IMuse Island

What's iMuse?
Greatest Hits
The Composers
Soundtrack CDs
Music Quiz
Interviews

MP3s
Midis
Fan Music
Exclusive Sheet Music
Tools

iMuse Island
News Archive (2002)

18/07/2002:New Fan Music

Steve McCrary has sent us a new fan remix called Glory of the Empire. It is a very enjoyable, orchestral remix of some great Tie Fighter themes. Tie Fighter used the Imperial March from John Williams, but it also contained great original music (in midi-format). This remix brings it all to a new, digital quality.
Besides, Unno has also reorchestrated some of the Loom, Zak McKracken and Maniac Mansion cues from our Midi-Section to make them sound more ambient.
What's more, I'd also like to mention that you can download high quality MP3s from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Draggor's Den.
You may also want to check out the Curse of Monkey Island medleys from MicroXel Arts.
Finally, The Monkey Island Scumm Bar has uploaded the audio tracks from the pretty rare Monkey Island Madness CD-ROM. You can download them here.

02/06/2002:New interview with Clint Bajakian

Gamespy has published a very interesting interview with Clint Bajakian! Clint talks about The Sound Department, about the Game Audio Guild (GANG), about some of his former and current projects and about game music in general.
Clint Bajakian: The use of real orchestra is an exciting trend for the games industry. I'm about to work on a score incorporating live orchestra myself (title unannounced) and I'm very excited. This is a sure sign of positive growth and it's good for everyone involved, publishers, composers, gamers and session musicians alike.
We've managed to get some additional information: The title Clint is speaking about here should be Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, which has been announced in the meantime. This sounds really exciting! A new, original Indiana Jones score performed by a real orchestra!
Besides, we've also heard rumours that The Sound Department has hired the famous composer Jeremy Soule to work on an orchestral soundtrack for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. You can learn more about Jeremy Soule on his official website.

27/05/2002:Peter McConnell and Tim Schafer team up again

In a preview of Psychonauts (Tim Schafer's new game, an action adventure for the X-Box), Mixnmojo reveals us that the music will be composed by Peter McConnell. Peter has also composed the music for some of Tim Schafer's other great hits, such as Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. The fact that Tim Schafer, a great story teller, and Peter McConnell, the man who brought these stories to "musical" live, have teamed up again, can make us look forward to another great game.
Clint Bajakian will be responsible for the sound design. We can assume that Peter has also been contracted thorugh Clint's company The Sound Department.
"Peter McConnell is writing the music, which reminded me of a demented version of the Bone Wagon theme from Grim Fandango. Peter has composed music for every game Tim has worked on. Clint Bajakian is doing the sound effects..."

23/05/2002:We're back

iMuse Island is back
After several monthes of downtime, due to server changes of our host Mixnmojo, and another few monthes of inactivity, our site is finally back. I hope that some people still remember this site and will find their way back to the forum to share their thoughts on game music. With LucasArts announcing some exciting original titles on one hand (such as Gladius, Full Throttle II...), and The Sound Department developing great music for other game companies as well (e.g. for Totally Games), there definitely will be some interesting topics to talk about in the near future!
Clint Bajakian's new company
Clint Bajakian, lead composer on games such as Escape from Monkey Island and Outlaws has created a new company, called The Sound Department. The company is owned by Clint Bajakian and his good friend Julian Kwasneski, who had also formerly been working in the sound department of LucasArts. He is credited with sound design in titles such as The Dig, Outlaws, The Curse of Monkey Island...
Recently, the company has been working on titles such as Star Wars: Jedi Knight II (LucasArts), Star Trek: Bridge Commander(Totally Games), The Simpsons: Wrestling (Playstation)... The company has also contributed to the music in several films. Currently, they are working on some unanounced X-Box titles. We hope to get more news soon.
You can visit the company's official website at www.thesounddepartment.com.
Raising their voice for game music
Clint Bajakian is now vice-president of a new, non-profit organization which represents the interests of the game music industry. Here's a quote from the news entry on thesounddepartment.com:
Clint Bajakian was elected Vice President of the newly forming game audio organization, G.A.N.G (Game Audio Network Guild), a non-profit organization centralizing a community of interactive media audio developers. Tommy Tallarico (www.tallarico.com), its founder, was elected President.
Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic to use original music
In an official chat event about LucasArts' role playing game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, we could learn that the game will contain some new, original music, and not just John Williams music taken directly from the Star Wars films:
"Q: While you will surely be using some of the classic music from the series, will there be an original work composed, and if so, do you have anyone in mind at this point?
MikeG: We are really close to announcing the composer for this game! Hopefully sometime very soon. Our goal is to have an original score that touches on themes that everyone is familiar with from the films. The style will be classic Star Wars, but with all new compositions and themes."

