Jason Graves gives Dead Space a frightening score

by: Randy - posted: 10/6/2008 9:44:00 PM

Composer Jason Graves' work has graced two dozen projects ranging from the King Arthur soundtrack to Star Trek Legacy, and from Zathura to Dead Head Fred.  More recently he was hired on to score October 14th's Dead Space, the creepy-crawly sci-fi horror title from EA.  In two sessions, Graves conducted 60 musicians of the acclaimed Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra at the Bastyr Chapel in Seattle, and a year later, he conducted another 60-piece ensemble from the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, and 20 voice choir at the Skywaylker Sound Scoring Stage.  The entire Dead Space soundtrack will be available on EA Trax to coincide with the game's launch, but if you want a snippet now, head over to Jason Graves Music where you can hear his utterly creepy aleatoric work in "Nicole's Theme," "Severed Limbs Are Hazardous Waste," and "The Necromorphs Attack."  Scary, scary stuff.

DEAD SPACE REVEALS SPINE-TINGLING SCORE COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY JASON GRAVES

DARK AND DISSONANT ORCHESTRAL SOUNDTRACK FOR EA’S NEW
SCI-FI SURVIVAL HORROR VIDEOGAME RECORDED AT SKYWALKER SOUND

Redwood City, CA – October 6, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced the intensely atmospheric orchestral score for EA’s new sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space™. Developed with award-winning composer Jason Graves, in association with Rod Abernethy and under the direction of EA Redwood Shores studio; Jason’s chilling score for Dead Space enhances the horror and tension of the game through extreme aleatoric and extended 20th Century orchestral music techniques.

 

“Graves’ work on the Dead Space score is simply fantastic. The music is a key factor in the overall tense mood of our game,” says Don Veca, Audio Director of Dead Space. “We needed an original orchestral score for Dead Space -- Aleatoric in style, dark and dissonant, ranging from subtle creepy/eerie moods to completely cacophonous frenzies.”

Dead Space is a bold and bloody sci-fi survival horror game that is designed to deliver the ultimate in psychological thrills and gruesome action. In Dead Space, players step into the role of engineer Isaac Clarke, an ordinary man on a seemingly routine mission to fix the communications systems aboard a deep space mining ship called the USG Ishimura. Set approximately 500 years in the future, Isaac discovers that the crew of the mining spaceship is found horribly slaughtered and transformed into terrifying monsters. Now Isaac is cut off, trapped, and engaged in a desperate fight for survival.

The official soundtrack for Dead Space will be available on www.ea.com/eatrax for purchase to coincide with the release of Dead Space on October 14, 2008.  The score features over three hours of music recorded during two different recording sessions. In the first session Graves conducted sixty musicians of the acclaimed Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra at the Bastyr Chapel in Seattle, and a year later Graves conducted sixty players of the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and twenty voice choir at the world famous Skywalker Sound Scoring Stage. During both sessions, co-produced by Jason Graves and Rod Abernethy, the orchestra was recorded individually by section (woodwinds, brass, percussion and strings) with multiple dynamic levels and variations to be implemented as adaptive layers of music in the game. EA’s audio team designed the music system to be multi-layered so the music could be mixed at run-time based on gameplay and situation.

 

“The unique interactive aspect of the Dead Space music gave me the opportunity to experiment and try things I've never been able to do in a video game score before,” said Dead Space composer Jason Graves. “Many thanks to Don Veca and the rest of the team at EA for allowing me such freedom with the score; it was both the most challenging and most rewarding music I've ever composed."

Dead Space will ship on October 14, 2008 for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The PC version will ship on October 20, 2008. For more information on the game, visit the official web site at www.deadspacegame.com.