Disney has announced that award-winning video game composer Inon Zur will be contributing to Disney Fantastia: Music Evolved.
The news was revealed at Disney’s D23 fan event before Zur took to the stage to conduct some of the orchestral pieces that are set to appear in the ground-breaking music-motion game. Zur’s contributions include a large number of original orchestral pieces, but he also had a significant hand in the re-imagining and re-arranging of some of the pre-existing classics that have been adapted for the game. These include Vivaldi’s iconic Four Seasons and Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain, which is most widely known for its appearance in Disney’s 1940 film Fantastia from which Music Evolved was born. Zur also produced and arranged the orchestral re-imaging of Queen’s iconic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for the game.
The composer said that he had enjoyed the challenges offered by his role in the game:
“Working with Disney and Harmonix on Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved was a great adventure for me. Recording and producing classical masterpieces, as well as writing original music that had to coexist with the works of the great classical composers presented exciting new challenges. The amazingly talented music composers and producers from Harmonix and Disney supported and guided me throughout this groundbreaking, creative process. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this world-class team and am extremely excited to share all that we’ve done together with you, the player.”
Zur’s previous work stretches across film, television and video games, including the Fallout, Prince of Persia, EverQuest and Dragon Age video games series. His work on Fallout 3 won him nomination for ‘Best Original Score’ at both the Spike Video Game awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, whilst his work for the Dragon Age series has seen him nominated for a host of Hollywood Music in Media Awards, including Best Original Song for a Video Game, which he won with ‘I Am The One’ from the original Dragon Age game. He also achieved an industry first when an hour long concert, dedicated to his work on Lord of the Rings: War in the North, was performed at the 2011 E3 expo.
Eran Egozy, co-founder and chief Technical Officer of Harmonix Music Systems who are developing Music Evolved, had the following to say on working with such a renowned composer:
“”Working with a versatile composer like Inon Zur was critical to developing the innovative type of gameplay we are introducing with ‘Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved. Zur’s innate understanding of music’s role in gaming allowed us to create original arrangements that will let players experience music like never before.”
Disney also revealed a new trailer for the game at this week’s D23 event comparing the development of Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia with the development of Music Evolved:
Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved will use the Kinect to allow players to utilise their entire bodies to control and alter the game’s music in real time. Players will be able to combine aspects from the original recordings of the pieces with new layers and remixes recorded specifically for the game. For example, by tracing specific movements with their body, players can unlock new elements, such as brass, rock or orchestral layers, to add to the song in real time. The currently announced track listing for the game includes recent hits such as Avicii’s ‘Levels’ and Bruno Mars’ ‘Locked Out of Heaven’ as well as orchestral classics by Vivaldi, each with two unique remixes to allow players to hear some of their favourite songs as they’ve never heard them before.
Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved is due to be released in 2014 for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One systems.
