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21st December 2000: CoolerTOOL

The website of CoolerTOOL.com, the new company of Michael Land and Peter McConnell (former musicians at LucasArts and contributors to the Monkey Island 4 score) is now up and running... although it still doesn't contain very much information. The company is however described briefly: " CoolerTool is the code name for an early-phase software startup whose mission is to help people express themselves with computers using pictures, sound, motion and words. We are working to produce a peer-to-peer distributed media authoring environment that will make it far easier for people to publish, collaborate and interact using dynamic media on the web. The technology team at CoolerTool.com has a combined 25 years experience developing interactive media software for LucasArts Entertainment Company, a leading publisher of computer and video games." Source: GameScore

20th December 2000:New Feature: The Music of Monkey Island 4

iMuse Island proudly presents a new feature today: The Music of Monkey Island 4. It contains a soundtrack review of the music in Escape from Monkey Island, instructions on how to rip the songs from the game and, the most important of all, the complete song index for Monkey Island 4. You're looking for a specific song but don't know where to find it? You've found a cool file but don't remember where that song was heard inside the game? Well, don't search any longer, we've done the job of going through every single file for you! Oh, and I've almost forgot: WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS  AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

29th November 2000: More from Mr. Land

Michael Land's current occupation USA Today has published an article called On Your Own. In this article, the former LucasArts composer Michael Land is interviewed. Surprisingly, his new company doesn't seem to have anything to do with music! Anyway, we wish him good luck with his new company and thank him once again for the great job he performed at LucasArts over the past ten years! "Michael Land quit his job with computer game company LucasArts just two weeks ago. And then boom! There he was in the audience at Bootcamp as the co-founder and CEO of CoolerTool.com. After 10 years of working in a corporate environment, he and two fellow computer geeks are going out on their own. "We’re developing a totally different way of working with digital media, like text and pictures, that puts the power of deep interactivity into the hands of the average person." Uh, he had already lost me. "What I mean is, people will be able to make fully interactive creations, like entertaining Web sites, just by clicking and dragging icons around. They won’t even know they’re programming!" Source: The Monkey Island Scumm Bar First Escape from Monkey Island Midis released The Monkeys Are Listening have published 3 great new midis from Escape from Monkey Island: Transmogrification School of Pirates, Palace of Prostheses and Herman Toothrot. Check them out now!

23rd November 2000: Exclusive Zak Mc Kracken 2 Interview

We have a new section called Interviews. But what would an interview section be without an interview?? So here's our first exclusive Interview: Daniel "Wolk" Strandberg is the musician behind the very promising Zak Mc Kracken II Project. This is a project where fans of the classic LucasArts title Zak Mc Kracken try to develop an unofficial sequel, which will be distributed as freeware. OK, so this may be a fan production, but the least to say is, it seems to be a very ambitious one! iMUSE Island had the chance to ask Daniel, the Zak 2 composer, a few questions.

9th November 2000:Let's go Mojo!

New host Yes! We've moved again! iMuse Island can now be found at the biggest international LucasArts community on the web: The International House of Mojo. Many thanks to Spaff for letting this site be a part of the Mojo network! We try to do our best to contribute to the LucasArts community with everything that has to do with LucasArts game music. Since Mixnmojo allows MP3s on their server, the MP3s in the following sections are back: Fan Music and The Games and their Music. The MP3 archive is not yet up... this may still take some time, so please be patient... Welcome to our new guests Hopefully, some of the Mixnmojo guests have found their way to this site. So we'd like to welcome all our new guests. Here are a few highlights that you should absolutely visit if you are new: Fan Music: We proudly present the most complete archive of LucasArts fan music on the web. You will find remixes of the greatest LucasArts tunes in different styles (such as techno or dance); arrangements including different themes from a game in one single song, sometimes even played by a real band, funny songs "playing" with the voices of LucasArts characters (e.g. "Hey Sam!"_"Hey what?"). The Games and their Music: Learn more about the music in LucasArts games, listen to the greatest hits, find answers to these questions: Which composer has written the music of a certain game? What audio format is used? Soundtracks: Did you know that there are 5 official soundtracks from LucasArts available? Do you want to know where to buy them? What tracks are featured? How does the cover look? Learn everything about the LucasArts soundtracks here! Contest: Are you an expert about the music in LucasArts games? Well, prove it here! The contest is still open for submissions; get famous and win a prize! The Forum and the Quick Polls: What LucasArts game has the best music? How do you like the music in Escape from Monkey Island? What's your favorite song? Share your thoughts with us! ... and much more! Browse through our navigation bar on the top of the screen to discover other cool things! Escape from Monkey Island Music Good news: it has been confirmed in many Monkey Island forums that Escape from Monkey Island will use brand new music; the Monkey Island 3 songs used in the demo were just place holders. (Only the main theme from Monkey Island 3 is used.) So, is the new music good? Well, it really seems as if the music is going to be really fantastic once again! Remi O was so kind to send in three songs from the game. So if you don't have the game yet, you can download these samples here and already get a taste from the game's music: Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Tell us your opinion about these samples or about the game's music in general (if you are so lucky to own the game already) in our forum! Besides, Remi O was also so nice to look up the music credits from Escape from Monkey Island in the manual: "Music Supervisor: Clint Bajakian, C.B. Studios Inc. Music Composers: Clint Bajakian, Michael Land, Peter McConnell, Anna Karney, Michael Lande Sound Development Supervisor: Larry The O Sound Development Manager: Jeff Kliment" So, the main man behind the Monkey Island Music has been Clint Bajakian. Clint has composed the music from games such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Dark Forces, Outlaws and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. He has left LucasArts recently to create his own company, C.B. Studios Inc. But LucasArts seems to have been one of his first clients. Michael Land and Peter McConnell also seem to have been involved in the production of the Monkey Island 4 music before they have also left the company. Finally, there are two new composers on board: Anna Karney and Michael Lande (now if that name is not a strange coincidence, isn't it!). New Midis We've got brand new midis from Tie Fighter and Dark Forces. Thanks a lot to Ramy for sending them in! These two classic Star Wars games did not "only" feature John William's original Star Wars score, but offer a lot of exclusive game music, specially written for these games by our favorite LucasArts composers.

