03
June 2022
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Cue of the Week: “Dawn in a New Land”

This week’s selection from the Dice Legacy soundtrack is the second of the “summer cues”, musical interludes for the sunny portion of the game’s weather cycle. This music is comparatively peaceful and bucolic. (In-game, the score becomes edgier if bad guys invade or civic unrest breaks out.)

Here a harp plucks a peaceful albeit asymmetrical rhythm (in 7/4 time, for you music nerds) while woodwinds trade solos over lush strings.

27
May 2022
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Cue of the Week: “First Summer”

The week’s selection from the Dice Legacy soundtrack is the first piece of underscore I wrote aside from the main theme. The mixture of orchestra and folk instruments felt perfect for the game’s world, and would end up being the defining sound of the score. The Swedish nyckelharpa makes another appearance here, sonically speaking, in the cue’s lyrical second half.

(I really need to train autocorrect to recognize “nyckelharpa”.)

20
May 2022
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Cue of the Week: “Arrivals”

This music from the Dice Legacy score accompanies an animation of the player’s galleon arriving on shore. The animation introduces us to the game’s distinctive visual, a ringworld surface that rises skywards in the distance. The music starts out with a mournful cello solo, then grows in aspiration as the camera tilts up to reveal the view.

As always, you can listen to the music at the link below. Or, if you’d like to see the animation and hear the music in context, check out the beginning of this video.

13
May 2022
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Cue of the Week: “Dice Legacy Main Theme”

I’m pleased to share some music from the Dice Legacy soundtrack! This is the game’s main theme, featuring a mournful cello solo courtesy of Simone Vitucci, as well as the first appearance of one of the score’s more distinctive instruments, the Swedish nyckelharpa, played here by Mats Wester. (The latter instrument is featured more prominently in later cues.)

Click below to hear this particular piece. Alternatively, you can stream the entire album on any of the major music services! Here’s a handy link to the album on Spotify/Apple Music/etc.

12
May 2022
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“Quintet for Guzheng and Strings” premieres in Ames

Last Sunday was the premiere of my Quintet for Guzheng and Strings, a 15-minute, three movement chamber piece combining the poignant expression of the guzheng (Chinese zither) with the familiar timbre Western strings.

Commissioned by Ames Town and Gown Chamber Music Association (Ames, Iowa), the piece was originally intended for a 2020 premiere but had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Regrettably I couldn’t be present for the premiere, but I was there in spirit. By all reports the performance by guzheng artist Anwei Wang and The Telegraph Quartet was enthusiastically received.

29
April 2022
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Cue of the Week: “Beyond the Walls”

Here’s the fourth atmospheric piece I wrote for Green Ronin’s post-apocalypse D&D scenario, The Lost Citadel. (As with the others, delivered via Syrinscape’s cool gaming audio system.) This music accompanies players as they explore the desolate lands outside the city, populated by armies of the dead.

At the opening, I used a mournful english horn solo to evoke the lonely landscape (I may have taken some inspiration from Berlioz here). The music turns more militant towards the end, evoking the undead armies on the march. Or at least on the lumber.

28
April 2022
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“Dice Legacy” OST now available!

I’m really excited to share this one; the Apple Music release was delayed for months, meaning that I couldn’t really promote it. But that delay is over!

Dice Legacy is a distinctive and rather creative real-time strategy game. It’s set on a ringworld. The citizens are dice. Dice fight, explore, level up, and even have children. The enemy is… well, I won’t spoil that. The soundtrack blends orchestral textures, ethereal vocals, a mournful cello theme, and the distinct sound of the Swedish nyckelharpa, a bowed folk instrument with a fantastic raw expressive sound.

The latter comes courtesy of nyckelharpa specialist Mats Wester, and gives the score a Northern European flavor that echoes the architecture of the dice settlers.Also featured on the score is Simone Vitucci (cello) and Eurielle (ambient vocals as well as lead vocal on the song “The Land in the Sky”).

Listen to the soundtrack on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or your other music digital service provider of choice.

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