Top Score

The soundtrack for the game 'Awesomenauts' sounds like an alien radio station. The music was created by a group of composers who call themselves SonicPicnic.

Composer Ryan Ike got his first big break in video-game composition by answering an open call for composers on Twitter for a game called 'Gunpoint'. He got the job -- and a BAFTA nomination. Hear more about Ryan Ike on this week's episode of Top Score.

Millions of people around the world play the 'casual' game Candy Crush Soda Saga, but composer Johan Holmstrom took the music very seriously, even recruiting the London Symphony Orchestra for the recording session. Holmstrom is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Ryan Thompson is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Minnesota, with a special interest in ludomusicology. What is that, you ask? Ludomusicology is a growing field in which musicologists study the impact of music in video games.

The new game 'Spartan Strike' exists in an audio-dominant world. To make sure he could still capture a player's attention, composer Tom Salta decided to record quieter, more subtle cues. He also enlisted the help of the New York Film Chorale and the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra. Hear more about it on this week's episode of Top Score.

Top Score says "thank you" to production assistant Pierce Huxtable for one year of great work. Pierce's position was funded by a (non-renewable) grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, an award for which Top Score is forever grateful.

Michael Schiciano joins Emily Reese on this week's Top Score to talk about old-school and modern approaches to composing. Thanks to the burgeoning mobile market, many composers use old-school techniques to create music for smartphone games.

The orchestral-rock video game cover band Do a Barrel Roll stopped by Classical MPR to record a set and to chat with Emily Reese, host of Top Score. 'They played a set and stole my heart -- I've always wanted to say that,' Emily says. Listen to the full session.

Completely self taught, Sam Dillard not only composes music, but he also performs and records his work. Recently hired by Kinect for its new Harry Potter trailer, Dillard joins Emily Reese on this week's episode of Top Score.

The enduring success of composer Chris Huelsbeck's early works has created a fan following in his native Germany and across the world. His work inspired a 2008 concert series, and more recently, he's crowd-funded a new album of piano works. Learn more about Chris Huelsbeck on this week's Top Score.

Chicago-based composer John Robert Matz isn't strictly a video-game music creator. He also writes for concert band. On this week's Top Score, Matz talks about these different works and their distinct styles. He also shares some 'sneak peaks' into tracks from the upcoming 'Fossil Echo.'

The director of music recording and scoring at Skywalker Sound, Leslie Ann Jones oversees all sound production in the facilities massive scoring stage. Jones has worked on films, television and video games, and has three Grammys to boot, which she simply calls 'pretty cool'. Hear more about Jones's amazing career on this week's Top Score.

What started out as a one-gig quartet for Chad Schwartz's senior recital has grown into a touring, viable music group. All four members of Triforce Quartet are classically trained musicians and avid gamers. Schwartz talks to Top Score host Emily Reese about the chamber-music group.

From a small studio in Finland, the men of Scoring Helsinki have created a big sound for the dungeon-crawling game, 'The Legend of Grimrock II'. Hear all about it on this week's episode of Top Score.

On this week's Top Score, Emily Reese talks with composer Paul Ruskay, who created the soundtrack for 'Homeworld Remastered'. He explains how he brought the soundtrack back to life from its original version, composed 15 years ago.

On a recent trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Emily stopped by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to learn more about the new Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program. Learn about and hear performances from the SFCM on this week's Top Score.

Composer Daniel Sadowski possesses that rare ability to see music in color, so when he was asked to compose music for the vivid game 'Stormthrone', it was a dream come true. Daniel Sadowski is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Seven-piece jazz ensemble missingNo arrange video game music into complex, catchy jazz and funk-infused pieces. They are Emily Reese's guests on this week's Top Score.

Do men and women compose differently? Is there such thing as 'masculine' or 'feminine' music? Is defining music that way inherently sexist? This week's episode of Top Score asks some tough questions with composer Penka Kouneva.

Composing duo Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White (aka Finishing Move) met with Top Score host Emily Reese to discuss the game Massive Chalice and the challenges it posed to them. They also share pointers for other collaborative composers.

After four years of soundtrack development, the score for the game 'Ori and the Blind Forest' rested on one composer's ability to unite new musicians and seasoned score professionals.

Composer, audio engineer and voice actor Alexander Brandon joins Emily Reese on this week's Top Score to talk about creating soundtracks that support the various atmospheres of video games.

Composer Marios Aristopoulos has scored the video game, 'Apotheon', a game set in ancient Greece that combines Grecian art styles and 2D platform gameplay. Marios spoke to Emily Reese on this week's Top Score.

In creating the soundtrack for 'Assassin's Creed Unity: Dead Kings', composer Cris Velasco used traditional sounds, including arpeggios, counterpoint and harpsichord to create music to fit the game's 18th-century setting.

The California-based composer and violinist has spent significant time living and working in Alaska. He still draws inspiration from the beauty and solitude of the North. Jeff is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Composer Billy Martin is known for writing soundtracks with comedic and with jazz elements. This week on Top Score, Emily Reese talks to Martin about his work, and we hear samples of two very different soundtracks.