26th October 2000: Bart's new URL

Remember Bart Klepka? I'm sure you do! He's responsible for many of the great remixes you find in our Fan Music section! Well, his own page with music remixes has moved to a new server: http://bart.overclocked.org/ Please remember that, besides the great LucasArts remixes that are listed in our Fan Music section, Bart's page offers many more fascinating remixes of computer games from other companies as well!

18th October 2000: Two famous composers

Yesterday, there was a big Escape from Monkey Island Designer Chat at LucasArts.com... I was there and managed to ask two very interesting questions about the game music: "05:56:30 PM> MODMSG LGH: Will the music be recorded by life players again?  05:56:37 PM> MODMSG LGH: Has all the music been written by Michael Land? Or has some of the music been written by a new composer?  05:57:04 PM> Sean_Clark: Firstly, some of the music was performed live, various portions of it  05:57:59 PM> Sean_Clark: by the composer, Clint Bajakian, but among the composers that contributed to the project, was Michael Land " Now isn't that interesting? So Clint Bajakian, the composer of games such as Outlaws, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Star Wars: Dark Forces has been the main composer for Escape from Monkey Island... But some time ago we were told that Clint Bajakian has also left LucasArts to open his own sound studios! Could this mean that Clint worked as a freelancer for LucasArts, LucasArts being one of his first clients? Or did he simply work on Monkey 4 because he left LucasArts later than Michael Land? Anyway, what we DO know by know is that the game music for Monkey Island 4 has been written by 2 great composers of old LucasArts fame! And that LucasArts has once again used real instruments for recording the game music! Don't forget to read the whole chat log!

7th October 2000: Monkey Island 4 Demo Music

Finally, the demo of Escape from Monkey Island is out. Finally we can enjoy the Monkey Island atmosphere, laugh about the funny and witty jokes (there are plenty of them, believe me!), enjoy the cool character animations, solve the first puzzles, listen to the new songs... Wait a second, did I say "new songs"? Unfortunately, the demo mostly uses old tunes from The Curse of Monkey Island... except one song that plays inside the Scummbar! Anyway, at least this new Scummbar music sounds really good! Bye the way, did you know that you can rename the song files Scumm Bar.lab and Scumm Sleeper.lab (in the Music folder) into MP3s, so that you can listen to the new Scummbar music in your MP3 player? (This hint was brought to us by Adventuregamer, thanks!) So what do you think of this new song? What do you think of the fact that the demo uses so much old music? Join our forum discussion now! P.S. Thanks for the 6000 hits ;-)

29th September 2000: The MP3s are down

Sorry, but all the MP3s on the page are down for the moment! As explained on the 13th of August, our current host Fanstage.de does not allow any MP3s on the server. Our temporary solution (using the MP3s from our old server) has ceased to work now as well. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but rest assured that I'm already working on a solution. The MP3s will be back as soon as possible. The midis (also those in the fan section), the sheet music and the tools are still available! By the way: according to Gamers.com, we can expect a demo from Escape from Monkey Island in a week's time. Be sure to visit iMuse Island then... so that we can discuss the game music here!

