Released November 11, 2008 Artist Jason Graves Label E.A.R.S. | Length 61:07 Release date 1 November 2008 Genre Video game music | |
 | ||
Recorded 2008 (2008) at Bastyr Chapel and Skywalker Sound Scoring Stage, Redwood Shores, California Dead Space Original Video Game Soundtrack
(2008) Dead Space 2 Original Videogame Score
(2011) Producers Jason Graves, Rod Abernethy Similar Jason Graves albums, Video game music albums | ||
The Dead Space Original Soundtrack is the official soundtrack album to the 2008 survival horror video game Dead Space. Released on November 11, 2008 by Electronic Arts, the album features 17 tracks from the game composed by Jason Graves. The soundtrack was compiled from over three hours of music from the game, performed by the Northwest Sinfonia and the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and recorded at Bastyr Chapel and Skywalker Sound Scoring Stage in Redwood Shores, California.
Contents
Composition and recording
According to an interview with Don Veca, the game's audio director, composer Rod Abernethy "helped out logistically and was involved in our initial brainstorming" for the music of the game, but Jason Graves "actually composed, conducted, and arranged all the music." On general plans for the direction of the game's audio, Veca said the following:
Although subtle the music can instantly shift to a dissonant arrangement of notes that both supports the action occurring in game and evokes emotional response from the player. This compositional technique gives the listener very few things melodically to orient themselves. For the most part the music lacks melody, harmony, chord progressions and tonality. With the orchestra moving in multiple directions at once it disorients the listener further.
In an interview with Jason Graves he said the following about how to go about creating music for a horror game:
In its entirety, over three hours of music was composed by Graves for Dead Space, all of which was recorded in just two recording sessions; each individual instrumental section was recorded separately, including the woodwind, string, brass and percussion sections.
Release and reception
The soundtrack was made available as a digital download through the EA Trax service on November 1, 2008. The soundtrack was made available to download from Amazon.com and iTunes ten days later on November 11.
The audio element of Dead Space was widely praised by critics and industry figures, and was nominated for a number of awards. In the GameSpot "Best Games of 2008" awards, the game's music helped it receive nominations for Best Atmosphere (losing out to Fallout 3 by just 3% of votes) and Best Sound Design (which it won with a 42% majority). At the 5th British Academy Video Games Awards Dead Space won the Use of Audio and Original Score awards; at the 2009 Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony the game won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design and was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition award; and at the 9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards the game received the "Audio award".
Track listing
All music composed by Jason Graves.
Songs
1Dead Space Theme3:35
2Welcome Aboard the USG Ishimura5:21
3The Necromorphs Attack5:51