Austin Wintory

Game Music

Austin Wintory’s Banner Saga 2 Soundtrack Available for Pre-Order

April 16, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Austin Wintory’s Banner Saga 2 Soundtrack Available for Pre-Order Share this

Austin Wintory just opened pre-orders for his soundtrack to The Banner Saga 2, the sequel to his previously scored Banner Saga which OSV’s Patrick Gann reviewed in detail here. The new soundtrack will span 25 tracks and takes the music of the series to new places as the composer details below:

THE BANNER SAGA is one of my favorite things to have ever been part of, but despite that approaching the sequel was a huge challenge. It was the first sequel I’ve ever scored, and so reconciling old ideas with new ones proved tricky. As ever though, in the end, it was a joy and privilege to work on. The wonderful Stoic Studio prove to be the perfect collaborators yet again; they simultaneously push me and yet remain quite hands-off.

The orchestra itself came in the form of the Colorado Symphony, my hometown orchestra, recorded in their native Boettcher Concert Hall in downtown Denver. Also, adding to the splendid vocal work of Malukah and Peter Hollens, comes a phenomenal Icelandic band called Árstíðir. These four musicians are world class. I discovered them on YouTube and became an instant fan. I bought all their albums and then proceeded to stalk them until they agreed to sing on the score. The various icelandic war chants and anthems, and of course the final song “Our Steps, To the Night” are simply unfathomable without them. Of course, capping it all off I am once more honored to have Taylor Davis grounding the winds and brass with her lone violin.

Austin Wintory

<a href="http://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/the-banner-saga-2">The Banner Saga 2 by Austin Wintory</a>

You can preview four of the album’s tracks above and you will get them immediately if you pre-order the album which you can do for just $6.00 on bandcamp. The Banner Saga @ is also available for purchase on Steam in a bundle that includes the soundtrack.

Were you a fan of the music in the original Banner Saga? What do you think of these first four tracks of the new score?
Events

MAGFest’s Channel lets you experience or re-live it’s biggest performances!

March 17, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on MAGFest’s Channel lets you experience or re-live it’s biggest performances! Share this

If you attended MAGFest 2016, or if you missed it (like I did) you can re-live or watch some of the best performances of the event on MAGFest’s YouTube Channel. You can read Brenna’s MAGFest 2016 Breakdown where she noted that its impossible to see everything at the massive event. I have already taken the opportunity to watch several of the videos the organizers have uploaded.

I found out about MAGFest’s channel reading Video Game Music Online’s report on MAGFest 2016 by one of their journalists, Emily McMillan which you can find here.

As I am writing this article there are a total of 44 videos available from the event including 27 Concerts, 9 Panels, 5 Highlight Reels, and 1 Jam Clinic. I have included the playlist for the panels above and concerts below for your viewing pleasure.

So far I’ve watched the excellent Q&A with Film, TV, and Video Game Composer Bear McCreary, rocked out to “Danger Zone” during Psychostick’s concert, and enjoyed watching Austin Wintory conduct his score to Journey: Live.

Did you attend MAGFest this year? Was there a performance that you wanted to see but missed?
Events

MAGFest 2016 Guest List Updates with Austin Wintory & Extra Credits

November 11, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | 6 Comments Share this

MAGFest recently announced some additional guests to their upcoming 2016 event lineup. Banner Saga and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate composer Austin Wintory will be joining the previously announced Grant Kirkhope as composer guests.

@LadyLyndis @MAGFest No force will prevent me this time!

— Austin Wintory (@awintory) November 10, 2015

The Grammy-nominated and two-time BAFTA-winning composer has earned himself several credits in the past decade, both for the aforementioned games as well as Journey and Sunset, the former of which netted Austin two more BAFTA nominations and was met with immense critical and commercial success. His MAGFest guest announcement as been released alongside that of MAGFest-regulars, Extra Credits.

MAGFest 2016 kicks off February 18-21st in National Harbor, Maryland and pre-registration tickets are currently $60 until November 30th when the price will increase. Considering the Gaylord and most surrounding hotels have completely sold out of rooms for the event, anyone wishing to attend should pre-register soon in case the event sells out.
Game Music

Just Released: Austin Wintory’s Score to Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate

October 26, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Just Released: Austin Wintory’s Score to Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate Share this

If you’re on Austin Wintory’s mailing list like me, or follow him on Twitter you already know that his score to Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is now available for purchase on Bandcamp. Because of the agreement between Mr. Wintory and Ubisoft you cannot stream the soundtrack from Bandcamp – but UbiSoft has made the entire album available on YouTube. I have linked to the album below for your listening pleasure.

In his email Austin Wintory shared his thoughts about working on the music for the game:

To say it’s been somewhat of a dream job is a gross understatement. Never in my life did I imagine I would be given such creative freedom, or be encouraged to take such extreme creative risks. My collaborators at Ubisoft were immense joys to work with!