21st September 2000: Chuckies' Band

What would you do if you own a site that mainly lives from fan music, but you haven't been submitted any new music for a long time? Exactly, you'd write your own fan music. And that's exactly what I did. My first song is called Chuckie's Band, and it contains some variations of the famous LeChuck tune. The song is quite simple, but rather long... and since it's a midi, it can be downloaded very quickly. So give it a try!

16th September 2000: Exclusive Sheetmusic from Outlaws

I am very proud to present you new, exclusive sheet music from Outlaws. It's by far the most complicated arrangement I've written so far... Clint Bajakian has used some very interesting and complex harmonies in this song (once you try to make a transcript of the song, you really get aware of that) !  Like always, I tried to arrange the song so that it is possible to play it on a piano... but I also tried to preserve the rhythmic feeling of the original as far as possible. Is the arrangement too difficult? Too simple? Any wrong harmonies? I would really appreciate some feedback, since I've spent a lot of work with it!

12th September 2000: Escape from Monkey Island soundtrack petition

Now that we know Michael Land is one of the men behind the Monkey Island 4 music, it is quite understandable that many gamers would really appreciate a soundtrack CD. That's why The Monkey Island Scummbar has set up a soundtrack petition. So go vote... and let's hope that the management of LucasArts hears us!

11th September 2000: Michael Land! Michael Land!

Well, we all know that Michael Land has left LucasArts... BUT Michael Land fans can rejoice: We will get another opportunity to hear some Monkey Island music from Mr. Land. According to a reliable news entry at Adventuregamer, Michael Land has already written music for Escape from Monkey Island before leaving LucasArts! However, it is not clear yet if the entire score has already been finished by him, but who cares? At least we will hear some more Monkey tunes from Land... for the last time, perhaps!

25th August 2000: Favorite Song?

We have a new poll at iMuse Island. Tell us your favorite Monkey Island theme or song now! Your favorite Monkey Island theme is not listed? Then voice your opinion in our Forum! In our previous poll about LucasArts' music future, most people claimed that we will just have to wait and see. Actually, I couldn't agree more: we cannot judge the music of games such as Escape from Monkey Island before having heard a single tune. Besides, Michael Land could already have worked on the game music before leaving LucasArts. Well, I guess we will know more in November when the game comes out...

19th August 2000: New Fansong

Batu Eritenel was so kind to submit us a fansong from The Curse of Monkey Island. It's a nice and relaxing song... give it a try! Thanks Batu, and keep up the good work!

15th August 2000:Force Commander Soundtrack now available

As promised in July, Synsoniq Records finally sells the official Force Commander soundtrack, containing Star Wars hard rock music arranged by Peter McConnell. Please note that the soundtrack CD is only sold in a bundle with the full game. If you already own the game and want the soundtrack, I guess you'll have to buy the bundle and sell the game via an online auction (such as Ebay). However, Synsoniq regrets that they will not be able to sell the Outlaws soundtrack within the next future. But they still hope to feature it some day.

13th August 2000: We're back!

Technical Problems We apologize for having been unreachable for over a week now. Our host (Fanstage.de) was experiencing some server crashes and decided not to allow any MP3s on their hosted sites in future. Since I was away for three weeks and couldn't do anything to solve the problem, they had to close iMuse Island for a while. Please apologize the inconvenience. But we're back now with a temporary solution: we're using the MP3s from our previous host (Scummland.de). We hope to find a definitive solution soon. In the meantime, please report any broken links to me. Thanks! New game music site A new site for game music has just opened its doors: Gamescore. The site features music news, soundtrack reviews, feature articles and a forum where music fans can share their thoughts on game music. By the way, the site also contains a review of the Grim Fandango Soundtrack. Ask LucasArts At LucasArts.com, there is a new feature called "Ask the Team". Maybe this would be a good opportunity for all the music fans to ask some questions about the music in Escape from Monkey Island? (Especially since one of their "example questions" already is "What’s the music like in Escape from Monkey Island?") Music poll at LucasArts.com Lucasarts.com has recently held a poll with the question "Which game has your favorite original music?". Just like in our own poll, the Monkey Island music clearly wins (with 47%). Check out the entire poll results.

20th July 2000:Fanmusic and more soundtrack news

Cool Midi And here's another great fan midi from... yeah, yeah, from Trapezoid. Well, theoretically, this song hasn't anything to do with LucasArts music. It is the theme from Trapezoids' fangame M'st'calities (be sure to give the game a try too). But, since Trapezoid is a huge fan of LucasArts adventures, the song has definitely been influenced by LucasArts games... It's a great song, and since it is a very small midi, you should absolutely give it a try! Hey Trapezoid, since you know the LucasArts style so well, why don't you apply as a composer there?  ;-) Get the Force Commander and Outlaws soundtracks soon Today, I've got a reply from Synsoniq Records. I've asked them if they could try to get the Outlaws and Force Commander soundtracks as well. Well, they promised that they will be able to offer these soundtracks in about three weeks' time at latest! By the way, speaking of three weeks: Out of personal reasons I won't be able to do any updates during the following three weeks.... I thought I'd let you know. But don't forget to check back afterwards!!!

