Jeremy Soule

Jeremy Soule is a BAFTA Award-winning American composer of film, television and video games. Soule's soundtracks are often critically acclaimed as being among the best in the computer and video game industry and as rivaling the quality of many orchestral film soundtracks. [ [http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=199 SoundtrackNet : Article - Inside Prey ] ] A large percentage of Soule's music is done electronically and emulates real orchestral music so well that it is often indistinguishable from the real thing. However, he works frequently with real orchestras and choirs, such as the London Philharmonia, Northwest Sinfonia, and Prague Philharmonic orchestras, as well as the Pinewood Singers. [ [http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=services&readfile=30.ann&show
] ] Many of his recent soundtracks can be bought at DirectSong.

Biography

A native of Keokuk, Iowa, Soule, while still in high school, was a huge fan of video and computer games. He came to feel that the music found in most games "lacked drama and intensity" [ [http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/jeremy_soule.htm The Armchair Empire - Interview: Jeremy Soule ] ] . After completing high school, he created an experimental demo showcasing what he felt video game scores should sound like using traditional cinema style techniques. Soule sent the tape to LucasArts and Squaresoft and was promptly given the task to score "Secret of Evermore" after Square reviewed the demo. The finished game features an untraditional score incorporating ambient background sounds (like wind blowing and ocean waves) into the music and utilising a more mellow orchestral sound, in stark contrast to the epic scores found in most computer role playing games.

When Ron Gilbert of LucasArts left to form his own company, Humongous Entertainment, Soule left Squaresoft to score Gilbert's children's adventure game series, "Putt-Putt". While working at Humongous, Soule met video game designer Chris Taylor and later composed the score for his major projects, "Total Annihilation" and "Dungeon Siege". In between the two projects Soule formed his own business, Artistry Entertainment, and began doing freelance work.

Since then Artistry Entertainment has grown and scored a string of highly successful games such as "Guild Wars", ', ', ', ', ', ' and the "Harry Potter" series resulting in Soule's music being among the highest in circulation in the video games industry. Jeremy has worked with other composers such as his brother Julian Soule in many of his soundtrack works..cite web | author=Ryan Kelly | date=February 2001 | title=Interview: Soule Brothers | url=http://archive.gamespy.com/interviews/february01/soulebrothers | work=GameSpy.com| accessdate=2008-05-27]

His music from the Harry Potter series was performed live in 2003 at the Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany. In 2005, his music from was performed live at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert as well.His music was also featured in PLAY! A Video Game Symphony. PLAY! is a symphonic world-tour presenting music from various blockbuster titles, including . Jeremy Soule attended the world-premiere of PLAY! on May 27 2006 in Chicago.

Soule is also a supporter of the game music arrangement community, as shown by the arrangement he submitted to OverClocked ReMix, honouring both Nobuo Uematsu and site creator David "djpretzel" Lloyd. The track, "Squaresoft Variation", arranges the "Final Fantasy VI" piece "Terra."

He recently finished working on the follow-up to Guild Wars: Prophecies, "".

LawSuit

Currently well known for shutting down the infamous khinsider.com mp3 on September 9th 2008. [ [http://www.ffdownloads.com/announcements/35023-why-mp3-files-not-working.html] Khindier.com: ] He had held a lawsuit against the owner of the site and had threaten to sue because of his displeasure against the sites hosted mp3 files. This lawsuit estimated to be about 2 million dollars has caused the owner to close the mp3 part of his site.

Prominent works

*"Armies of Exigo"
*"" (Fully Orchestral & Recorded Score / Cancelled Game)
*"" (Xbox Launch Title / Recorded in Prague)
*""
*"Company of Heroes"
*"Dungeon Siege"
*"Dungeon Siege II"
*""
*"" (Winner of 2006 MTV VMA, British Academy Nominated for "Best Score")
*"Gaia Online (MMO)"
*""
*"Guild Wars Prophecies"
*"Guild Wars Factions"
*"Guild Wars Nightfall"
*"Guild Wars Eye of the North"
*"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (Video Game)
*"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (Video Game / Recorded at Phoenix Studios / Winner of 2003 BAFTA)
*"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (Video Game / Recorded at Air Lyndhurst)
*"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (Video Game / Recorded at Air Lyndhurst)
*"" (Video Game / Recorded at Air Lyndhurst)
*"Icewind Dale"
*"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"
*""
*"Natural Selection" (Half-Life modification)
*"Neverwinter Nights" (Soule's themes were also used in "Neverwinter Nights 2" with some add-ons)
*"Prey"
*"Secret of Evermore" (SquareSoft's only title to use an American composer)
*""
*' (Soule's themes were also used in ')
*""
*"Sovereign" (Fully Orchestral & Recorded Score / Cancelled Game)
*"Supreme Commander"
*"Total Annihilation" (Recorded in Seattle, WA)
*""
*""
*"Unreal II"
*""
*""

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.jeremysoule.com/ Jeremy Soule's official website]
* [http://www.directsong.com/ DirectSong: Game Music Store]
* [http://www.myspace.com/jeremysoule Jeremy Soule's official blog]
*http://www.vgmdb.net/db/artists.php?id=431 Jeremy Soule's Credit list at VGMDB
* [http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/other/soule.shtml Jeremy Soule Profile at Square Enix Music Online]
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/51/jeremy-soule/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.ocremix.org/remixer/jeremysoule/ ReMixer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.vgmrush.com/artist.php?id=30 Profile at VGM Rush]
* [http://www.xgr.com/article.php?article=2240 XGR.com audio interview January 2, 2002.]
*musicbrainz artist|id=f413369d-d72f-46b9-8744-2d09344a9c6a|name=Jeremy Soule
*imdb name|0815819
* [http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=164 Eye of the North Interview with Music4Games]
* [http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=145 Interview with Music4Games]