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Aivi & Surasshu | |
|---|---|
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Labels | Materia Collective, Ubiktune, Infloresce |
| Members |
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| Website | aivisura |
Aivi & Surasshu (stylized as aivi & surasshu) are an electronic composer duo, composed of pianist Aivi Tran and electronic artist Steven "Surasshu" Velema. They are known for composing soundtracks, including that of Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe . [1] The two married in 2015. [2]
Aivi Tran and Steven Velema first met in person at GDC in 2012 (before GDC, they had interacted only on Twitter), and discussed the idea of a piano/chiptune hybrid project. [3]
Communicating after the convention, the two collaborated on an independent album project entitled The Black Box, and released on Ubiktune in 2013. The project was a combination of original piano and chiptune music, with several video game covers including "Lonely Rolling Star" from Katamari Damacy . [4] The album was positively received, with Kotaku describing it as "lush, melodic, and well put-together". [5]
The duo were suggested to creator Rebecca Sugar of the animated television series Steven Universe by storyboard artist Jeff Liu, shortly after the release of The Black Box, and were subsequently brought onto the project. [1] The duo made use of leitmotifs expressing each character's personality, which changes slightly depending on the situation. [6] The character Pearl was often accompanied by a piano, Garnet by a synth bass, Amethyst by drums, and Steven with chiptune tones. They worked with guitarist Stemage on some parts of the soundtrack, including the opening for the second season. [1]
The first volume of the Steven Universe soundtrack reached #22 on the Billboard 200. [7] A second volume followed in 2019, peaking at #28 on the Billboard 200, and #12 on the US iTunes chart. [8] [9]
On July 28, 2023, for the 10-year anniversary of their first album, the duo released the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Black Box. It includes 7 new tracks and had a limited run of vinyl, with a comic book to go alongside it.
In 2022, in an attempt to help support other composers and artists and create a community for personalized music, aivi founded Infloresce Records. [10] The label released their first album Infloresce Vol.1 - Floral Folklore featuring songs from artists signed to the label such as Lena Raine, telebasher, and miles morkri. Aivi & Surasshu composed, and performed the song "Mai and the Snake" for the album. In addition to their track on the album, surasshu mastered the album with aivi serving as album director. [11]
After 10 years of no new albums, except for the release of The Black Box (10th Anniversary Edition), in 2023 Aivi & Surasshu released their second full album, Meanwhile. Originally intended to be a sequel to The Black Box the album shifted to a reflection on the time spent in between the many events in their life since their last album. [12] The album was met with generally positive reviews, but received noticeably less attention than their previous work.
The duo subsequently worked on numerous video game soundtracks including Soul Saga , Ikenfell , [13] Cryamore [14] and Way to the Woods, [15] as well as several interactive Google Doodles. [16]
Chiptune is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The term is commonly used to refer to tracker format music using extremely basic and small samples that an old computer or console could produce, as well as music that combines PSG sounds with modern musical styles. It has been described as "an interpretation of many genres" since any existing song can be arranged in a chiptune style defined more by choice of instrument and timbre than specific style elements.
The music of the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI was composed by Naoshi Mizuta along with regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu and Kumi Tanioka. The Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack, a compilation of almost all of the music in the game, was released by DigiCube in 2002, and subsequently re-released by Square Enix in 2004. Final Fantasy XI Rise of the Zilart Original Soundtrack was released by DigiCube in 2003 after the release of the Rise of the Zilart expansion for Final Fantasy XI, and re-released by Square Enix in 2004. Final Fantasy XI Chains of Promathia Original Soundtrack was produced by Square Enix in 2004 after the release of the Chains of Promathia expansion, and in 2005 Square Enix published Music from the Other Side of Vana'diel, a collection of arranged tracks from the game performed by The Star Onions, a group composed of Square Enix composers including Naoshi Mizuta, Kumi Tanioka and Hidenori Iwasaki. Final Fantasy XI Treasures of Aht Urhgan Original Soundtrack was released by Square Enix in 2006 for the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion.
Anamanaguchi is an American chiptune-based pop and rock band from New York City. The band has four members: lead songwriters and guitarists Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar, bassist James DeVito, and drummer Luke Silas.
Tron: Legacy is the soundtrack album to the 2010 film of the same name, released by Walt Disney Records on December 3, 2010. It is the only film score by French music duo Daft Punk.
Nier is an action role-playing video game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix in 2010. The music of Nier was composed by Keiichi Okabe with members of his studio, Monaca, Kakeru Ishihama and Keigo Hoashi, and Takafumi Nishimura of Cavia. The soundtrack has inspired the release of four official albums by Square Enix—an official soundtrack album and three albums of arrangements—along with two mini-albums included as pre-order bonuses for the Japanese versions of the game and two licensed EPs of jazz arrangements.
The music of the 2009 video game Minecraft, developed by Mojang Studios, primarily consists of two soundtrack albums by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, better known as C418. American composer Lena Raine has also contributed music for four major updates to the game since 2020, alongside Aaron Cherof and Kumi Tanioka who worked on the most recent version in 2024. Music included in downloadable content (DLC) for legacy console versions of the game was handled by British musician Gareth Coker.