15th July 2000:Big scoop: Purchase the Grim Fandango Soundtrack anywhere!

Ladies and Gentlemen! Today, we've found something very interesting for all the people that live outside North America: Finally, you have the opportunity to buy the official Soundtrack CD from Grim Fandango ("Big Band, Bebop and Bones") everywhere on the world. I really recommend you to buy this soundtrack, since it features the best songs from Grim Fandango in a very high sound quality! A must have for every fan of LucasArts music! (Find more information about that CD in our Soundtrack Section!) And here you can find the site: http://www.synsoniq.com/ "Our declared target is to offer all worldwide available soundtracks from computer games. We want to be the biggest specialised retailer for this genre." Shipping is worldwide and paying is handled very user-friendly (in most european countries, you can even pay by bill after receiving the CD!). You don't necessarily need a credit card. Many thanks go to Daniel Scheibner for mentioning this great website in a message board at Adventure-Treff (our host).

9th July 2000:All of them?!

Better sit down before reading the following text... unfortunately, it's very bad news! According to LucasFans, all composers of the legendary LucasArts trio (Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian) have left the company! Besides, Mike McMahon, the lead programmer on the iMuse system for the past few years, has also said good bye. LucasFans doesn't indicate their source, but I know it is a very serious site and I'm sure this news is (unfortunately) trustworthy. LucasFans also informs their readers about the future of the composers: "Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Mike McMahon (lead programmer on iMUSE for the past years) have left LucasArts to form a new company on their own. The company, which is yet to adopt a name, will develop interactive web technologies (pretty appropriate, considering the trio's iMUSE experience) -- details on this area are still a bit shaky. A few weeks after Michael, Peter and Mike's departure Clint Bajakian left LucasArts to form a new music and sound production house on his own, called CB Studios." It's a pity these composers left LucasArts, but just like LucasFans I'd wish to thank them for the great job they did in all those classic games and to wish them good luck for their future careers! So what will the future of LucasArts music be? Will they be able to find new talents and produce high quality music? Definitely an interesting question... That's why we made a new poll today. Please voice your opinion on this issue... Feel also welcome to post more detailed comments in our forum! N.B. Don't forget to check out the old poll results too!

5th July 2000: Statement from Mr. President

The International House of Mojo has posted a very interesting interview with Simon Jeffery, the new President of LucasArts. Of course, we wouldn't be iMuse Island if we hadn't found some piece of information concerning game music: "The music of LucasArts games has proved to be an essential part of the gaming experience. In the past LucasArts has released soundtracks to games such as The Dig and Grim Fandango. Also, many fans have voiced their desire for additional soundtracks to be released. Does LucasArts plan to create sountracks in the future on a grander scale?  We don't have any specific plans with regard to music, other than to continue producing music that rocks!!" Although it is a cool comment, this unfortunately doesn't answer all our urgent questions. Who's writing (or has written) the music of Monkey Island 4? And what about their soundtrack policy?

3rd July 2000:LeChuck is ... dumb?

LeChuck fansong Trapezoid has composed another cool fansong... this time it's an arrangement of the LeChuck theme and it has the intriguing title "LeChuck is dumb". Official Force Commander Soundtrack The LucasArts Company Store sells a special edition of Force Commander, the recent real time strategy game set in the Star Wars universe. What's most interesting is that this special edition comes with a soundtrack CD of the hard rock Star Wars arrangements from Peter McConnell. Whereas I really do appreciate the fact that LucasArts seems to release more and more game music soundtracks recently (and I really hope to see a Monkey Island 4 soundtrack too!), I'm not so happy with their distribution policy. Since the new Outlaws and Force Commander soundtracks are only included in special editions of the games, sold in the company store, there are two major problems: 1) What if you own the game already but do want the soundtrack? Do you have to buy it again or what? 2) What for for the people who don't live in North America? Since the company store only delivers to the United States and Canada, it is practically impossible for these people to get their hands on these CDs. So LucasArts, pleeease find a way for everyone to be able to get your upcoming soundtrack CDs!!! Monkey 4 music? LucasArts.com just released the first official trailer from Escape from Monkey Island, and they once more use the music from Curse of Monkey Island (just as in the Flash Video). So have they still composed no music for Monkey Island 4? Or will they even use the music from Monkey 3 in the game? I don't think they would do that, but still, it would be great to hear some Monkey 4 music soon! (Maybe in the demo?) Besides, I'm also interested in who composes it!

