"World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor" comes out today, 11/13/14

Hi All, 

Today (11/13/14) is a big day for our family!

My wife Eimear Noone, and I, were so blessed to be a part of the composition team for the epic World of Warcraft expansion, "Warlords of Draenor."  Our fellow composers are Russell Brower,Clint Bajakian, Sam Cardon, and Edo Guidotti, and between the entire crew over 8 and a half hours of music was created!

The score debuted at #6 on the iTunes soundtrack charts.  Preview and download the score here!

The score has already won the "Hollywood Music in Media Award" for Video Game Score, but we are even more excited by thinking of all the millions of WoW fans who will enjoy the music when they hear it today.

Warlord of Draenor Composers,
Neal Acree, Eimear Noone and Craig Stuart Garfinkle

Eimear and I put together this YouTube playlist, created from fan videos, of our favorite pieces from the game and its our pleasure to share it with all of you. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqtAghaeQA2SwJiDz6eEFOsDybMUYSeWV 

We, along with fellow WoW composers, Russell Brower, Neal Acree, and Jason Hayes, will be in Dublin for the iDIG Music Festival (http://www.idigmusicfest.com) this April 2-4.  As part of the festival we will be discussing the award winning score as well as performing much of our favorites with Video Games Live.  Buy your tickets now!

Wishing you all the best in your own adventures!  Here's a link to the "collector's edition" of the game.  I can't wait to get mine!

Malibu Music Box

The first video from my new personal passion project, creating music videos that highlight Malibu and it's beauty.  

A big thank you to my friend Carlos Gauna for his photography!  Pure beauty!

More on the project as it develops...

Visit Carlos's website for more great images.

Carlos uses the D5 and D7 series of Canon Cameras

Get your's here:

Immediate Music - "SoulMates" [Friday Fix]

Wow- memories.  

A friend just sent me a link, reminding me of a piece I wrote a while back for Immediate Music.  Unlike most of the huge bombastic stuff they (and I) might be known for, I actually had created a series of acoustic guitar based cues for a kinder and gentler audience.

I also enjoyed the challenge of completely playing everything myself - with no electronics.

I think I'll do some more of these - after the next big project!

Enjoy!

CSG

IT's Dark Here

My wife Eímear and I just finished co-composing the score to a very sensitive film entitled, "It's Dark Here."

Directed and written by Adam Coplan, the film is based on the true story of Jason Tennies, a promising college student, a gifted guitarist, and genuinely great friend, who has a schizophrenic break and loses his ability to play music.

We feel absolutely honored that Jason's parents, Linda and David Tennies, the producers, let us lend our music to the film, and that my guitar in the score could be Jason's voice.

For the score we gathered 24 of Los Angeles's greatest string players, explaining to them that the film is about "one of our own" - a fellow musician.  They played their hearts out for him and deserve a shout out, as does Stephanie O'Keefe for collaborating with the union to be able to make the session happen on our limited budget.

Violins
Belinda Broughton, Concertmaster
Julie Gigante, Principal Second
Andrew Bulbrook
Kirstin Fife
Elizabeth Hedman
Ben Jacobson
Neil Samples
Barry Socher
Olivia Tsui
Ina Veli
Irina Voloshina
Adrianna Zoppo

Violas
Kazi Pitelka, Principal
Dmitri Bovaird
Karen Elaine
Lynn Grants
Lissy Wilson

Cellos
Andrew Shulman, Principal
Tim Loo
Janet Shulman
Kevan Torfeh
Helen Zheng

Basses
Mike Valerio, Principal
Ed Meares

We also had the legendary Mike Lang lend his magical touch on piano to the score and had him improvise on our themes. 

In advance of the film's release, we have been allowed to share the following cue.  In the scene, the madness has taken over the young man, he is wandering the street, and his world turns from light to dark.

The Great Walk, From "It's Dark Here."

Again, an honor to share our music with this touching film.

Craig (and Eimear)

Quantum of Solace Video Game and Trailer

Back in 2008, my writing partner Simone and I created a special version of "The James Bond Theme" for the Quantum of Solace Video Game and Trailer.   Here's one of the many trailers they cut:

This piece was a blast to produce!  During the recording session we had a great brass section, the amazing Gregg Bissonette on drums, the intrepid John Rodd to record everything to ProTools, and then I took the tracks home to add my guitar and mix everything.

But there were too many tracks for my ProTools rig!  I had to composite everything, making certain compromises along the way.

Flash forward five years, and eight 3.4 Intel Processors later - Yesterday I decided to remix the cue to take advantage of my new production tools.  You can hear the result through the link below:

Let me know what you think!

CSG