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May 8th, 2012: Pyramind Studios partners with Idle Games to bring Idle Worship to life, one of the most original Facebook games ever conceived. Idle Worship is a polytheistic god game in which players can interact synchronously to cast blessings and curses on their humble followers, the beloved…and adorable, Mudlings.

Michael Roache, Audio Producer for Pyramind Studios had this to say:
“Jeffrey Hyman and Idle Games are changing the way social games are created and played, and Pyramind Studios is happy to contribute to blazing that new trail.”

The Pyramind Studios production team developed all in-game Music, SFX and VO for their flagship title, as well as Music Editing, SFX and full Post Production for their pre-release trailer:

Launched in March of 2012, Idle Worship has been garnered with critical acclaim from Forbes.com, GameZebo and VentureBeat. “Idle Worship is an ambitious project with much higher production values than most other Facebook games out there,” says Forbes.com, “and its success or failure will tell us a lot about the future of the space.”

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JEF STOTT – ARCANA

OUT APRIL 24, 2012 (SIX DEGREES RECORDS)

“What an honor to mix Arcana with Greg Gordon @ Pryamind’s Studio A! Greg and I have known each other for years with many overlapping projects but had never actually worked together. Arcana was the perfect project for us to collaborate on. Greg intuitively brought out a detailed cinematic mix that highlighted the lush musical narrative of every track on the album. It was a wonderful completion to another great album project.” – Jef Stott

April 24th, 2012: There’s a luminescent, nearly indescribable feeling you get when walking through the Playa, Burning Man’s center, after sundown. In this empty desert 50,000 people have joined forces with too much diesel and an endless supply of imagination to, as San Francisco-based artist Jef Stott says, share in this “container for radical self-expression.” The sentiment is so powerful that Stott devoted the opening song (and many of the following tracks) to it on his forthcoming record, Arcana (Six Degrees Records).

The album is available for purchase on iTunes.

“Deep Playa” is a reconnection in many ways. The proverbially upbeat Stott suffered a series of recent setbacks: the end of a long-term relationship, losing a career job and having his apartment broken into. The stolen objects included all of his computer equipment, including the hard drive in which the two-month old Arcana lived.

“I just went back into the studio and made this album,” he says, while on tour in Hawaii. “It’s about reclaiming my place in the world, and bringing really powerful female energy back into my life.” Stott knew that life is circular. His upswing awaited. This was confirmed after running into old friend and collaborator Sonja Drakulich, which resulted in her ethereal vocal contributions on “Deep Playa.” Stott’s first serious ensemble as producer was Stellamara, Drakulich’s Eastern/Medieval European and Arabic project. Reunited these two are as powerful as ever.

After working with Stellamara in the mid-90s, Stott co-produced three albums alongside Michael Emenau & Irina Mikhailova as Lumin, then adding serious beats behind Tunisian-born singer MC Rai. Turning in a number of gorgeous, beat-heavy remixes for Six Degrees Records, he eventually released a digital-only EP, Souksonik, with the label in 2007, followed by the Arabic-drenched album Saracen the following year. Arcana is his second full-length record for the label and tenth overall.

The circular circumstances of his life also helped in the titling of the album. “Arcana refers to the major arcana of the Tarot,” he says. “I’ve been using a lot of Tarot this winter, mostly relying on intuition. Arcane also means ‘that which is old.’ It’s a nod to the whole idea that things come back around.”

A new collaboration ensued when Stott met local indie singer Sophia Mae Lin, who adds a unique, hearty edge to the slithery “Pulling of the Tide.” “I started the tune and it had this mysterious underwater quality, and we decided to go with the narrative about a mermaid,” Stott says. “It’s an entirely new direction, very gothic and Celtic.” With its tension-building strings, the track still connects with the more Middle Eastern sound that dominates Stott’s catalog while remaining utterly fresh.

Read the entire press release here.

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March 14th, 2012: Congratulations to Kristofor Mellroth, Paul Lipson, and the teams at Microsoft Studios, Pyramind Studios and Skywalker Sound for winning two of the top awards given at the 2012, tenth anniversary G.A.N.G. Awards for Best Use of Licensed Music and Best Interactive Score for Kinect Disneyland Adventures. Published by Microsoft and developed by Frontier (UK). Congratulations as well to all the nominees in these hugely competitive categories.

RSVP Below:

PYRAMIND STUDIOS CREATES ORIGINAL SCORE FOR MICROSOFT FLIGHT

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San Francisco, CA (February 15th, 2012) – The spiritual successor to Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft Flight, is set to release in Q2 of 2012. Paul Lipson composed, orchestrated, arranged, and produced the original score; including performing live guitar and bass while evolving a unique hybrid/live compositional approach.

Paul captured unique instruments to create a fresh, unexpected sound, including new synthesis from Brian Trifon, Tabla, Eukalele, Kora performed by Daniel Berkman, additional bass by Jeff Schmidt, and drums and percussion performed by Daniel Blum. The music was Mastered by Gregory J. Gordon in Pyramind Studios flagship Studio A.

