Video Games Live to release CD

Record company EMI Classics has announced the release of Video Games Live Volume One, a recording of the famous traveling orchestra (led by friend of WoW Insider Tommy Tallarico) that plays videogame music, including that of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. You may have seen the group last year at BlizzCon, this year at WWI, or (likely) this year again at BlizzCon, and they got rave reviews every time they played.

The recording was conducted by Tallarico, recorded at Abbey Road, and features the Slovak National Orchestra, The Crouch End Festival Chorus, and "the videogame pianist," Martin Leung. The CD will have eleven tracks (full tracklist after the jump), and will feature music from a slew of terrific videogame soundtracks, including our own Warcraft series (and Civ IV, which is probably the best music I've ever heard in a videogame, ever). EMI plans to release the CD in America on July 24th, and in Europe and the rest of the world on August 20th. It should be available for digital download right now in the UK, and an iTunes exclusive release will be available on the 20th.

Sounds like an amazing recording -- fans of Video Games Live will certainly enjoy it. You can see the full tracklist below.

TRACKLISTING

1. Kingdom Hearts®
KINGDOM HEARTS © Disney • Developed by Square-Enix Co., Ltd. • "Kingdom" written by Utada Hikaru • Orchestrator: Kaoru Wada

The KINGDOM HEARTS® franchise is the result of a collaboration between Disney and Square-Enix. The ground-breaking fantasy action role-playing game received numerous awards and was a dominating presence upon its release in 2002. The single, Hikari (to which the instrumental version "Kingdom" was based) has sold over 1 million copies in Japan. Female songwriter Utada Hikaru's first official album became the best-selling album of all time in Japan with over 10 million copies sold. Currently, three of her albums rank in the Top 10 all-time best-selling albums list in Japan.

2. Warcraft® Suite
Composer: Jason Hayes • Orchestrator: Benoît Grey
Created by the development team at Blizzard Entertainment®, Inc. Warcraft® is an award-winning fantasy series that is one of the fastest selling PC games ever. Blizzard's release of World of Warcraft®, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the Warcraft series, has shattered all sales records for an online game, and is currently the biggest subscription-based online game in the world.


3. Myst® Medley
Myst® Theme composed by Robyn Miller; Gallery Theme composed by Tim Larkin (BMI) • Myst® III Main Theme and Myst® IV Main Theme composed by Jack Wall (ASCAP) • Orchestrated by Steve Zuckerman

The Myst® phenomenon catapulted the world of computer games to the forefront of consumer entertainment and broke many boundaries as the best-selling CD-ROM game. It appealed to many demographics and featured beautifully rendered environments and intricate puzzle-solving quests.


4. Medal of Honor™ (LIVE)
"Operation Market Garden" from Medal of Honor: Frontline™ published by Electronic Arts, Inc. Composed and orchestrated by Michael Giacchino • Recorded Live in Brazil, South America

Created and inspired by Steven Spielberg, the award-winning Medal of Honor series is one of the most convincing and well established wartime simulation game franchises, blending cinematic visuals with intense sound and music. Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino started in the video game industry and has since added films and television to his impressive list of credits which include TV shows Lost and Alias, motion pictures such as The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible III, Ratatouille, Speed Racer and even Space Mountain in Disneyland.


5. Civilization IV Medley
Composer: Christopher Tin (BMI) • Orchestrator: Christopher Tin • Alto solo: Nathania Reid • Tenor solo: Ron Ragin • Soprano solo: Nicole Bonsol • Choir: Stanford Talisman

Over the course of 15 years, Sid Meier's Civilization series has come to define turn-based strategy games. Few games have managed to combine the sheer addictive depth that the Civilization series commands, and fewer have had such universal appeal. With unprecedented critical acclaim from fans and press around the world, Sid Meier's Civilization game is recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all time.


6. Tetris® Piano Opus No. 1
Tetris® is a trademark of The Tetris Company and Blue Planet Software. Tetris® theme (Music A) originally adapted and arranged from the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" • Piano Arrangement: Martin Leung • Performed by: Martin Leung

Tetris is arguably the most beloved and biggest selling video game in the world. It was originally conceived and designed in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov while working for the Soviet government in Moscow, Russia. "Music A" in the Nintendo Game Boy® edition of Tetris is one of the most recognizable and popular songs from a video game. It is an instrumental arrangement of a vocal Russian folk tune called "Korobeiniki" which was based on a poem with the same name written in 1861. The first line of the translated lyrics read... ""Oy, the box is full, so full".


7. God of War™ Montage (LIVE)
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. • Composed by Gerard Marino • Recorded Live in Brazil, South America

God of War is a high-energy action-adventure game based on Greek mythology. It was extremely well received by critics and fans alike and was the recipient of many "Game of the Year" awards. It has been called the greatest PlayStation® 2 game of all time by many top gaming magazines and websites. The award-winning score by Gerard Marino was his first credit as a game composer.


8. Advent Rising Suite
Composers: Tommy Tallarico, Michael Plowman, Emmanuel Fratianni, Laurie Robinson • Orchestrated by Emmanuel Fratianni, Laurie Robinson and Christopher Nickel

Advent Rising is a third-person, intergalactic action/adventure wrapped in a visually imaginative universe that plays like a fast action movie. Famed science fiction novelist, Orson Scott Card, co-wrote the gripping storyline behind the game. The multi award-winning Advent Rising soundtrack has been noted as "one of the greatest musical scores of all time" by websites such as Yahoo, Gamespot and others.


9. Tron Montage
Composed by Wendy Carlos; Orchestrated and adapted for Video Games Live by David Kates • Synthesizers programmed and performed by Matt Robertson

Disney's 1982 action sci-fi cult classic masterpiece embraced video game aesthetics and has since inspired numerous blockbuster films and video games alike. Harnessing the latest technology available at the time, Tron was the first motion picture to ever use computer graphics and animation.


10. Halo® Suite
Composers: Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori • Orchestrated by Emmanuel Fratianni, Laurie Robinson, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori • Guitars: Tommy Tallarico, Steve Vai, Chris Kline and Marcus Henderson • Voiceover: Cindy Shapiro

Halo is the blockbuster XBOX game developed by Bungie Studios that reinvented the first person shooter experience with action packed gameplay, an epic science fiction storyline and a multi award-winning soundtrack. The first Halo soundtrack received countless accolades including The Rolling Stone award for best original video game soundtrack, and its sequel Halo 2 became the #1 selling original video game soundtrack album in North America.


11 Castlevania® Rock (LIVE)
Castlevania® series owned and published by Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. • Composers: Kinuyo Yamashita (Castlevania®), Club Kukeiha (Castlevania® III) and Michiru Yamane (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night®) • Arranged by Tommy Tallarico • Guitars: Tommy Tallarico and Dweezil Zappa • Keyboards: Martin Leung • Drums: Joe Travers • Bass: Peter Griffin • Recorded at Plaza Calafia Bullring - Mexicali, Mexico

The Castlevania series is one of Konami's most famous franchises and is a recognized landmark in the design of action-platforming games. The earliest games borrowed from motifs in iconic horror cinema, though the series later developed a more artistic and dramatic direction drawn from Gothic fiction and dark romanticism. This classic adventure series features some of the most addictive gameplay, beautiful graphical effects and contagious musical scores ever witnessed in a platform game. The musical styles for the Castlevania series range from Gothic and operatic rock to classical symphonia.

The album was engineered at EMI's famous Abbey Road recording studios in London.