“What would a Turrican 4 Soundtrack on the Amiga have been like in 1994?”. This is literally the first sentence of the newest release by Turrican II composer Chris Huelsbeck as a bonus stretch goal from his “Turrican – Orchestral Selections” Kickstarter-funded project. Huelsbeck took the ambitious challenge of creating a whole new conceptual Turrican soundtrack, as if it was still the mid-90s and the Commodore Amiga was still fighting the good fight among gaming platforms, and made it a reality.
Turrican – Rise of the Machine is a 19 track album that features a slew of brand new music, made tailored to the imaginary idea of a new Turrican sequel. Although basically a “fan album”, Huelsbeck and Thomas Boecker made sure that this new bonus album was in every way created as if it were specifically for the long-past Commodore computer.
Created with Chris Huelsbeck’s original TFMX Sound System on the Amiga and recorded on real hardware, this labor of love is meant as the soundtrack for a virtual and imaginary successor to one of the most beloved game series of the era. No detail was spared, even down to the memory and CPU limitations of mid 90s. But now it’s 2018 and time for “Rise Of The Machine”!
Huelsbeck as done a fine job in resurrecting the Turrican series in the past few years, first with the Turrican Soundtrack Anthology and then with the Turrican II: The Orchestral Album. With the addition of Rise of the Machine, the Turrican series composer provides a fresh offering of familiar Amiga sounds for fans. We may never get a Turrican 4 game, but at least we can enjoy some series successor music.
Turrican – Rise of the Machine is currently available on Bandcamp for $15USD.
