Cinematic & Soundtrack

A variety of my rock and metal tracks, collected in one place for your headbanging pleasure.

Rock

Written as a demo for Soundiron's Voices of Gaia: Strawberry sample library, and inspired by some recent reading (God's War by Kameron Hurley).  Dark and apocalyptic hybrid electronic/orchestral.

Bahreha

Previously unreleased in-game music from the PC strategy game Kingdom Commander.  Ambient-ish fantasy-ish gameplay music with some brief guest vocals from my ultra-talented wife, mezzo-soprano Joy Dorsch.

Two Kingdoms

Shameless 80s instrumental guitar rock nostalgia kitsch.  This is a personal project - I wanted to explore some of my underutilized soft synths and vintage synth libraries, work my guitar chops back up after months of barely playing (my fingers hurt so bad right now), and basically write the kind of music that I would have thought was awesome at age 14.  Hoping to make more of this stuff (once my fingers recover).

(track photo by Jeff Moses)

Falling Stars

A blast from the past here: the original main theme music for Airborn, a full conversion UT3 mod and Make Something Unreal Contest Phase 4 winner for best art.  This whole project was a labor of love from a brilliant team with ton of heart - I felt honored to be included.

This main theme was essentially my audition for the team, and one of my first attempts at this kind of orchestral writing. It's an old track, made with old tools (mostly East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, the old Kontakt version) and I would change a lot about the mix and arrangement if I had to do it again today, but that melody still totally works for me - it still seems full of the hope and optimism and sincerity that we all brought to our work on Airborn.

Airborn Main Theme (2009)

My soundtrack for Airborn Studios' beautiful Airborn Showcase trailer video.  Watch the whole thing here: https://youtu.be/7eF1xWPWDvw

https://www.airborn.art/

Airborn Showcase Soundtrack

Main theme/end credits music from No Matter Studios' PC/PS5/Xbox title Praey for the Gods.  Vocals by Ian, Joy and Emma Dorsch. Additional choral textures: the Vestr Singers directed by Ian Dorsch.

Praey for the Gods Original Soundtrack album on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1023160/Praey_for_the_Gods_Soundtrack/

Praey For The Gods Main Theme (End Credits)

Cutscene music from No Matter Studios' PC/PS5/Xbox title Praey for the Gods. Solo vocals by Joy and Emma Dorsch. Also featuring the Western Washington University Concert Choir and the Vestr Singers, both ensembles directed by Ian Dorsch.

This is an extended version of the original cue - the final cutscene was extended substantially from the version in the Early Access release of the game and OST, so the music had to be expanded/rewritten to match.

Purchase the Praey for the Gods OST on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1023160/Praey_for_the_Gods_Soundtrack/

Image credit: No Matter Studios

Hymn 6: Ortus Ex Mortis

Instrumental groove metal, written as a showcase for Impact Soundworks' amp sim plugin, Shreddage Amp XTC.  All guitar amps and cabs are from the plugin: https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-amp-xtc/

All rhythm tracks played on a Fender Telecaster in drop-D, solo played on my trusty old Charvel Desolation. It been years since I've written riffs in drop-D - turns out it's still a pretty good time \m/ \m/

Ekstasis

The full version of my demo track for Emergence Audio's Infinite Steel Tongue sample library.  All synth sounds come from the library.  Strings and drums are from other sources, and the guitar is live.

Here's the library-only version: https://soundcloud.com/emergenceaudiovst/everything-else-disappears-by-ian-dorsh

Link to the library: https://emergenceaudio.com/product/infinite-steel-tongue/

Everything Else Disappears (full arrangement)

This started as a demo for Emergence Audio's vintage synth-oriented sample library Source Code, but I got bored and it somehow turned into an homage to 90s space rock with an epic guitar solo.  All synth sounds are from Source Code, including the bass. Guitars are live, drums are Gospel Producers' Pro Drums.

If you want to check out the Source Code library: https://emergenceaudio.com/product/source-code/

Spirals

A track from the game Card Dungeon, from Playtap Games. iOS version launches October 1, 2014.  http://card-dungeon.com/

The Crusader's Journey

Main theme for Tiny Game Dev's upcoming action game, Terralysia:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2540670/Terralysia/

Synths, orchestra, and a whole pile of 6-, 7- and 8-string guitars, with a dash of metal and a dollop of late 80s/early 90s synth-nerd new age music.  Check out the game on Steam!

