Huge fan of the soundtrack to this game! Couldn't resist making a cover of this beautiful piece.

Soundtrack composed by Motoi Sakuraba and Yuka Kitamura.

Queen Of Drangleic (8-bit Arrangement)

On the morning of January 28th, 1986, there was a palpable air of excitement and anxiety around the United States as coverage of NASA's 25th space shuttle launch was broadcast across the country. The shuttle Challenger had seen nine previously successful flights, but on this fateful day a catastrophic failure one minute into the mission resulted in the destruction of the spacecraft and the deaths of all the crew members. Millions of Americans watching were left stunned and distraught, everyone expecting a vastly different outcome in which on-board school teacher Christa McAuliffe was to give her students their very first lesson from space. 

The Challenger disaster is a moment remembered by many today, and my work seeks to capture the spectrum of emotions that still linger all these years later, from the euphoria of scientific triumph to the pain of irrevocable tragedy. I use recordings from live coverage of the mission and communications among flight control operatives to recreate the launch sequence and the critical seconds leading up to the explosion. In the aftermath the piece offers a eulogy for the crew, one that is despairing yet hopeful. The crew's courage to board that shuttle and NASA's drive to attempt the impossible -- even when the odds are stacked against them -- are at the heart of this tragic event, and they show just how limitless and indomitable our determination can be. 

Challenger is dedicated to the seven crew members of mission STS-51-L: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe.

Recordings include the voices of Mission Control spacecraft communicator Richard O. Covey, launch commentator Hugh Harris, Mission Control spokesman Steve Nesbitt, and Challenger astronaut Dick Scobee among other Mission Control operatives.

Challenger

A Western main title theme I wrote for my orchestration class at NYU!

Grand Teton Range

Lamplight City. The name alone conjures up ominous scenes and sounds: a dark alleyway, seedy figures in the night, a flickering street light. The artwork opens up a window into a dystopian world, and through this setting a story of mystery, murder and the macabre comes to life. 

Getting to work on a project like this that is so innately inspirational is one of the true joys of being a composer. Here it is less my job to create a score and more so to uncover what sounds the game conveys all on its own. And after picturing the city streets and imagining the characters going about their lives, pieces of the puzzle started to fall in place: a high piano note for that flickering street light, tremelo and pizzicato strings for the dark alleyways, an unsettling harp for the unbreakable bond between our two detectives, Miles Fordham and Bill Leger. To have such associations flow so seamlessly is not a testament to the skill of a composer but rather the integrity of the world that the music comes to inhabit. 

Though I may have written the score, I share much of that credit with developer Francisco Gonzalez. Without his vision and encouragement to experiment, I don't think I would have ended up with anything close to what I have today. I only hope my music shows what a wonderful time I've had exploring every corner of Lamplight City and how thankful I am to be a part of this game.

"Lamplight City (Original Game Soundtrack)" was made possible by the following individuals: 

Music composed, mixed and mastered by Mark Benis 

Featuring Folklore Guild on “Down Among the Dead Men” and “The Fallen Angel” 

“Down Among the Dead Men” lyrics adapted by Francisco Gonzalez 

FOLKLORE GUILD 
Conductor: Angel Mannion 
Sopranos: Anne-Marie Dicce-Valenzuela, Tasha Koontz and Anne Whattoff 
Altos: Elly Roseberry and Evangeline Woo 
Tenors: Juan Carlos Acosta, Mitch Rosenthal and Timmy Simpson 
Basses: Aaron Bullard, Martin Green, Matt Nielsen and Paul Young Jr. 
Recording Engineer: Chris Hobson 

Album art by Francisco Gonzalez 

Video game Lamplight City by Grundislav Games (grundislavgames.com) 

Special thanks to: my mentors Mark Suozzo, Irwin Fisch and Alan Silverman, Ron Passaro for helping me find the sound of LC, Sebastian Wolff for all his work behind the scenes, Kevin Won for his mixing advice, my family for supporting me, and finally Francisco Gonzalez for being someone I can call much more than just a collaborator. 

© 2018 Materia Collective LLC 
Ⓟ 2018 Materia Collective LLC under exclusive license from Mark Benis 

For complete credits and information about this release, please visit Materia Collective: www.materiacollective.com/music/lamplight-city-original-game-soundtrack

Website: www.markbenis.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mark_benis
YouTube: www.youtube.com/markbenis
Instagram: www.instagram.com/markbenis
Bandcamp: www.markbenis.bandcamp.com

Down Among The Dead Men

St. Roch's Dog Is Barking

The Stakeout

Lamplight City

Congruence

Co-written with Mark Lohmann

Violin, Viola: Patti Kilroy
Cello: Andy Tsai
Guitar: Mark Lohmann

Renswoude

Co-written with Mark Lohmann

Violin, Viola: Patti Kilroy
Cello: Andy Tsai
Guitar, brushed Percussion: Mark Lohmann

Nederrijn

Chaos Guardian

Birch Town

AiliA's Theme

composer / game dev 💀

 Rosewater, AiliA, Once Upon a Jester, Everybody Wham Wham, Lamplight City

Mark Benis

Popular tracks