The Wheel of Time is a series of high fantasy novels by American author Robert Jordan, with Brandon Sanderson as a co-author for the final three novels. Originally planned as a six-book series at its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time came to span 14 volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and three companion books. Jordan died in 2007 while working on what was planned to be the twelfth and final volume in the series. He prepared extensive notes, which enabled fellow fantasy author Sanderson to complete the final book, which grew into three volumes: The Gathering Storm (2009), Towers of Midnight (2010), and A Memory of Light (2013).
Midnight Syndicate is an American musical duo that has been working primarily in the genre of neoclassical dark ambient music since 1997 and is based in Chardon, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and owned by Square Enix that includes video games, motion pictures, and other merchandise. The series began in 1987 as an eponymous role-playing video game developed by Square, spawning a video game series that became the central focus of the franchise. The music of the Final Fantasy series refers to the soundtracks of the Final Fantasy series of video games, as well as the surrounding medley of soundtrack, arranged, and compilation albums. The series' music ranges from very light background music to emotionally intense interweavings of character and situation leitmotifs.
Final Fantasy VII is a role-playing video game by Square as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. Released in 1997, the game sparked the release of a collection of media centered on the game entitled the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The music of the Final Fantasy VII series includes not only the soundtrack to the original game and its associated albums, but also the soundtracks and music albums released for the other titles in the collection. The first album produced was Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack, a compilation of all the music in the game. It was released as a soundtrack album on four CDs by DigiCube in 1997. A selection of tracks from the album was released in the single-disc Reunion Tracks by DigiCube the same year. Piano Collections Final Fantasy VII, an album featuring piano arrangements of pieces from the soundtrack, was released in 2003 by DigiCube, and Square Enix began reprinting all three albums in 2004. To date, these are the only released albums based on the original game's soundtrack, and were solely composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu; his role for the majority of subsequent albums has been filled by Masashi Hamauzu and Takeharu Ishimoto.
Martin O'Donnell is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's series, such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny. O'Donnell collaborated with his musical colleague Michael Salvatori for many of the scores; he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy. O'Donnell was Bungie's audio lead until April 11, 2014.
The Halo Original Soundtrack is a soundtrack for the video game Halo: Combat Evolved. Composed and produced by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori for Bungie, the soundtrack was released on June 11, 2002. Most of the music from Halo: Combat Evolved is present on the CD, although some songs have been remixed by O'Donnell in medley form for "more enjoyable" listening. The first piece O'Donnell wrote, known as "Halo", became the basis for Halo's "signature sound" which has been heard in the other games of the main trilogy.
The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Bungie's 2004 video game Halo 2. The soundtrack was released as two separate volumes, released almost two years apart. Volume 1, released at the same time as Halo 2 on November 9, 2004, contains arranged instrumental pieces written by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, as well as "inspired-by" tracks from bands Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin. Volume 2 was released on April 25, 2006, and contains all the game music arranged in a suite form.
The music of the Streets of Rage series of beat 'em up games, released in the early 1990s, was primarily produced by Yuzo Koshiro.
The music of the video game Final Fantasy VIII was composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu. The Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack, a compilation of all music in the game, was released on four Compact Discs by DigiCube in Japan, and by Square EA in North America. A special orchestral arrangement of selected tracks from the game—arranged by Shirō Hamaguchi—was released under the title Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec Final Fantasy VIII, and a collection of piano arrangements—performed by Shinko Ogata—was released under the title Piano Collections Final Fantasy VIII.
Robert Berry is an American guitarist, bassist, vocalist and record producer, best known for his work with Hush, 3 with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer, Ambrosia, Alliance, and Los Tres Gusanos. He was previously with The Greg Kihn Band, and as of 2022, he is with progressive band Six By Six on bass, vocals and keyboards, a supergroup with guitarist Crichton (Saga) and drummer Nigel Glockler.
The music of the Kingdom Hearts video game series was composed by Yoko Shimomura with orchestral music arranged by Kaoru Wada. The original soundtracks of the games have been released on three albums and a fourth compilation album. The soundtracks to the Kingdom Hearts games feature several musical pieces from both Square Enix and Disney works, including such pieces as "Mickey Mouse Club March" by Jimmie Dodd, "This Is Halloween" by Danny Elfman, and "One-Winged Angel" by Nobuo Uematsu. They also feature several vocal songs, the most notable being the four main theme songs: "Hikari", "Passion", "Chikai", and "Face My Fears." The two themes were written and performed by Japanese American pop star Hikaru Utada; in addition to Japanese, English versions of the first three songs were produced, titled "Simple and Clean", "Sanctuary", and "Don't Think Twice", respectively.