20th June 2000:Midis forever

New Midi Site A new site with midis from the Monkey Island games has opened. It is called The Monkeys are Listening and is well worth a look! Download their midis (which are in a very good quality) now! No songs?! In GamePower's the new Escape from Monkey Island preview (that also contains an interesting interview and a few new screenshots) I have found this sad information: "The animated, feature-film-quality, 3-D graphics will knock you out, as will the voice acting (they auditioned 60 voices simply for the part of a monkey) and music (sorry, there's no singing this time). " Excuse me?! Have pirates stopped singing now? Gee, what has happened? Well, at least they say the music sounds good ;-)

18th June 2000:Once more to Crete

Crete fansong Bart Klepka took us to Crete for the first time, and now it's time to return to Crete once more. Well, we got another, more classic arrangement of the fantastic Crete Labyrinth music. This song has been arranged by Axel Melzener, another "new" composer. So, thanks a lot for sending in your music... what would iMuse Island be without fan music? Let's support all languages Wow, that was fast! LogicDeLuxe has written a version 1.1 of his cool Curse of Monkey Island tool (see news below), which should support all international versions by now. So try it out. If the tool should, against all odds, not work in your language version, just write me a quick note.

17th June 2000: See the singing pirates

Cool, cool tool ! Did you have a translated version of The Curse of Monkey Island? Were you disappointed that the Pirate Ship Song had been cut from the game? Did you wish to experience this song once in the game (with graphics and dialogue options)? Then we have what you need! LogicDeLuxe was so nice to write a patch that should help out here! This patch is for all the people who have the German version of The Curse of Monkey Island. It makes some changes to the EXE-File of the game, so that the song will be played (in English, of course... but some of the subtitles have already been translated). If you have other international versions of the game (e.g. French, Italian...), you might also want to try out the patch... it could work on these versions as well. If it works, please write me a short note, it would be cool to know that! If not, please send me your COMI.EXE-File (and only that file!). LogicDeLuxe said he will then write patches for these versions too! Now, isn't that nice? You can find the patch in our Tools Section! New fansong Remember Bart Klepka? Yes, the one with those cool music mixes like the "Crete Mix" and the "Anna Mix". Well, he's back, and this time it's with a mix from The Curse of Monkey Island's Barbery Coast music. Download it from his site or from our Fan Section! Yet another banner People seem to be really interested in writing banners for iMuse Island recently. This time, Garth McMillan has send me a really stylish one! But since I thought, this mainpage had already enough banners by now, I've found a nice cozy place for Garth's banner in our Forum! So head to the forum and have a look at it. And while you're there, don't forget to post a message ;-)

8th June 2000: New fan music

Well, we've received new fan music. This time, it's by a "new" one, so many thanks go to Slybo for sending us his work! Enjoy!

6th June 2000: New banner

I'm sure you have noticed the new banner at the top of this page! Cool, eh? It has been designed specially for our site by Daniel Strüber from the German LucasArts fansite Tentakelvilla! Thanks a lot! By the way, feel free to use it if you want to link to us from your page ;-)

2nd June 2000: Welcome to our new island!

