Robyn Miller, the composer of the soundtracks to Myst, Riven and Obduction has just released the soundtrack to Little Potato. The short film directed by Wes Hurley & Nathan M. Miller just won Best Documentary Short at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this month. The filmmakers describe the film as an autobiographical documentary that tells the story of Little Potato‘s journey growing up gay in the Soviet Union before and after the fall of communism, his mother’s struggles to create a better life for them both, and their eventual escape to America via her becoming a mail-order bride.
Robyn Miller also shared some details on his approach to the soundtrack on his newly re-designed website.
Wes came to me with a daring musical vision: he wanted an upbeat 80’s synthpop sound. For music nerds, here are the tools I used: Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 and Komplete Ultimate, Pianoteq 5, Macintosh and Logic Pro X. The score was recorded at my home in Seattle.
Robyn Miller
You can sample the album’s remaining tracks on Amazon where it can be purchased digitally for $8.99.
Where you at the SXSW Film Festival this year, and did you have a chance to see Little Potato?
It is now officially the holiday season, and we can no longer deny the onslaught of questionably festive music that started well before December graced 2016. The good news is that there tend to be a good handful of arrangement albums and collaborative efforts each year towards building fun and interesting holiday music albums, both video game related and not, to keep us all mostly sane. The fine people of Scarlet Moon Records have kicked off the season with one of our first offerings of such sanity-saving musical projects with their Scarlet Moon Christmas Album 2016.
Featuring joint contributions from both video game and film composers, including Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana), Dale North (Silent Horror), Vince DiCola (Transformers, Rocky IV), Robyn Miller (Myst, Riven) and more over nine tracks, Scarlet Moon Christmas Album 2016 is a charming and subtle way of easing yourself into more festive feelings.
“Dale North and I are both massive fans of Christmas music. After releasing the Scarlet Moon Christmas EP in 2014, we wanted to rekindle that passion by creating even more Christmas-themed tracks to get music fans of all ages and genres in the spirit of the season. And as it would turn out, most of the artists on the roster love Christmas music just as much as we do!” – Jayson Napolitano, Producer
The track listing gives you an idea of what to expect to hear, including both video game music arrangements and arrangements of classic Christmas tunes.
01. “Jingle Bells” by Vince DiCola
02. “Christmas Garden (Yoshi’s Island)” by Mustin
03. “Peaceful Christmas (Chrono Trigger)” by Dale North
04. “Some Small Hope (Cherubic Hymn by A. Kastorsky)” by Osamu Kubota
05. “Angels We Have Heard on High” by Hiroki Kikuta
06. “Christmas Comes to Myst (Myst)” by Robyn Miller
07. “Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 64)” by Justin Lassen
08. “Melodies of Life (Final Fantasy IX)” by Goomin “Nauts” Nam
09. “Aspertia City – Winter (Pokémon Black & White 2)” by Materia
“Jingle Bells” (sample) – Vince DiCola
Even if you’re not a huge Christmas person, the album is worth checking out. I myself have a hard time getting into any festive mood around the holidays, but when Vince DiCola’s rendition of “Jingle Bells” makes me envision a Transformers Christmas Special (Complete with transforming reindeer, because why not?), it’s hard not to get a little into the holiday spirit.
Scarlet Moon Christmas Album 2016 is available now for purchase on LOUDr, and soon on iTunes and Spotify.
In case you missed it, Original Sound Version recently conducted an extensive interview with composer Robyn Miller Known where we discussed his score to Cyan Worlds latest game, Obduction. We also briefly touched on the composers work on the game Myst and Riven. You can read the full interview with the composer here. One of the topics we covered was music that did not make it into the game.
Following the interview Robyn Miller said he planned to share some of this music on his Soundcloud page. I for one have always loved behind the scenes videos ever since movie box sets came with bonus VHS Tapes. The composer shared three of these tracks about a month ago. It is not that often that we as listeners get to hear the behind the scenes of a video game soundtrack, but you can listen to those tracks with Robyn Miller’s comments here.
Last week we reported on the release of the soundtrack to Obduction a new game from Cyan Worlds, the creators of the original classic games Myst and Riven. Robyn Miller composed the music for Obduction and he graciously took the time to talk to Original Sound Version about composing the score.
In our interview Robyn Miller provides insight on how he became a part of the project, his approach to scoring the game, and his favorite tracks on the album. He also answers a question I’ve had for years about the Cyan introduction music. Read on for our extensive interview and listen to tracks from the score that formed part of our discussion.
The Obduction Original Soundtrack was released on August 24, 2016 along with the game. Robyn Miller co-created and wrote the music for both Myst and Riven: The Sequel to Myst, and this marks his return to composing music for a Cyan Worlds title. After E3 2016 the Obduction soundtrack made my list as one of my most anticipated soundtracks. You can listen to the 28 track album through the bandcamp link below.
At my first listen I can firmly say that Robyn Miller’s return to scoring for video games is a welcome one. The album cover is also an impressive work of art. You can also watch the official launch trailer for the game featuring Robyn Miller’s music.
You can purchase digital copy of the soundtrack on bandcamp for $7. You can also purchase the full game for $29.99 at the official Obduction page. Stay tuned to Original Sound Version for more on the Obduction soundtrack next week when we’ll share our interview with composer Robyn Miller.
Last year when E3 wrapped up I wrote two posts about my most anticipated soundtracks and revisited recently here. Having followed the news about E3 from all the major developers this year I’ve got a brand new list of soundtracks I can’t wait to hear. I’m limited myself to my top 5 choices this year, and one bonus stand out music game I’m excited for.
So come read about the soundtracks I’m most excited about, and let us know what future game soundtracks you’re looking forward to post E3 2016!
On November 13, 2015, Cyan’s kick-started game Obduction, a spiritual successor to the hit Myst series announced on their developer blog that none other than Robyn Miller will be composing the music! Robyn Miller famously composed the music to the original Myst game, and its sequel Riven. In fact these were the first video game scores I ever owned on CD.
The blog also provided a shot of Robyn Miller’s work space where you can see he’s already begun writing the score. No samples of the music have been released yet but if you missed it, Robyn Miller re-mastered the soundtrack to the original Myst game which is still available for purchase over at Loudr.
If you want to be notified when pre-orders are available you can sign up with the Obduction team here. Keep checking back with us here at OSV for news on this soundtrack as I’m very eager to hear it!
Do you have any of the soundtracks from the Myst series? Is this a soundtrack you’re looking forward to?
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