious as I am to see what Abernethy, Brandon, and Schmidt will have to say about 8-bit music?
Game Music

OSVchannel Special Interview: Spencer Nilsen of Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic CD

August 26, 2009 | Alexander Brandon | 6 Comments Share this

[Editor’s note: We have a special audio interview with Spencer Nilsen today, courtesy of Alexander Brandon, who’s not only made a name for himself working in game audio, but also as a bit of a demoscene legend, releasing as “Siren” in the past. We’ve decided to keep the audio format by uploading it in video form to the OSVchannel, and highlights from the interview will be found after the jump. You can also find a high-quality mp3 of the recording here. We hope you enjoy this format!]

Hi all, Alex Brandon here. Around 1993 I heard some new age synth sounds coming from the next dorm room at college. I looked and saw Ecco The Dolphin being played. Since then I was hooked on the soundtrack. I found that it was composed by Magyari Andras, Brian Coburn, and Spencer Nilsen. Since then I’d wanted to interview Spencer about the experience as well as his career.

Well, at long last I’ve done it. We recorded in two seperate studios, Spencer from Ex’pression College for Digital Arts in San Francisco, and my studio at Heatwave here in Austin. At the start of the interview is a crossfade from his original Ecco track and the one found in the Genesis version. The game represents a revolutionary combination of full bore studio instrumentals and synthesizers, and the FM capabilities of the Genesis. I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane!

Find the remaining OSVchannel links to the interview as well as highlights in transcript form after the jump! (more…)