Seven Levels / Seven Levels / Seven Levels

Over the past two years, or so, I had become increasingly interested in music from old video games. I had already been arranging quite a few pop tunes, mainly Radiohead, for classical piano, so it was simply a natural course for me to begin arranging game music.

During my final year at Oberlin, I had built up a fairly extensive repertoire of game pieces, and made the reservations for an evening recital of my material. To my surprise, I ended up packing the small venue with game music and classical music fans alike. It was a wonderful experience, quite possibly the most engaged audience I have ever performed for. Unfortunately, the recording I had made of the recital didn't come out, so I went into the studio to quickly re-record the concert. Seven Levels is a combination of recordings from that session and recordings I had made previously of the same material for various online game remixing sites.

The recording includes one original composition, Escape from Azador, a piece I had written on piano to emulate a cinematic game music style, and had later arranged for orchestra. I had performed it on my game music recital as well and it had been a hit. One recording I have left off is an arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. 2 Theme, since I never got a decent recording of it. If I get the chance, it will be included at some later date.