Sure, it's cool when a talented musician makes an album paying tribute to video game music. But what about when a whole bunch of composers assemble, locking their various musical tics and tricks in place for a single grand collection? That's more or less what's happened with World 1-2, a video game tribute album featuring compositions by video-game greats like Mega Man's Manami Matsumae, Journey's Austin Wintory, and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.
The album came out a few days ago, and guess what? It's good. In addition to the composers above, World 1-2 also features work by Ninja Gaiden composer Keiji Yamagishi (!!), Ridiculous Fishing's Eirik Suhrke, Super Hexagon's Chipzel, and many others.
You can pick it up here for ten bucks; proceeds from the album will go towards helping Koopa Soundworks, the impromptu label releasing World 1-2, make more music.
I emailed a bit with the album's director and executive producer, Mohammed Taher, who explained how World 1-2 came to be. He tells me that the album started out as a small EP grown from his Arabic gaming website World 1-2; the EP would feature music from Eirik Suhrke and Agent Whiskers.
He then looped Metroid Metal's Stemage into providing a remixes for the album, then began to ask other musicians. Before long, He'd gotten Yamaoka on board, then tracked down Yamagishi through Facebook. Both Yamagishi and Mega Man's Manami Matsumae have never worked outside of Japan, and Taher tells me that the two famed composers will actually be collaborating on one track on Yamagishi's upcoming album.
It's great to see an album like this come together, and to hear Taher's recounting of how his project attracted a bunch of willing musicians and grew into something much bigger than he'd intended. Here's hoping Koopa Soundworks keeps rolling, and gets even more ambitious with a follow-up.
Give World 1-2 a listen here:
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