“My Grandfather was a wing commander in the UK RAF, so Flight means so much to me as a both a fan and enthusiast” says Paul. “The original Flight Simulator offerings from Microsoft have been landmark interactive experiences, and it has been a joy to contribute to this innovative take on the classic and craft a score with emotion, texture, and narrative”.

HEAD TO THE OFFICIAL MISCROSOFT FLIGHT WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS HERE.

GAME PLAY SCREEN SHOTS BELOW:

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GAME AUDIO NETWORK GUILD (G.A.N.G.) ANNOUNCES FINAL NOMINEES FOR 10TH ANNUAL G.A.N.G. AWARDS

Awards Ceremony to Take Place Thursday, March 8th, 2012 During Game Developers Conference in San Francisco

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 8th, 2012) – Celebrating its 10 year anniversary, the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), the non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of game audio, Pyramind Studios has been nominated in five categories for the 10th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards to honor outstanding creative, technical and artistic audio achievement in the world of interactive entertainment.

Voted and judged upon by the game audio industry and members of G.A.N.G., the finalists represent an array of the best audio in gaming from 2011. A 70 person Advisory Committee helps in deciding each of the final nominees which includes hundreds of hours of research, listening, watching and playing.

Nominations In The Following Categories:

MUSIC OF THE YEAR | Kinect Disneyland Adventures

BEST INTERACTIVE SCORE | Kinect Disneyland Adventures

BEST ORIGINAL INSTRUMENTAL | Kinect Disneyland Adventures

BEST USE OF LICENSED MUSIC | Kinect Disneyland Adventures & Rocksmith

BEST SOUNDTRACK ALBUM | Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary

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PYRAMIND STUDIOS, SKYWALKER SOUND UP THE MUSICAL ANTE WITH HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY, KINECT DISNEYLAND ADVENTURES

January 2012 Issue, By Blair Jackson – As videogames have become more sophisticated and complex in recent years, so too have their music scores. Long gone are the days of simple scores banged out on solitary keyboards and integrated into the game at the lowest possible bit-rate. Orchestral scores are common for big-budget games, as are hybrid scores that use electronic and/or percussion elements, rock and other music forms, as well as orchestrated passages. With some top games requiring two or more hours of music, there has been plenty of work for large and small studios to keep up with the demand, and musicians and singers are finding a new source of income for their talents.

Take, for example, two wildly different games that were released on November 15 by Microsoft Games Studios for Xbox 360: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Kinect Disneyland Adventures. Both of these certain hits shared the same audio director (Microsoft’s Kristofor Mellroth), music production company (Pyramind Studios of San Francisco) and recording facilities (a combination of Pyramind and, for each game’s orchestral score, Skywalker Sound in Marin County, Calif.). Yet each project had so many unique challenges dictated by enormous differences between the two games, it’s difficult to make generalizations about what is required from a music recording standpoint at this upper level of what is known as Triple-A gaming.

Pictured Above: Recording Chanticleer at Pyramind Studios for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. From left: Peter Steinbach, Paul Lipson, Steve Heithecker, Matthew Oltman, Kristofor Mellroth

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is something unusual in the game world—a complete remastering and revisiting of a classic first-person shooter game. Bungie’s original Halo title was the flagship game for the Microsoft Xbox format, released 10 years ago to the day of the Anniversary edition. The new version, developed by 343 Industries, hews very closely to the original but with greatly enhanced graphics, plus improved audio and a complete reinterpretation of Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori’s famous score—so instantly recognizable to gamers for its chanting monks and driving synth cellos.

To read the entire story, please head to the Mix Magazine website here.

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Paul Lipson and the Award-Winning Team Produce over Three Hundred Minutes of Orchestral Music for Premier 2011 Kinect/Xbox360 Video Game Release

San Francisco, CA: October 18th, 2011 – Pyramind Studios has partnered with Microsoft Studios to compose and produce the original score to Kinect Disneyland Adventures, an exclusive Xbox360 videogame created in partnership with Disney, Microsoft Studios, and Frontier Developments. Lead by Pyramind Studios Audio Director/Composer Paul Lipson, Pyramind Studios worked with world-renowned talent to produce an unprecedented three hundred fifteen minutes of original orchestral and idiomatic music, recorded with the eighty-piece Skywalker Symphony Orchestra at Skywalker Sound.

FRONT L-R: Andre Zweers, Leslie Ann Jones, Lennie Moore, Janet Ketchum, Laura Karpman, Gregory J. Gordon, Michael Roache, Paul Lipson, Mark Griskey, Peter McConnell, Wataru Hokoyama

“This was an enormous project that required some of the finest talent in the industry” remarked Lipson, who served as the Audio Director/Score Supervisor and Composer on the project. “We knew that creating original music and arrangements of classic melodies, all of which spanned generations of beloved Disney characters, would be an exciting and unique challenge.”

L-R: Leslie Ann Jones and Paul Lipson

To tackle a project of this scope and size, Lipson put a team of trusted colleagues together to assist with the massive minute count of original music. “I knew that that the clock was ticking, and beyond my own sixty minutes or so of my own writing, I would need to spread the work around. We approached some very close friends and collaborators to join the crew so we could cross the finish line in record time, and at an astounding quality level that would pass Disney’s and Microsoft’s strict approval process.”