And the musicians who recorded everything, good lord!! I spent nearly a week at Abbey Road with a killer chamber ensemble of strings and winds, before returning to LA and spending time with a few rock star soloists: Sandy Cameron, Tina Guo and Holly Sedillos. All 3 were given absurdly challenging music and rose to the occasion without breaking a sweat.

The other amazing surprise was getting to co-write songs with the legendary Australian trio TRIPOD. These 6 so-called “murder ballads” were a career highlight for me. He’s a short video about our collaboration which, if nothing else, shows that these guys have way too much fun. 🙂

Austin Wintory

Purchasing the album will only set you back $9, and with it comes a bonus of tracks that were included with the collector’s edition and sheet music.
Featured, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

Tranfiguration (Review)

July 11, 2014 | Richard McDonald | Comments Off on Tranfiguration (Review) Share this Tranfiguration (Review)

I feel that I must get one thing very clear before you continue to read this review. My speciality is piano music. I am a pianist, I listen to a lot of piano music, from Mozart to Debussy, and I go to piano concerts in London. I’m also as close to an expert on the use of the piano in games as you might get, from the triumphant fanfare like riff from Halo 3 to the myriad of Final Fantasy Piano albums. As a result, my standards may be unrealistically high. I also have a confession to make: I’ve never played Journey! I know I know, it’s on my to-do list. This is particularly heinous of me as not only is the game supposed to be amazing, but the soundtrack is said to be excellent as well. However, this might not be a bad thing for this review, as I will not be influence by the game or the original soundtrack. I will take the music at face value, in its own right, separate from its related media.

It’s interesting to note that the composer, Austin Wintory, seems to have had little to do with this album. Transfiguration has been arranged by the Laura Intravia, the singer in the last track, and performed by Robert Thies. In general I think this is a good thing because, as a composer myself, I know how hard it can be to separate myself from my own compositions. I prefer to arrange for other people so I can focus on the advantages and disadvantages of the instrument, rather than being influenced by my own work. So with that said, let’s take a look at Transfiguration. (more…)
Game Music

Game Music Bundle 7 Is Now Available

April 21, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Game Music Bundle 7 Is Now Available Share this Game Music Bundle 7 Is Now Available

The seventh Game Music Bundle was recently released on the music site Loudr. Much like the previous bundles, the albums are available in two tiers. If you pay at least $1, you will receive five videogame music albums. These include Peter McConnell’s Broken Age OST and Austin Wintory’s Banner Saga OST. If you contribute $10 or more, you will unlock twelve more albums, one of which is Austin Wintrory’s newest album Transfiguration. Transfiguration is a piano arrangement album of Wintory’s music from the game Journey. The album is yet to be released on its own, so this is your first chance to get this latest album. The second tier also includes a number of other excellent game music albums, including the soundtracks to Escape Goat 2 and Tribes Ascend. There are also some extra prizes for the top ten contributors. These range from full color promotional posters from Broken Age to physical albums of the Banner Saga OST and Transfiguration.

It’s quite a bargain for so much music. Grabbing the second tier at only $10 will get you over fourteen hours of music. Personally, I’m looking forward to listening to the piano arrangements of the Journey soundtrack on the Transfiguration album. Game Music Bundle 7 will be available for a little more than a week, so grab it while you can. You can check out the bundle at the Game Music Bundle site.
Chip Music, Featured, Indie Music, Reviews

The Glory Days (Review)

February 24, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on The Glory Days (Review) Share this The Glory Days (Review)

With the help of Kickstarter, another chiptune album has been brought into existence. Most people probably know Jimmy Hinson (a.k.a Big Giant Circles) and his music from games like Mass Effect 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. It might surprise some people that in addition to the game music he writes, he also composes chiptunes. This latest album, The Glory Days, is a new collection of original pieces written by Hinson. The Glory Days was funded through a very successful Kickstarter campaign that far exceeded its original goal. Not only did the Kickstarter hit the goal of $5,000, but every single stretch goal was met as well. The Kickstarter receiving over $60,000 in pledges, allowing Big Giant Circles to hire several remixers and fellow game composers to help construct an extra remix album for release at a later date.

The Glory Days is a sequel to Hinson’s first album of original music, Impostor Nostalgia. This original album was a collection of music written by Hinson and featured several music remixers and composers. The concept behind Impostor Nostalgia was that while the music mimicked the sound and energy of chiptunes from older videogames, the music itself was original work that was never featured in any game, past or present. It was a cool experiment and generated some excellent new tunes. This time around, Hinson is flying solo with this sequel album, The Glory Days. Like the first album, this one aims to celebrate the sound of older game tunes while enhancing it with modern synth and electronic sounds that weren’t available years ago. Does Big Giant Circles pull this off on this second solo album? Read more to find out. (more…)