Europe

Events, Game Music, Music Production

Jessica Curry’s ‘High Score’ returns to UK radio in November

October 18, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Jessica Curry’s ‘High Score’ returns to UK radio in November Share this
Despite being a huge success for the UK’s Classic FM radio station I completely missed the first series of their video game focused show High Score. Between April and May, Jessica Curry — co-founder and composer of The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther and Everbody’s Gone to the Rapture — hosted the show to examine and celebrate orchestral game music. It proved to be a hit with fans of both games and classical music, garnered an audience of new, younger listeners, and was the most popular program on the station’s rebroadcast series, Listen Again. Unfortunately, there’s no simple way to go back and listen to High Score so it’s especially noteworthy to find out there will soon be a new series!

Between November 4th and December 9th Jessica Curry returns each Saturday for six hour-long episodes, beginning and ending with special all-request shows. Looking back at the tweets Curry received in the Spring there were a ton of requests and while they couldn’t comply at the time, the message was clearly received: there’s a new page on Classic FM’s site to submit your special requests for the show. The intervening four episodes will be based on themes and trends. Here’s the full schedule:
- November 04: All-request Show
- November 11: Depictions of Love
- November 18: Quests!
- November 25: Spoken and sung voices within games
- December 02: The Best Video Game Music of 2017
- December 09: All-request Show
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to present a second series of High Score for Classic FM. The first series was so much fun to do and the huge response that the show received was absolutely incredible. I’m just over the moon that people enjoyed it. I’m raring to go on the next one and can’t wait to hear what people come up with for the requests shows!”

– Jessica Curry

Listeners in the UK can tune in on 100-102 FM, digital radio, at ClassicFM.com, and on the Classic FM app. Those of us outside the territory may have to type in a valid UK postcode but should still be able to listen live from the site. In the meantime, don’t forget about Music Respawn, Kate Remington’s game music composer interview show on WSHU public radio from here in the States.

Did you catch the original run of High Score? Are you looking forward to the new series? What requests would you like to hear? Let us know in the comments below.
Demoscene, Featured, Music Production

From the Expert – MODs and the DemoScene

May 9, 2015 | Alexander Brandon | 4 Comments Share this

Music has many forms, and music production has probably at least as many forms as well.

I first started writing music on a computer in 1987, and nearly 30 years later I realized how important simple, fundamental things really are. My youngest son is five, and was taken by a 25 key synthesizer I recently acquired (the Korg Triton Taktile 25). He wanted one too, and I told him “you can have one, but you need to learn at least a little music first. This is no toy.” And with those words I realized the same words were just as true for me.

So with that in mind, with this bit of writing I’m going to talk about MODs, and the Demo Scene.

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Game Music

Final Fantasy XIII Limited Collector’s Edition: Music Included… in Europe

January 25, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

Square Enix has announced that Europe will get a collector’s edition for Final Fantasy XIII when it’s released in March. It will feature a hardback art book, exclusive art prints, a collectible decal, and of course, the reason we’re telling you about this, a soundtrack disc.

While we already know that the game’s official soundtrack is will be released on 4 discs, this “Original Sound Selection” disc, as they’re calling it, will only come as a single disc with tracks hand-picked by composer Masashi Hamauzu. It will also contain liner notes from Hamauzu on the selected tracks. Still a pretty cool bonus if you ask me, and I hope the US gets a similar package. I’m kind of surprised they’re including this given that there’s a full soundtrack release due out this month. Perhaps the Original Sound Selection disc will encourage people to seek out the complete soundtrack?

Are you looking forward to the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack release his week? If it comes to the US, will you be picking up the FFXIII Limited Collector’s Edition in March?

Hit the jump for the official press release. (more…)
Game Music

Dracula Resurrects In Sweden for Castlevania The Concert!

October 29, 2009 | Audun Sorlie | 6 Comments Share this

Just in time for Halloween, news comes from Sweden that on February 19th, 2010 there will be a Castlevania-themed concert called, you guessed it, Castlevania: The Concert. The concert will be performed by the Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra, a yet to be named rock band and other talents from Sweden. It will be held at Stockholm Konserthus (Concert House) and tickets will go on sale on Monday. The concert is put on by David Westerlund, a music student from Stockholm who has previously worked with various game music concerts in Sweden over the years.

Now best of all, Michiru Yamane will be flying out for this event! She is well known for her works on the Castlevania series, and will be arranging an exclusive piece for the event, as well as performing some of her own works and participate in a meet and greet scheduled on the same day. Original Sound Version will of course be in attendance and deliver a full report and impressions.

Check out their website at Castlevania: The Concert.

Do you want these kinds of concerts to come overseas? And are you excited for Yamane’s arrangement? Let us know!
Chip Music

Blip Festival Europe 2009: A Chiptune Journey

July 29, 2009 | Audun Sorlie | 6 Comments Share this

About one week ago I was casually sitting back with my good friend Wizwars on Skype, talking about myself as usual. It was an ordinary Sunday, with nothing big on the horizon, and hopefully, for the first time in a while, I was going to have a slow, relaxing week. However as the night went on, and all the topics that relate to yours truly were already covered, Wizwars finally had a chance to speak and inform me of something that would completely change my plans of having a slow week

Blipfest, the world’s biggest chiptune event was coming to Europe, and they were going to be here the following Friday. I was completely shocked and probably jumped back a couple of feet before I was able to collect myself and gets some oxygen into my system. Being a huge fan of chip tunes, I had to be there, and with less than 5 days to make sure of that, I immediately got to work. The destination was Aalborg, Denmark, and Friday morning, 24th of July, I was on my way.

Read more about my journey to Blipfest after the jump! (more…)