Product description
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Embark on your own musical journey with the official
soundtrack to the game Journey, composed by Austin Wintory.
Featuring live orchestra and captivating soloist performances,
the Journey soundtrack paints a moving, introspective backdrop to
the game and stands on its own as a work of singular beauty.
Austin Wintory s Soundtrack for Journey is the first videogame
soundtrack to be nominated for a Grammy Award. Audio CD, 1 Disc.
Review
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Breaking G.A.N.G. News: Austin Wintory s Soundtrack
for Journey becomes the first videogame soundtrack to be
nominated for a Grammy Award. In case you haven t yet heard the
groundbreaking news: For the first time in history, a soundtrack
album from a videogame, Austin Wintory s spellbinding soundtrack
for Journey, has been nominated for the Grammy Award, Best Score
Soundtrack for Visual Media. I and the other officers of G.A.N.G.
offer our hearty and well-deserved congratulations to Austin on
this groundbreaking achievement.. What you may not know is the
tremendous a of the behind-the-scenes work and effort that
went in making it possible for a game soundtrack even to be
nominated... Rewind to 1998, when composer Chance Thomas, put
together a group of a dozen of the top game composers to formally
lobby NARAS (which organizes the Grammys) to create a new Grammy
category for videogame music. At the time, the Grammy for
original score was called Best Instrumental Composition Writing
for a Motion Picture or for Television. Videogame soundtracks
weren t even eligible to even be nominated at the time! Chance
and those of us in that group showed how game music had changed
it was no longer Pacman and Donkey Kong-- but often included full
orchestral scores deserving of re by the music industry.
It was slow work, and NARAS declined to create a new category.
However after continued lobbying, in 2000 NARAS agreed that
videogame soundtracks warranted a closer look, and became
technically eligible, as the soundtrack category was modified to
become Best instrumental Composition Written for Motion Pictures,
Television or Other Visual Media . Yes, 2 years of lobbying
resulted in adding 4 words to the existing soundtrack category,
with videogames falling under the catchall of and other visual
media. While significant, this still somehow put videogames below
Motion Pictures and TV. A renewed concentrated effort was
orchestrated by Chance, G.A.N.G., through its founder Tommy
Tallarico and President Paul Lipson as well as EA s Steve Schnur,
and NARAS s Leslie Ann Jones and Greg Gordon. Fast forward, and
in 2011, Videogame music made history, getting additional
attention from the music industry, as a song originally recorded
for Civilization IV, included on Christopher Tin s album of
original music, Baba Yetu, won the Grammy for "Best Instrumental
Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. Although released on a solo
album, that represented the first time a Grammy was awarded to a
song that was originally written for a videogame! In 2012
recognizing the importance of the artform of videogame music,
NARAS decided to place Videogames, Movies and Television on equal
footing, re-naming the soundtrack category Best Score Soundtrack
for Visual Media. It is in that category, along with soundtracks
for films composed by John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore
that Austin s Journey soundtrack will compete for the Grammy in
2013. Once again, congratulations to Austin on this
groundbreaking achievement. And we should all thank Chance Thomas
and the others inside and outside of GANG who lobbied tirelessly
for years to help teach the world of the importance of videogame
music as an art form, making it deserving of respect and
re through awards such as the Grammy. It is no
coincidence that providing this kind of education about game
audio to the broader community in this case NARAS-- is one of the
core missions of G.A.N.G. --Brian Schmidt-President, Game Audio
Network Guild