18/07/2002:New Fan Music
Steve McCrary has sent us a new fan remix called Glory of the Empire. It is a very enjoyable, orchestral remix of some great Tie Fighter themes. Tie Fighter used the Imperial March from John Williams, but it also contained great original music (in midi-format). This remix brings it all to a new, digital quality. Besides, Unno has also reorchestrated some of the Loom, Zak McKracken and Maniac Mansion cues from our Midi-Section to make them sound more ambient. What's more, I'd also like to mention that you can download high quality MP3s from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Draggor's Den. You may also want to check out the Curse of Monkey Island medleys from MicroXel Arts. Finally, The Monkey Island Scumm Bar has uploaded the audio tracks from the pretty rare Monkey Island Madness CD-ROM. You can download them here.
02/06/2002:New interview with Clint Bajakian
Gamespy has published a very interesting interview with Clint Bajakian! Clint talks about The Sound Department, about the Game Audio Guild (GANG), about some of his former and current projects and about game music in general. Clint Bajakian: The use of real orchestra is an exciting trend for the games industry. I'm about to work on a score incorporating live orchestra myself (title unannounced) and I'm very excited. This is a sure sign of positive growth and it's good for everyone involved, publishers, composers, gamers and session musicians alike. We've managed to get some additional information: The title Clint is speaking about here should be Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, which has been announced in the meantime. This sounds really exciting! A new, original Indiana Jones score performed by a real orchestra! Besides, we've also heard rumours that The Sound Department has hired the famous composer Jeremy Soule to work on an orchestral soundtrack for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. You can learn more about Jeremy Soule on his official website.
27/05/2002:Peter McConnell and Tim Schafer team up again
In a preview of Psychonauts (Tim Schafer's new game, an action adventure for the X-Box), Mixnmojo reveals us that the music will be composed by Peter McConnell. Peter has also composed the music for some of Tim Schafer's other great hits, such as Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. The fact that Tim Schafer, a great story teller, and Peter McConnell, the man who brought these stories to "musical" live, have teamed up again, can make us look forward to another great game. Clint Bajakian will be responsible for the sound design. We can assume that Peter has also been contracted thorugh Clint's company The Sound Department. "Peter McConnell is writing the music, which reminded me of a demented version of the Bone Wagon theme from Grim Fandango. Peter has composed music for every game Tim has worked on. Clint Bajakian is doing the sound effects..."
23/05/2002:We're back
iMuse Island is back After several monthes of downtime, due to server changes of our host Mixnmojo, and another few monthes of inactivity, our site is finally back. I hope that some people still remember this site and will find their way back to the forum to share their thoughts on game music. With LucasArts announcing some exciting original titles on one hand (such as Gladius, Full Throttle II...), and The Sound Department developing great music for other game companies as well (e.g. for Totally Games), there definitely will be some interesting topics to talk about in the near future! Clint Bajakian's new company Clint Bajakian, lead composer on games such as Escape from Monkey Island and Outlaws has created a new company, called The Sound Department. The company is owned by Clint Bajakian and his good friend Julian Kwasneski, who had also formerly been working in the sound department of LucasArts. He is credited with sound design in titles such as The Dig, Outlaws, The Curse of Monkey Island... Recently, the company has been working on titles such as Star Wars: Jedi Knight II (LucasArts), Star Trek: Bridge Commander(Totally Games), The Simpsons: Wrestling (Playstation)... The company has also contributed to the music in several films. Currently, they are working on some unanounced X-Box titles. We hope to get more news soon. You can visit the company's official website at www.thesounddepartment.com. Raising their voice for game music Clint Bajakian is now vice-president of a new, non-profit organization which represents the interests of the game music industry. Here's a quote from the news entry on thesounddepartment.com: Clint Bajakian was elected Vice President of the newly forming game audio organization, G.A.N.G (Game Audio Network Guild), a non-profit organization centralizing a community of interactive media audio developers. Tommy Tallarico (www.tallarico.com), its founder, was elected President. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic to use original music In an official chat event about LucasArts' role playing game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, we could learn that the game will contain some new, original music, and not just John Williams music taken directly from the Star Wars films: "Q: While you will surely be using some of the classic music from the series, will there be an original work composed, and if so, do you have anyone in mind at this point? MikeG: We are really close to announcing the composer for this game! Hopefully sometime very soon. Our goal is to have an original score that touches on themes that everyone is familiar with from the films. The style will be classic Star Wars, but with all new compositions and themes."

News Archive 2000
News Archive 2001
News Archive 2002