"Acércate" is a song recorded by Puerto Rican reggaetón recording artist Ivy Queen and duo Wisin & Yandel for Queen's seventh studio album Drama Queen (2010). It was composed by Queen and Marcos Masis alongside the duo, while being produced by Luny Tunes and Tainy. Originally entitled "No Te Equivoques", the song was leaked onto the Internet prior to the album's release, which prompted Ivy Queen and Wisin & Yandel to re-record the song.
Steven Universe is an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. It tells the coming-of-age story of a young boy, Steven Universe, who lives with the Crystal Gems—magical, mineral-based aliens named Garnet (Estelle), Amethyst, and Pearl —in the fictional town of Beach City. Steven, who is half-Gem, has adventures with his friends and helps the Gems protect the world from their own kind. The pilot was first shown in May 2013, and the series ran for five seasons, from November 2013 to January 2019. The TV film Steven Universe: The Movie was released in September 2019, and an epilogue limited series, Steven Universe Future, ran from December 2019 to March 2020.
"Steven the Sword Fighter" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of the American animated television series Steven Universe. It is written by Joe Johnston and Jeff Liu.
Richard Vreeland, better known by his stage name Disasterpeace, is an American composer and musician. He first got started in music after learning the guitar in high school and started writing music around the age of 17. Known for his work as a chiptune artist, Vreeland has scored many video games, including Fez and Hyper Light Drifter. He stepped into film score composition with the 2015 film It Follows, and has since composed the scores for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Under the Silver Lake, Triple Frontier, and Bodies Bodies Bodies.
"Jail Break" is the 49th episode of the first season of American animated television series Steven Universe, which premiered on March 12, 2015 on Cartoon Network. The episode was written and storyboarded by Joe Johnston, Jeff Liu, and series creator Rebecca Sugar. The episode acts as a continuation of the arc started in the previous episode, "The Return", and the two aired alongside each other as a two-part special. Both episodes were watched by 1.697 million viewers.
"The Answer" is the 22nd episode of the second season of American animated television series Steven Universe, which premiered on January 4, 2016 on Cartoon Network. It was written and storyboarded by Lamar Abrams and Katie Mitroff. The episode was viewed by 1.384 million viewers.
Grant Henry, better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe. He is also known for his involvement in several video game cover projects, including Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar.
Keiji Yamagishi is a Japanese video game music composer. He is known for his work on Tecmo's late 1980s and early 1990s NES titles, such as Ninja Gaiden. Yamagishi has been considered a pioneer of chiptune music, producing the soundtracks of numerous titles in the 8 bit era.
Steven Universe: The Movie is a 2019 American animated musical television film based on the animated television series Steven Universe created by Rebecca Sugar. The film is directed by Sugar, alongside co-directors Joe Johnston and Kat Morris, and stars Zach Callison, Estelle, Michaela Dietz, Deedee Magno Hall, and Sarah Stiles, alongside an ensemble cast reprising their roles from the television series. Steven Universe: The Movie takes place two years after the events of the series finale "Change Your Mind", and follows the Crystal Gems as they attempt to save all organic life on Earth from a deranged Gem with a history with Steven's mother Rose Quartz.
Westworld: Season 2 is the second soundtrack of the American television series Westworld, composed by Ramin Djawadi. Released on June 25, 2018, the day after the season finale aired, the album includes 29 pieces composed for the show. Comprising mostly original compositions by Djawadi, the album also includes more cover versions of modern songs, with adaptations of tracks released by Kanye West, The White Stripes, Nirvana, Wu-Tang Clan and Radiohead, plus a second arrangement of The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black".
Ikenfell is a role-playing video game developed by Happy Ray Games and published by Humble Games. It was released for Windows, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 8, 2020.
Undertale Soundtrack is a soundtrack album by Toby Fox, released in 2015 for the video game Undertale.
The following are the list of soundtracks for the animated television series Steven Universe created by Rebecca Sugar for Cartoon Network. Sugar also wrote the songs and musical numbers for the series, which are produced by the musician duo Aivi & Surasshu and jointly composed the title and ending themes for the series. The original soundtrack for the series, featuring a collection of songs were released in two volumes: Vol.1, featuring the musical numbers from the first four seasons, were released on June 2, 2017 and Vol. 2, featuring songs from the fifth season, released on April 12, 2019. The original score from each seasons in the series were released into separate albums during May–September 2020. The original soundtrack from the sequel series, Steven Universe Future, was released on October 23, 2020. Both the soundtracks and score albums were released by Turner Music Publishing, Cartoon Network, and WaterTower Music.
Steven Universe: The Movie is the soundtrack to the 2019 television film Steven Universe: The Movie, based on the Cartoon Network animated television series Steven Universe. The soundtrack was released on September 1, 2019 by WaterTower Music ahead of the film's television premiere, and features 17 songs performed by the film's cast, with songwriters including Chance the Rapper, James Fauntleroy, Gallant, Ted Leo, Mike Krol, and Grant Henry amongst several others, collaborating with director Rebecca Sugar. It also includes the original film score composed by Aivi & Surasshu, who worked on the series. The deluxe edition of the album was released on November 15, and both editions were also released on vinyl.