New server Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our new island! I'm glad your ship has found the way to the new location, please update your sea maps (bookmarks) now. The exact coordinates from iMuse Island are from now on: http://www.adventure-treff.de/imuse/ Our new host, www.adventure-treff.de, is a cool, new German adventure site, where I'm also helping myself as a news updater. It contains reviews, previews, specials, interviews and much more... and it's all about adventure games. So if you understand German, I really recommend you to check it out. Special thanks to Zeebee and Feuer for still hosting this site... and very special thanks to Feuer for helping me to transport about 350 Megabytes (!) of MP3s from one server to another! By the way, if you find any broken links, please report them to me... thanks! But when we already change the server, we also want to celebrate this event... so we have a bunch of new updates for you today! New design Some of you may already have noticed that our design has changed a little bit. The biggest change is our new navigation bar, which you find on top of every page now... I hope you enjoy it! Big contest! Do you call yourself a real fan of the music in LucasArts games? If yes, we've got an exciting challenge for you: a music quiz! Will you be able to recognize these songs? Besides the fun of solving the riddle, there's also a real prize to win! So what are you waiting for? Visit our new Contest page now! Older game music added We have added new game music from the older LucasArts games Loom (our thanks go to Daniel Strüber from the German site Tentakelvilla.de) and Afterlife (our thanks go to Swordmaster from LucasFans). I recommend you to download these songs even if you've never played the games... they are really cool! You can find the files in the Midi respectively in the MP3 section. New Fan Music We also offer you two new fan songs today... They are, yes you've guessed it, from Trapezoid! And they are as funny as usual! New Poll Time for a new poll! The question is "Which of these recent LucasArts adventures had the best music?" We need your answer. By the way, don't forget to check out the old poll results too! Article about the Monkey Island music Escape from Monkey Island.Com have published a nice article about the music in LucasArts games. It's called Do the Monkey: The music of MI and is a great article! A must read for every Monkey Island fan! Outlaws Soundtrack now available Great news for fans about LucasArts music: The amazing music from the Western shooter Outlaws has now been put on an official soundtrack CD by LucasArts. I'm glad to see that LucasArts publishes more and more soundtrack CDs these days. Maybe we will even get a soundtrack CD from Monkey Island 4 too? Who knows... Read more about the Outlaws soundtrack CD in our Soundtrack section or buy the game directly from the LucasArts Company Store. (Source: LucasFans) Some MP3s removed Sorry, but out of legal concerns, I decided to remove all the MP3s that can also be found on commercial soundtrack CDs (The Dig, Gone Jackals, Grim Fandango, Outlaws). I think it's great that LucasArts does the effort to release these soundtrack CDs for us fans, and I definitely don't want the MP3s to prevent anyone from buying them. I know it is hard to get some of these CDs if you live outside North America, and that others have almost been sold out everywhere, and I definitely hope that LucasArts will find better ways to distribute upcoming CDs, but that doesn't change anything about my decision. This page should be a perfectly legal place where fans of the music in LucasArts games can inform themselves and can interact with each other. I hope for your understanding... please don't argue with me about this.  (Maybe I will post short excepts from these songs here in future, since some of these songs are really representative for LucasArts gaming music and the excepts could even motivate people to buy the respective soundtrack CDs.)

21th May 2000:New Fan Music

Recovered from the Michael Land shock? Me not! But here's something to change your mind:  We've added two new fan songs, one from Trapezoid, who should be well known in the meantime here, and one from Logan Whitehurst, a "new" composer (for our site, at least). Go check them out now! By the way, I'm working on a little surprise right now... (Hey, I said "little", so don't expect too much, OK?) Expect the next update in a good week!

17th May 2000: Very, very, very, very, very bad news!

According to the Scummbar, ... oh, it's so frustrating, just read their news for yourself: Michael Land leaves LEC! PeterBr and MrCoulomb have informed me (and the whole of #monkey-island) that when emailing Michael Land they get this message: "Michael Land is no longer with LucasArts. However should you need to reach him, his new e-mail address is *****@*********.***." What does this mean for EMI? Has the music been recorded or will someone else be doing it? We shall keep you posted! Sorry the addresses are not included... but I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate a few hundred emails today. The first question we have to ask ourselves: Is it true? Couldn't there be a misunderstanding? Well, I really wish it would turn out to be a false rumor, but unfortunately, the news sounds quite reliable. After all, why should LucasArts install such an autoreply if Michael Land was still among them? Let's still hope, but don't have any illusions, though! The second question I had to ask myself is: If Michael Land leaves LucasArts, what should happen to iMuse Island now? Well, I have decided to keep the site going! Here are my reasons: 1. Even if Michael Land will not be at LucasArts in future anymore, this isn't a reason to forget all his past achievements. People should remember his musical work for games like the Monkey Island games and The Dig! 2. This was a page which was not dedicated to Michael Land as a person, but to the LucasArts gaming music and their sound department in general. Even without Land, the other musicians will (hopefully) stay: So don't forget about Clint Bajakian (who wrote the stylish western music for Outlaws) and Peter McConnell (who wrote the amazing Jazz soundtrack for Grim Fandango). Besides, these two musicians also contributed, together with Michael, to the older games like Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max). So the sound department of LucasArts is not dead yet! 3. Maybe Michael Land has already written the music for Monkey Island 4 (or at least parts of it)! And here is exactly the right place to discuss it! 4. Of course, whatever his plans for future should be, we should follow the career of Michael Land with great interest, since he still will stay a great musician! Maybe he will produce his own CDs? Or write a movie score? Or work together with Tim Schafer who previously left LucasArts too? Anyway, whatever his future projects will be, you will read about them here! So I definitely won't abandon iMuse Island now, I hope you won't either... I have still some updates planed for the future (fan work, music about older games...), so please keep checking back! (And let's still hope, who knows, maybe it's just a misunderstanding after all...)

9th May 2000: Get the original The Dig soundtrack!