Composer Peter McConnell felt pressure to write great music for the game 'Hearthstone', which was projected to be a big seller. McConnell is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

To compose the music for 'The Order: 1886', Jason Graves removed instruments that don't carry a heavy sound. Violins and high woodwinds were thrown out, and violas and cellos doubled up. Learn more about it on this week's episode of Top Score.

A highly versatile composer, Winifred Phillips has created music for the ever-adorable 'LittleBigPlanet 3' and for the brutal 'Assassin's Creed III: Liberation'. She recently pulled off a five-minute fugue for 'The Ziggurat', voicing 12 vocal parts herself. Phillips is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

To create a reactive soundtrack for the five simultaneous players of 'Evolve', composer Jason Graves created hundreds of short pieces of music. And he used some creative instrumentation to get the desired results. Jason Graves is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

When composer Peter McConnell finished scoring the video game 'Grim Fandango' 1998, he asked people living in his neighborhood to be the instrumentalists. For this year's 'Grim Fandango' re-release, McConnell recruited the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Composer Peter McConnell is the guest on this week's Top Score.

Written by Finnish electronic dance music (EDM) composer Jukio 'Kozilek' Kallio, the thumping score to the new game 'Luftrausers' contains both club and cinematic influences.

For composer Ben Prunty, the glamour of scoring video games did not come without effort. While working alternately as a janitor, Google diagnostician and volunteer coordinator, he received a call from the developers of the new game, Faster Than Light (FTL). They asked for a score, and Ben's life changed forever. Ben is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

For the latest 'Borderlands' release, the game's developers wanted a new sound. Their instruction to composer Jesper Kyd was simple: Bring back the '80s. Kyd is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Composer Jason Graves talks about his score for 'Tomb Raider' and about writing memorable music for video games. Hear it on this week's episode of Top Score.

It's possible to turn on your TV and find a show scored by Silas. The commercial break could then include his work. If you want a movie, there are more than 14 that include his music. Video games afterward? Silas still has you covered. Composer Silas Hite is the guest on this week's Top Score.

Top Score, which is part of the Infinite Guest podcast network, is counting down the best game soundtracks of 2014. A score's creativity, ingenuity, execution, and implementation were all taken into account.

Indie game developers White Paper Games took on a seemingly impossible project for an untested, six-member team. They wanted to create a free-roaming, first-person puzzle game set in the surreal, disjointed mind of a woman with dementia. This project presented White Paper Games's composer, NJ Apostol, with a tremendous challenge -- and his score rose to the occasion.

Trevor Morris received his first commission at 13 years old, when he wrote a song for the Pope. Now, Morris's commissions are for the 'Dragon Age' video games. Morris is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Composers Joe Henson and Alexis Smith form a composing duo called The Flight. They've been working together on music for more than 20 years, including video games. Henson and Smith speak to Emily Reese on this week's episode of Top Score.

Inon Zur remembers his very first viewing of Disney's Fantasia as a small child. Now he's come full-circle, working on the soundtrack to Disney's new video game, 'Fantasia: Music Evolved'.

Composer Garry Schyman always seems to be pushing the bounds of video game music. With help from the Seattle Symphony and the amazing acoustics of the Bastyr chapel, Schyman takes some creative liberties with his 'Shadow of Mordor' game soundtrack.

To call Neal Acree's fan base "passionate" would be a gross understatement. As a contributing composer for World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo III, Video Games Live, and the Stargate series, some of his listeners seem to live and breathe their respective media.

This episode features a nerd-filled interview and some truly lovely live-recorded video game music. From Marble Madness to early Metroid to a rocking series of solos in Dr. Mario, we hope you enjoy our time with NES.

Karl and Will Brueggemann, known as the Super Marcato Brothers, live and breathe retro video games. They compose original and game-inspired music, often playing a number of instruments in the tracks.

Hard-working composer Andrew Aversa shares his various experiences writing music for video games, and he also invites aspiring composers to get in touch with him for feedback and advice. Listen to the interview with this busy -- and very nice -- composer.

A fascinating man with a deeply genuine love of music, Oleksa Lozowchuk is best known in the video-game world for scoring the humorous and addicting 'Dead Rising 3'. This week on Top Score, he speaks to Emily Reese about his album 'Bright Sadness' and about his many musical influences and interests.

Back in 2012, video game media outlets were ablaze with news about FEZ . This press helped launch the career of the game's composer, a then-relatively unknown Rich 'Disasterpeace' Vreeland.

Several years ago, a five-minute conversation took Lisbeth Scott from being a part-time singer and musician in a dance studio to performing in a soundtrack for Hans Zimmer, a titan of the industry ... and she didn't know who he was at the time. She only went up from there.

Laura Intravia's life is something out of a video game music lover's dream. Carving her path by transcribing scores and performing in costume, Intravia is making an indelible impression on the video game music circuit.

This week on Top Score, Emily Reese interviews composer John Broomhall about the music he created for the game 'Transport Tycoon'.