The Chocobo video game series is a spin-off series composed of over a dozen games developed by Square Co. and later by Square Enix featuring a super deformed version of the Chocobo, a Final Fantasy series mascot and fictional bird, as the protagonist. Several of the titles have received separate album releases of music from the game. The music of the Chocobo series includes soundtrack albums for the Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon sub-series—comprising Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, Chocobo's Dungeon 2, and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon—and soundtrack albums of music from Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, and Chocobo and the Magic Picture Book: The Witch, The Maiden, and the Five Heroes, as well as an album of arranged music from Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon and a single entitled Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon Toki Wasure No Meikyuu: Door Crawl for the theme song of Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon.
The Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles video game series consists of Crystal Chronicles, a spin-off of the main Final Fantasy series, its sequels My Life as a King and My Life as a Darklord, and their spin-offs, Ring of Fates, Echoes of Time and The Crystal Bearers. Crystal Chronicles, Ring of Fates, and Echoes of Time have had released soundtrack albums to date, and Crystal Chronicles and Ring of Fates each have an associated single. Kumi Tanioka is the main composer for the series, having composed the three released soundtracks as well as the music for My Life as a King and My Life as a Darklord. Hidenori Iwasaki is filling that role for The Crystal Bearers. Nobuo Uematsu, the main composer for the regular Final Fantasy series, contributed one track to the Ring of Fates soundtrack. Yae and Donna Burke sang the Japanese and English versions of the theme song for Crystal Chronicles, respectively, while Aiko sang the theme song for Ring of Fates.
Strawberry Shortcake is a cartoon character used in greeting cards published by American Greetings. The line was later expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products featuring the character and an extended cast of friends and pets. In addition, the franchise has spawned television specials, animated television series and films. The franchise is currently owned by the Canadian children's television company WildBrain and American brand management company Iconix Brand Group through the holding company Shortcake IP Holdings LLC.
The Mother series is a role-playing video game series created by Shigesato Itoi for Nintendo. The series started in 1989 with the Japan-only release of Mother, which was followed up by Mother 2, released as EarthBound outside Japan, for the Super NES in 1994. A second sequel was released in Japan only, Mother 3, for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. The music of the Mother series includes the soundtracks to all three games; the first game was composed for by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, who were joined by Hiroshi Kanazu for the second game, while Mother 3's score was written by Shogo Sakai.
Mark S. Berry is an American music and film producer, and the chairman of AMG. He has worked with Grammy and Juno nominated artists such as Carly Simon, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Boy George, Yes, Joan Jett, Cameo, Voivod and Kool & The Gang.
Neil Davidge is an English record producer, songwriter, film score composer, musician, and occasional backing vocalist. Once an associate of dance producers DNA, he is best known as the long-term co-writer and producer for the music production outfit Massive Attack. In 1997, he also produced the Sunna album One Minute Science. During that time he has established a career as a film score composer including projects such as Push, Bullet Boy, Trouble the Water, and additional music for Clash of the Titans.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix in 2011 as the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII. The music of the game was composed by Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, and Mitsuto Suzuki. It was intended to sound different from the music of previous Final Fantasy titles, featuring more musical styles and vocal pieces. Since the release of the game, Square Enix has published the 2011 four-disc soundtrack album, Final Fantasy XIII-2 Original Soundtrack, as well as an album of arrangements and alternate versions of tracks from the game, Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack PLUS, in 2012. The theme song for the game, "Yakusoku no Basho", was released by singer Mai Fukui as a single in 2011, and the English version of the song, sung by Charice Pempengco and included in the non-Japanese versions of the game, was included on her 2012 album Infinity.
The music for the 2011 neo-noir detective video game L.A. Noire, developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games, was composed by musicians Andrew Hale and Simon Hale. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, the score also features contributions from Woody Jackson, who had collaborated with Rockstar on other projects both previously and since. Andrew Hale felt that composing the game's score was about setting a mood, attempting to compose music that felt accessible to players. The score was inspired by films from the 1940s, though the team avoided specifically composing for this time period, instead opting to focus on that after the music had been produced. Three supplementary vocal recordings were composed by The Real Tuesday Weld and performed by Claudia Brücken; they also sought to fit with the game's setting.
The music of Rocket League, a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix, is a compilation of electronic dance music (EDM) produced and curated by Psyonix audio director Mike Ault. It currently features music from 45 different artists, and has spawned a discography of four albums and four extended plays. The original soundtrack was produced by Ault and his band Hollywood Principle. Ault, having experimented with different genres, used personal projects unrelated to Rocket League as a base for the soundtrack. What followed was an EDM soundtrack inspired by early-to-mid 2000s progressive house music that Ault and Psyonix felt "embodied the spirit of the game." When in-game, the music is controlled using the playlist system "Rocket League Radio". Positive feedback from players, in addition to Ault's vision of a "big budget" playlist sound emulating Triple-A sports games such as the EA Sports titles, inspired him and the team to feature independent artists to be included in Rocket League's soundtrack. Ault credits the success of the soundtrack to the appeal of the EDM genre to the game's player base. In 2017, Canadian EDM label Monstercat partnered with Psyonix and began to feature its artists, and their music, in Rocket League, with multiple volumes featuring the music being released by the label.
