Videogame music is Bach, baby Tina Guo’s album is the soundtrack to our lives
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Classical music scholars, hold onto your mortar boards: the videogames are coming. Awesome orchestral versions of famous gaming themes are big business lately, with live concerts celebrating Skyrim and Tomb Raider popping up at the end of 2016, and 12 videogame tracks breaking into Classic FM’s 2015 Hall of Fame.
Tina Guo, an internationally renowned cellist, has been gracing game soundtracks for some time, playing cello on Journey, Diablo III and Call Of Duty: Black Ops II – and now she’s striking out on her own by releasing and performing her new album of videogame music, Game On. OPM met up with her in London to chat about how she got into the, er, game. “With Journey, my friend Austin Wintory was the composer,” she says. “After Journey, I played on his score for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. That was literally the most difficult music I’ve played. He’s got… not a vendetta, but he’s like, ‘I’m just gonna eff her up!’”
Guo’s move from traditional classical music into videogame tunes revealed one crucial difference. “[Some classical musicians] say, ‘Oh you’re playing Bach too slow, too fast, too emotional, not emotional enough’… you can’t please anyone. That’s why I like videogame music – there are no rules, we can do whatever we want. It’s being created in the moment.” Living composers, she says, are much easier: “I’ve never had a composer say: ‘You have to play it this way’.”
Want to witness Guo’s dynamic performances live? You might have the chance to see her sooner than you think. “I want to reach out to every gaming convention,” she says. “Just cold call them, obsessively, until they pick up, and set up a con tour!” Keep your eyes (and ears) wide open for Game On 2017: coming to… well, possibly every convention ever. Game On’s out now and stars 14 tracks from Skyrim, Tetris, Journey and more.