At the time of writing this piece I had just bought Tau Pro, a nifty softsynth which bases itself on the classic 303 synth, but expands upon it and makes it far more flexible. This track is actually the result of my first experiments with Tau Pro (hence the Tau Ceti name). I have to say that I'm extremely pleased with my purchase. :)

Tau Ceti was deliberately composed as a background piece. Don't download this and expect the same kind of trance as, say, Lucid Dreams. It's not. There aren't really any fetching melodies that will stick in your head for days. It's more about the sound and the mood.

Tau Ceti

A remix of the title theme to Super Cars 2, a brilliant racing game for the Amiga. 

 I've wanted to remix this theme for a long time, but never felt I had instruments that would do it justice. Then finally I got my hands on East West's Ministry of Rock instrument set and realized the time had come for me to finally do this remix. I'm very pleased with the sound quality, and I feel that I was able to pay the original track justice. I hope you'll agree. :)

Super Cars 2 Remix

When I started this track, I envisioned snowflakes falling slowly to the ground in a tranquil winter landscape. As the music progressed, it evolved into something different. I consider this to be one of the best pieces of music I've ever composed.

Snowfall

Originally composed for a Neverwinter Nights module, I took too long getting around to working on the module, so I eventually decided to redo the music from scratch at a later point. Still, The Library remains a great piece of music in my opinion, so it deserves more than just being tossed into a private folder to rot. Keep in mind that due to the nature of NWN modules, the track is short by design. This is quite intentional. The instruments sound kind of dated by now, but it's not too bad.

The Library

Originally composed as the title theme for the BattlePawn online boardgame engine. As the company behind the engine eventually went bankrupt, I've bought back the rights to the music I composed for the project, and have released almost all of it.

This theme was quite a challenge, and this is actually my third attempt at making something that would work within the environment it was meant for. The idea was to make something that would be memorable, yet not in a way that tried to grab too much attention. The music had to stay in the background. I'm pretty happy about the result, as the theme works as both a standalone piece of music and as background for BattlePawn.

Open Your Eyes

I had long wanted to make a track with a focus on a monotonous bassline, engaging drums, and sharp synth sounds. On the Razor's Edge is a kind of music I rarely try to work with personally, but after giving it a shot with this track I really want to do more of it.

On the Razor's Edge

Composed as background music for a game called Project Aqua (later canceled, I believe). Fun fact: My favorite bass is the fretless bass.

Nova Observatory

This is actually the third version of this track. VOiD and I made the first version together, but it wasn't really all that good, and it was regular electronica instead of trance. I later remade the whole thing into a trance track, but due to lack of experience with the genre at the time, that didn't turn out all that well either. Finally some time later, I did a third take, remaking almost everything again. The result is this, and I'm very happy about it.

Lucid Dreams

A remix of one of the darkest tunes from Monkey Island 2. I can't take too much credit for this one, as most of the work was just in rearranging parts to make it sound better in an orchestra, and locating the ideal instruments for the job. I also did a LOT of tweaking to the velocities and expression of the piece. The original was somewhat orchestral already, but I feel that I've taken it to the level where it should have been from the beginning. 

LeChuck's Lament

Originally inspired by the movie Kingdom of Heaven, this track turned into something slightly different. 

Desert City

Composed for the official remake of Star Control 2, called The Ur-Quan Masters. This theme started out as an attempt to recapture the mood of the Alien soundtrack, especially the flute. It later evolved into a hybrid between Alien, Fallout, Freespace and Dune. The most soothingly ambient piece I had ever written at the time, it still manages to be creepy and discomforting. This track is used during planetary exploration, where it is supposed to create an alien and mysterious atmosphere. 

You can download and play The Ur-Quan Masters for free at http://sc2.sourceforge.net

The Ur-Quan Masters - Extraterrestrial Lifeforms

This is my contribution to a bigger assortment of battle music in The Ur-Quan Masters, the official port of Star Control 2. It's darker and calmer than the other battle remixes, and was made for battles against the Kohr-Ah because of this. This remix marked my first real use of distortion in a piece of music, and it turned out really well. Inspired a lot by the music from the Temple of Elemental Evil computer game. Very loosely based on the original battle theme from Star Control 2. The track was built to loop as seamlessly as possible during combat, so the beginning and the end may both seem a little abrupt. 

You can download and play The Ur-Quan Masters for free at http://sc2.sourceforge.net

The Ur-Quan Masters - Kohr-Ah Battle

This is the official remix of the Ariloulaleelay theme from Star Control 2 for The Ur-Quan Masters. Apart from the starting notes in the main melody, I made this song from scratch. I wanted to illustrate what the Arilou want you to do when you visit Falayalaralfali: relax!

You can download and play The Ur-Quan Masters for free at http://sc2.sourceforge.net

The Ur-Quan Masters - Arilou - Welcome to Falayalaralfali

A remix of the title theme from the famous Odyssey demo on the Amiga. The original track was made by Greg of Alcatraz. 

The remix was made entirely with EWQL Symphonic Orchestra Platinum Plus Play Edition in Renoise, and was a real bitch to export. From the point where I started exporting the finished track until I had the final MP3 on my HD took me 6 hours. I'd say the entire track took me about 30 hours of work spread over a period of a few months.

This is also probably the biggest orchestral arrangement I've made so far. It's so big that I couldn't load the entire song in 24-bit mode in the end, and instead had to split it up into 4 parts so that my computer could handle it. 

I really love the Odyssey music (at least the first 4 tracks), and I'm planning to remix more of them. This will be the only orchestral score though, as the rest are more synth-based.

Odyssey - Part 1

An early foray into exotic-sounding music that I made back in 2005. This is a very unusual kind of track for me, but I think it turned out quite well.

Into the Jungle

Originally composed for the same Neverwinter Nights module that The Library was also made for. As with that song, please keep in mind that most music I've made for NWN is intentionally short, usually less than 2 minutes long.

The Summoning

The first track I ever composed in Renoise, and an interesting experiment in trance. It's not my most popular piece, but I just love the string passages in this one.

Agile Mind

If you've listened to any of my other tracks from 2005, you might have noticed that I tend to use a very specific piano sample. Fact is, I absolutely love that sample and used it a lot that year. Restless Slumber came to be as a result of that love.

Restless Slumber

Another piece of music intended to be used for a Neverwinter Nights module. This one was supposed to play during an encounter with a pack of wolves, hence the name. The module was never finished. 

Please excuse the sound quality. I didn't exactly have the best of orchestral libraries at the time I wrote this.

Wolves

Hobby musician, professional software developer, and gamer. Will compose music for games. 

Espen Gätzschmann

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