As promised, Armada has sent me the location of an online store who still has three copies of the official soundtrack CD from The Dig (by Angel Records). A CD that everyone who calls himself a fan of LucasArts music should have in his CD collection! And here's the URL: http://www.cdcellar.com/ But hurry up! There are only three copies of the CD in stock and perhaps CDCellar won't be able to get  any more!

27th April 2000: Three rarities

I've got another e-mail from Armada, where he told me that he has found something very interesting! He has found three copies of the original Dig soundtrack at an online store. This is particularly interesting since the soundtrack is sold out almost everywhere. He promised to give us more information next week!

26th April 2000: Complete The Dig soundtrack online!

Finally, we have all the tracks from The Dig online. Special thanks go to Armada who has sent me the last four MP3s and saved me some converting-work that way. So what are you waiting for? Head to the MP3-section and download them!

25th April 2000: Fan Music and more

Since our last update, a lot has happened: Michael Land writes the music for Monkey Island 4 As everyone should know in the meantime, Monkey Island 4 has been announced by Gamespot, and they even have a first screenshot to admire. Well, as we could have guessed, the music will once more be written by no one less than Michael Land. So music fans rejoice: more reggae from Mr. Land soon! (By the way, don't forget to visit LucasArts tomorrow for the official announcment!) Three new fan songs Many people seem to have understood that LucasArts has great soundtrack composers. That's why fan remixes pop up everywhere. Three new songs have been released. First, there's a really cool Monkey Island Remix from a guy named AmIEvil. This song is a fantastic arrangement of the Monkey Island main theme, an absolute must have. You can find it in our Fan Music Section. Special thanks to Jimantha for the hint and to David Lloyd from OverClocked Remix for the permission to post it here. Secondly, LucasFans has also discovered new remixes from Full Throttle and Sam & Max by Slybo. Unfortunately, those songs are at a server from Geocities, and I have not been able to download them yet... so I can't say much about them. But maybe you are more lucky than me. Visit LucasFans and try to download them (cf news entrey from the 15th of April)! Unofficial Fate of Atlantis soundtrack Roko Zaper is working on an unofficial soundtrack CD from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. He intends to use a very good soundfont, "making it seem like the music is being played by a real orchestra". Find more information on Roko's page!

3rd April 2000: Sam&Max Mix

No, this is not a late April fool's joke ;-) Bart Klepka, I'm sure you remember him for the other great mixes (Outlaws, Crete, Dark Forces...), has produced a new remix. This time, it's from Sam & Max: Hit the Road. The mix contains many different themes from the game. An absolute must have! You can find it in our Fan Music Section or directly at Bart's page!

26th March 2000: More MP3s from The Dig

Due to several requests (e-mail and Forum), I have decided to publish three more MP3s from The Dig. Since it's almost impossible to buy the CD anywhere nowadays, and since chances that the CD will be re-released are quite small, I think it won't hurt anyone. Maybe I'll even publish some more in future.

20th March 2000: Interview with Peter McConnell and Dave Levison

Daily Radar features a cool interview with Peter McConnell (music composer of games such as Full Throttle, Afterlife and Grim Fandango) and Dave Levison (music mixer for many LucasArts titles) about the music in Force Commander. Besides some really interesting information, Daily Radar also offers another exclusive MP3 from the game. It's called Escape from Kalaan and is, in my opinion, the greatest MP3 from Force Commander so far released (less agressive). Here's an extract from the interview: "The problem that presents itself to a music editor when working with Star Wars is that you want to use the John Williams music, but a game is 40 hours of experience. All told, there's really only about three hours of music out there in various forms. It's great music -- some of my favorite -- recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, but it's hard to keep it fresh over a large number of products." Exactly my opinion! Source: LucasFans

15th March 2000: New section: Fan Music

I'm very proud to present you our new section. It's called "Fan Music" and is a nice collection of all available LucasArts fan songs (special arrangements and medleys from the famous game themes). I really recommend you to download some of these songs... they are really worth it! By the way, LucasArts has uploaded two more Force Commander MP3's. I really liked "Redemption at Abridon", but I was a little bit disappointed that the "Imperial March Leviathan Mix" was quite similar to the previously published "Imperial March Rage Mix".