Grammy Award Winning Engineer: Leslie Ann Jones

The composing team became an all-star collaboration, inlcuding (in alpha order) Mark Griskey, Wataru Hokoyama, Laura Karpman, Peter McConnell, and Lennie Moore. Moore also managed the orchestration and part preparartion team, and served as session librarian. Hokoyama and Moore conducted the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, which was expertly recorded by multiple Grammy winner Leslie Ann Jones Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound.

Wataru Hokoyama conducts the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra

“Leslie Ann and the team at Skywalker Sound have been a joy to partner with,” said Gregory J. Gordon, Pyramind Studios CEO and Mix/Mastering Engineer. “Recording a project of this size is no easy feat, and our team went above and beyond to ensure the quality of the score. We even broke the record for most recorded cues recorded at Skywalker Sound, capturing four feature films worth of music!” Additional small ensemble recordings, including bluegrass bands, brass ensembles, and additional horns were recorded at Pyramind Studios flagship Studio A live room and Broken Radio Studios in San Francisco.

L-R: Mark Griskey, Lennie Moore, Laura Karpman, Paul Lipson, Leslie Ann Jones, Peter McConnell, Wataru Hokoyama, Andre Zweers, Michael Roache

Press enquiries:

Dheeraj Sareen

Tel: 415.896.9800 ext. 227
Email: dheeraj@pyramind.com

Kinect Disneyland Adventures is scheduled for a 2011 holiday season release.

PYRAMIND STUDIOS WORKS WITH 343 INDUSTRIES AND MICROSOFT STUDIOS TO CREATE HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED ANNIVERSARY MUSIC

Deploys award winning team to record the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra and Chanticleer vocal ensemble for note-perfect rendition of the original score.

San Francisco, CA: June 24th, 2011 – Pyramind Studios has proudly partnered with 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios to produce the music for the upcoming Halo:Combat Evolved Anniversary video game. Celebrating a decade of history with the iconic Halo franchise, Pyramind Studios has been chosen to produce and remaster the famed original score for the exclusive Xbox 360 release scheduled for November 15th, 2011.

L-R Front: Lennie Moore, Michael Roache, Paul Lipson (Pointing), Leslie Ann Jones, Dann Thompson

Lead by Microsoft Studios Senior Audio Director Kristofor Mellroth and Pyramind Studios COO/Audio Director Paul Lipson, the duo inspired Pyramind Studios industry-leading team to re-orchestrate and reproduce the original score by composers Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori. Talent also includes the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra recorded at world-renowned Skywalker Ranch, and Chanticleer – the Grammy winning men’s vocal ensemble widely considered one of the best in the world.

“It was a huge undertaking to transcribe, orchestrate, and produce every note from the original game soundtrack files” said Lipson, Pyramind Studios COO/Audio Director. “Our team approached every aspect of the music with an immense amount of skill and care, keeping the core Halo sound while updating the production to today’s highest standards.”

Microsoft Studios Senior Audio Director Kristofor Mellroth agrees, adding; “This wasn’t just a simple remaster, it was a completely new orchestration and recording using renowned talent and top live players. We are striving to create the ultimate love letter to Halo fans, and celebrate Marty O’Donnell’s and Michael Salvatori’s original vision with grace and style”.

Pyramind Studios’ production team rose to the challenge of bringing Halo Anniversary to life, and included some well-known video game luminaries on the Halo Anniversary music team including: Paul Lipson, Gregory J. Gordon, Matt Donner, Steve Heithecker, Tom Salta, Lennie Moore, Brian Trifon, Wataru Hokoyama, and esteemed vocalist Jillian Aversa. Fans will also appreciate new live guitar performances by Bryan Dale, and the roster of Grammy-winning talent including Skywalker Sounds’ Leslie Ann Jones and the singers of Chanticleer performing the famed Halo Monks choral melodies.

L-R Back: Lennie Moore, Janet Ketchum, Wataru Hokoyama, Leslie Ann Jones, Paul Lipson, Gregory J. Gordon, Brian Trifon, Tom Salta

L-R Front: Michael Roache, Dan Thompson, Andre Zweers, Robert Edwards

Press enquiries:

Dheeraj Sareen

Tel: 415.896.9800 ext. 227

OFFICIAL TRAILOR FOR THE RELEASE SCHEDULED FOR NOV 15th, 2011

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Pyramind Studios in association with Independent Distribution Collective licenses two songs for the newest release of Need For Speed: The Run.

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Tracks include: “The Nightlife” performed by Big Omeezy and written by Omar Helton, A. Turner, Jose Aquirre Lopez, and William Joseph. “All Together” performed by Lovemakers and written by Lisa Light, Scott Ayers, and Michael Urbano.

“Pyramind and IDC Licensing have come together to represent a large catalog of diverse and high quality
music to the video game industry.” says Greg Gordon, CEO of Pyramind Studios. “We are very pleased to see EA taking advantage of this relationship and using these two great tracks in Need For Speed: The Run.”