The Wingless makes the move to Pandemic Studios

We don't have enough eccentrics in the game arrangement community, but truth be told John "The Wingless" Burnett could fill in for 10 of them. He's his own improv troupe, although why he isn't in The Second City is beyond me (he's auditioned with them before).

Continuing in the vein of yesterday's blog regarding Mazedude, it's good to see individuals take their hobbies and successfully run with them into the professional world. Having already made his way into the gaming industry, The Wingless recently posted of an employment change via Facebook and MySpace, announcing a move from Chicago's Midway Games as a user interface artist to Los Angeles's Pandemic Studios as a senior user interface artist this past Monday.

So those of you in the know already caught wind of this, so if this is shocking news to you, please do not think ill of me for not telling you. Either there was no good way to tell (which happens) or I just flat-out don't like you (which, while implausible, most certainly is possible).

I accepted a job with Pandemic Studios in L.A.

So I'll be moving out to Cali (Westwood, to be specific) by probably the 10th of September to start my new life between Santa Monica Beach and Hollywood. My last day at Midway Games will be August 31st, the very last trembling drop of Summer.

But in the meantime, I'll be around for at least 3 weeks and I would *love* to spend as much of my time with all of you as possible. Send me a line if you'd like to do something, and I will try my best to be with you. Also, if you've had a crush on me, but were bereft of a charming way to ask me out, now's as good a time as any :)

In any event, I will miss you all very much. Believe it or not, the hesitation to move was based largely on all the resplendent personalities I have met. I adore everything about you.

All my love and all my luck. I have more than enough to spare.

With the move, John's now in the hub of American video game development. If you've followed his website over the years, through its many core design changes and plethora of side projects, his design skills are already mutil-faceted. Will he eventually make the transition to sound design or music composition? Well, he's already got some mutual acquaintances with VGM professionals based in the area through friendships with members of OneUp Studios, so the future looks bright no matter what the angle is. We definitely wish The Wingless the best of luck as he valiantly attempts to trim the wings off of the City of Angels.

Sefiros releases new original album, Under the Roots

Bryan "Sefiros" Henderson announced the release of his new original album Under the Roots this past Friday via MySpace bulletin.

The album is free to download, so there's no cost besides time. Why should you check it out despite the cost of time? Well, Bryan's been on my radar for a while due to his material at VGMix. He later scored an successful submission to OC ReMix with a Final Fantasy VIII arrangement entitled "Everything = Nothing" which featured some of the most beautiful and emotive string sequencing I've ever heard in my time in the community.

With that said, Bryan constantly keeps himself busy with periodic album releases, never allowing himself to get stagnant. On the production side, some of the levels should be toned down, but my favorite tracks on the album have to be the opening track "Dependence", the high-powered "Warfare", as well as well-textured"Degeneracy" and the unassumingly titled "Oh". Swing by Sefiros's space and grab 'em all.

Destiny releases double-album "Inside Myself / Once Upon a Time"

Although Helen Trevillion hasn't been around the OCR community for a while now, she has always been highly regarded for the Enya-quality vocal and instrumental work in her submissions to the site under the ReMixer name Destiny.

Helen's first album is a 2-CD endeavor via her personal label Faefly Records, with a total of 22 tracks. The first disc is called Inside Myself and contains the bulk of the songs on the album, while the second disc is entitled Once Upon a Time, having a fairy tale theme. You can buy the whole shebang at her CD shop. Google Checkout only works for orders within the UK at the moment, unfortunately.

The price is a bit hefty at 8.49 GBP (~$17 USD), especially with international shipping if you're in the US (another 2.00 GBP, for a total of about $21 USD), but most people who have heard her work will agree that it's worth it for 2 CDs of Destiny goodness. In addition, each copy will be personally signed by Helen, with an optional message of your choice. Here are a couple previews from her site in case you're still not convinced:


Inside Myself


Once Upon a Time

There are also additional full-length samples available on Helen's MySpace.

Better grab a copy while you can though: there are only 100 in print.

Powerglove needs your help to name a track

Powerglove announced via MySpace bulletin today that they need title suggestions for their cover of Final Fantasy VII's "Still More Fighting".

Help a brother out (with the best suggestion of course), and you receive the band's upcoming CD, Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man, free!

Get crackin'.

(By the way, the tangentially related image, "Powerglove", is by the versatile artist Kari Fry. Check out her portfolio.)

zircon review's Beatdrop's new album "In the Dark"

Andrew "zircon" Aversa's big on reviewing music. Either at Broadjam or the OverClocked ReMix judges panel, Andy's been all about giving out criticism and hoping for some in return.

Recently, zircon has positioned his MySpace blog as a central location for music reviews, aiming to spread the good word. While zircon focuses on electronic music in general, it's always relevant when he takes a look at original music from artists within the game music arrangement community.

Dain "Beatdrop" Olsen recently hit professional paydirt, co-winning a Broadjam-sponsored contest on May 8 to have a track added to the official soundtrack of Konami's Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2.

If you do as zircon recommends and check out Beatdrop's free album, In the Dark, you yourself can obtain a copy of the winning track "Until Forever", and pretend to stomp on some arrows as you await DDR's latest installement.

Keep an eye glued on zircon's MySpace for addtional music reviews in the near future.

Bjørn Lynne in 5.1

I got my first exposure to Bjørn Lynne's material from Song of the Week, a piece of in-game music from Spin Jam for the PlayStation. He's got some really creative, dynamic material, as evidenced by other tracks of his I've heard, including "Jooli's Song" (which I encountered from Song of the Week as well).

Lynne makes the rounds via his MySpace page, pimping the latest developments on his site to those on his friends list. If you're up for a 14-minute experiment of sorts, give his latest message a look!

I hope you don't mind me taking this opportunity to let you know that produced a brand new music track in 5.1 SURROUND which is now available to download from my web site, for free, in WMA (Windows Media Audio v10) and in AC3 (Dolby Digital) surround music format. The track is a 14-minute ambient rock space journey that sounds pretty cool in surround audio, and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Download the track Voyager in 5.1 surround from my free surround music page.

PS, you can also hear it in regular stereo format (no surround speaker system required for that) on my blog

All the best,
--
Bjorn Lynne
www.lynnemusic.com