9th March 2000: More Force Commander music

Wow, what a coincidence. Only yesterday, I reported about the music in the Force Commander trailer, and today, LucasArts decided to release a much longer MP3 about that song. Isn't that nice of them? OK, I'm not exactly what you would call a hardrock fan, so I preferred other LucasArts soundtracks (e.g. Grim Fandango). But still, I think this song is very special, and it's definitely something more original than just the usual Star Wars soundtrack. And as I've already told yesterday, it also reminds me a little bit of the music in Full Throttle (that's a compliment, by the way). Besides, Gary Gaber, the project leader of Force Commander, also explained in a short comment the important role that music plays in this new game: "When I started Force Commander, I knew that the genre we were entering had a certain style of music that didn't necessarily fit the mold of the previous Star Wars games we had produced as a company. When Peter McConnell and I first starting talking about Force Commander back in January, 1999, we both had ideas about how the music should sound. I wondered out loud, "is there anyway we can do something a little different with the classic Star Wars music?" And Peter, with a big smirk on his face replied, "As a matter of fact, I've been wanting to do that for a long time." So now what you have in your hands is one of the most original treatments of the Star Wars music from the Classic trilogy since John Williams first composed the pieces. In listening to each of these themes and Dave Levinson's amazingly deep remixes, Peter and Dave were able to evoke what it was that originally made me fall in love with William's themes, while adding a new element to fall in love with as well. I'm sure you will all feel the same. . . " So, I've won my bet yesterday: It is Peter McConnell who wrote the music for Force Commander ;-) Also note that LucasArts promises to release more Force Commander MP3s in four days. I'm already looking forward to these... Finally more stuff from our favorite sound department! And also, don't forget to voice your opinion about the Force Commander music in our Forum!

8th March 2000: Force Commander info and 2 new midis

Recently, I've downloaded the Star Wars : Force Commander video trailer from the official LucasArts page (I know it has already been there for quite a while). In terms of music, I didn't really expect something special. I thought I would hear the traditional Star Wars theme. Boy, was I going to be surprised: What did my ears hear there? An original, groovy and rocky version of the Imperial March, played on guitars, drums and synthesizer. That song immediately reminded me of good old Full Throttle. (That's why I would bet that it is Peter McConnell who wrote the music for Force Commander, but there's no official information yet.) What do you think of that song? It would be great if you would voice your opinion in our Forum. Besides, we can also offer you two new midis from Outlaws. Special thanks go to John Macomber from The LucasZone. Finally a technical note: For about two weeks, the official email-adress of this site (lgh@scummland.de) ceased to work. What I thought to be a temporary problem in the beginning seems to turn out as quite a permanent problem. So, please send new emails to this address: lgh@monkey-island.de! Also, if you've sent any emails in the last weeks, I would be thankful if you could send them again. Sorry for the inconvenience!

25th February 2000: More exclusive sheet music added

First, let me thank you all for the over 1 000 visits! This time, we offer you exclusive sheet music for another great song: the camp fire music from Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's revenge. I'm sure you remember this warm and lovely melody that plays in the dark night at the fire where Guybrush tells the tails of the glory days. So, for everyone who plays an instrument (especially the piano), go to the sheet music section and print out the song, the longest song which is in that section till now. Have fun! Current topics in the forum:  - What's your favorite LucasArts music? - Is there any LucasArts music that you do not like?

16th February 2000: New Poll

The old webpoll (about the music in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine) is finished now. Surprisingly, most people (44%) would have preferred the original Indiana Jones movie soundtrack from John Williams rather than something which is composed especially for the game. To see the detailed results, visit our poll section from the main menu. A new poll has also been set up. It deals with the question what's most important for a good game soundtrack. Of course I know that the two alternatives I gave you are both very important, but I think it could be interesting to see what people consider to be more important.

12th February 2000: A few site updates

First at all, I have to thank all the people who have visited this site, who have participated in our current web-poll, who have posted something in our forum and who have sent me feedback-emails. I'm really impressed by the number of visits (over 500 hits in a few days only) and about all the positive feedback. Thanks a lot! I also hope that you continue visiting the site regularly. And don't forget to use the forum... Today, I can offer you a few interesting site updates: - A new midi from Maniac Mansion (thanks to Shredder) - A tool that plays the adlib-music from Monkey Island 1 (thanks to Denis Julitov) - New sheet music from Monkey Island 2 (thanks to Snag RAT) - More information about the soundtrack CD from the Clan of the Three Headed Monkey - Two new LucasArts links By the way, if you have created own fan music, I would of course be glad to post it here!

7th February 2000: Page opening

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to iMuse Island, a brand new website which celebrates its opening today. This website is dedicated to the music in the computer games from LucasArts. It should be a place where fans about the music in these games (and I know there some of us, if you don't believe me, visit our Links section) feel at home and can discuss the music. So the most important sections on this page are the Forum and the Webpoll! What else can you find here? Regular news (e.g. new soundtracks, new fan songs...), a presentation of all the available soundtracks and a a section called "The games and their music". I really recommend you to visit that section. Maybe some of you have forgotten how brilliant the music in some of the games was, so this section could remind you of the forgotten treasures by giving you a quick summary about LucasArts' greatest (music) hits. This, and much more, can be found on this webpage... Check for regular updates!