Terralysia Main Theme

Gameplay music from Terralysia. Fantasy-meets-synthwave vibes.

Check out Terralysia here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2540670/Terralysia/

Terralysia OST - Level 2

Gameplay music from Terralysia.  Check it out on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2540670/Terralysia/

Terralysia OST - Level 3

Hillbilly Hard Rock, originally written for the Gamers With Jobs Radio podcast

Podunk Stomp

Full version of the theme music from the Zero Punctuation video series.

Zero Punctuation Theme

Theme music for The Escapist's podcast.  Rock/electronic.

Escapist Podcast Theme

Pummeling metal.  Best known as the theme music for Culture in Decline.  Available for licensing here: http://www.premiumbeat.com/artists/ian-dorsch

Undefeated

Theme music for indie game Greedy Cookie.  8 bit synths put in a blender with gypsy jazz.

Greedy Cookie Theme

Orchestral soundtrack music for the game Airborn.  I used some ideas from my score for the old Airborn Intro video (http://vimeo.com/9683744) as a starting point, and branched out from there.

Piño's Ride

Test driving my Ibanez Bowen 7-string - it's providing the 'Alex Lifeson circa 1983' clean tone for the main riff that propels this track.  

This was a quick project for a corporate video, and my only direction was to make something more awesome than the temp track, so I got to basically go with "what is the musical direction will allow me to come up with 2 mins of something relatively awesome in 8 hours."

Moving Skyward

I mainly worked up this instrumental track to test out my Ibanez JBM27, which I used for the solo and most of the rhythm guitar tracks.  Additional rhythm stuff from my trusty old Schecter C7 and Agile 8-string.

In addition to Omnisphere, Superior Drummer 3 and a raft of Kontakt libraries, I dusted off some of my old hardware synths - some of that wall of distortion is courtesy of a Korg Wavestation EX, and the bass is doubled with a factory preset from a Roland XP-80.  I tried to do it in software, but it just didn't sound right.

Photo by Jeff Moses

Oceanic

Mark Knopfler-inspired music for riding your trusty steed into the sunset.  Available for licensing at Premiumbeat.com: http://www.premiumbeat.com/royalty_free_music/songs/spaghetti-western-2

Spaghetti Western

60's mega kitsch pseudo jazz.  Theme music for the Escapist Show video series.  

Escapist Show Theme

Theme music for The Besties Podcast - http://www.polygon.com/the-besties-podcast

Pop/rock/electronic with a little chiptune sauce on top.

The Besties Theme

This 2011 demo was a proof of concept for an album project.  This particular iteration is a rough mix with no vocals that I rendered out to send to the drummer for the project (the mighty Hunter Ginn of Canvas Solaris).  It's incomplete, but I am really pleased with overall "cinematic orchestral post rock/metal" vibe.  The project ended up on hold due to my production schedule, but I am hoping to get back to it in 2013.  Grab the download for better quality.

Lux Aeterna (WIP)

Conceived as a demo song for Impact Soundworks' Shreddage 3 Hydra 8-string guitar sample library.  All guitars are Hydra, played live on keyboard.

Constellations

Theme music for The Escapist's video series Yahtzee's Dev Diary: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/category/yahtzees-dev-diary/

A few people have asked about this one, and Yahtzee and Nick at The Escapist have graciously given me permission to share.  Enjoy! \m/ \m/

Yahtzee's Dev Diary Theme

Messing around with some heavy 8 string grooves and industrial-esque production. Hope to develop this into a full track over the next little while.

Mechanized WIP

This track was written about five years ago as a demo for Native Instruments' symphonic brass sample library. The brass always sounded great to me, but I've always wanted to come back to it and flesh out the rest of the orchestration.  This isn't a total overhaul, but I did make a lot of small tweaks, beefed up the strings, percussion and choir, and just generally filled things out.  It's definitely more like how I heard it in my head.

Into the Open Sky

Striving to make awesome things with awesome people.  Most recent: Praey for the Gods, Airborn Studios UE5 Showcase.

Ian Dorsch

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