The soundtrack for the game 'Awesomenauts' sounds like an alien radio station. The music was created by a group of composers who call themselves SonicPicnic.

Top Score: SonicPicnic and Awesomenauts

Ryan Ike

Composer Ryan Ike got his first big break in video-game composition by answering an open call for composers on Twitter for a game called 'Gunpoint'. He got the job -- and a BAFTA nomination. Hear more about Ryan Ike on this week's episode of Top Score.

Composer Ryan Ike got his career started at 'Gunpoint'

Millions of people around the world play the 'casual' game Candy Crush Soda Saga, but composer Johan Holmstrom took the music very seriously, even recruiting the London Symphony Orchestra for the recording session. Holmstrom is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Serious music for a casual game

Ryan Thompson is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Minnesota, with a special interest in ludomusicology. What is that, you ask? Ludomusicology is a growing field in which musicologists study the impact of music in video games.

A musicologist's look at 'Final Fantasy VI'

Tom Salta

The new game 'Spartan Strike' exists in an audio-dominant world. To make sure he could still capture a player's attention, composer Tom Salta decided to record quieter, more subtle cues. He also enlisted the help of the New York Film Chorale and the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra. Hear more about it on this week's episode of Top Score.

Tom Salta's bold choice for subtle music

Top Score says "thank you" to production assistant Pierce Huxtable for one year of great work. Pierce's position was funded by a (non-renewable) grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, an award for which Top Score is forever grateful.

Top Score says, 'Thank You, Pierce'

Michael Schiciano

Michael Schiciano joins Emily Reese on this week's Top Score to talk about old-school and modern approaches to composing. Thanks to the burgeoning mobile market, many composers use old-school techniques to create music for smartphone games.

What's old-school is new again for Michael Schiciano

The orchestral-rock video game cover band Do a Barrel Roll stopped by Classical MPR to record a set and to chat with Emily Reese, host of Top Score. 'They played a set and stole my heart -- I've always wanted to say that,' Emily says. Listen to the full session.

Do a Barrel Roll create innovative covers of game music

Sam Dillard

Completely self taught, Sam Dillard not only composes music, but he also performs and records his work. Recently hired by Kinect for its new Harry Potter trailer, Dillard joins Emily Reese on this week's episode of Top Score.

Sam Dillard is a one-man music-making machine

Chris Huelsbeck

The enduring success of composer Chris Huelsbeck's early works has created a fan following in his native Germany and across the world. His work inspired a 2008 concert series, and more recently, he's crowd-funded a new album of piano works. Learn more about Chris Huelsbeck on this week's Top Score.

Chris Huelsbeck's career leaps to next stage

Some of the scores for video games are incredibly intricate and deserve recognition, which is why we've created Top Score: a series of podcasts dedicated to the music that accompanies soldiers through battle, sorcerers through forests and aliens through space.

Emily has a soothing, light spirited voice and she brings in top shelf composers to talk about their work. Always an intriguing listen, with the only complaint being that there can sometimes be long intervals between episodes, which might be a deal-breaker for some. When the episodes do hit, prepare yourself for great interviews and fantastic music.

Meditative and insightful video game music show

Top score is a wonderful show. Listen to it.

Top notch

Top Score

The director of music recording and scoring at Skywalker Sound, Leslie Ann Jones oversees all sound production in the facilities massive scoring stage. Jones has worked on films, television and video games, and has three Grammys to boot, which she simply calls 'pretty cool'. Hear more about Jones's amazing career on this week's Top Score.

Leslie Ann Jones is a Jedi of sound engineers

Composer Bear McCreary is our guest on Top Score this week from Classical MPR. I first became interested in his music through my adoration of the relaunched "Battlestar Galactica" series on SyFy. Lucky for me, Bear also scored two video games. Capcom's "Dark Void" from 2010, and Sony's "SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs."

Bear McCreary on Top Score

Composer, audio engineer and voice actor Alexander Brandon joins Emily Reese on this week's Top Score to talk about creating soundtracks that support the various atmospheres of video games.

Creating powerful and engaging game soundtracks

Curtis Schweitzer

Composer Curtis Schweitzer wrote unusually long pieces of music for his soundtrack to the game Starbound. He talks to Emily Reese on this week's episode of Top Score.

Curtis Schweitzer and Starbound on Top Score

Martin O'Donnell

Veteran video game composer Martin O'Donnell talks about writing scores for ten years of Halo on the first episode of season 2 from Top Score on Classical Minnesota Public Radio.

Top Score Launches Season 2 with Halo Composer Martin O'Donnell

Jesper Kyd

Composer Jesper Kyd visited MPR headquarters in November for Top Score's first live event. Check out the audio and video from the night!

Jesper Kyd at Minnesota Public Radio Headquarters

Lisbeth Scott

Several years ago, a five-minute conversation took Lisbeth Scott from being a part-time singer and musician in a dance studio to performing in a soundtrack for Hans Zimmer, a titan of the industry ... and she didn't know who he was at the time. She only went up from there.

Top Score: Singer Lisbeth Scott's rising note

Writer Ricky O'Bannon talks about counterpoint in the context of video game music.

Comparing Baroque Music to Early Video Game Music

Jeremy Soule

This introduction to the music of  Guild Wars 2 , written by Jeremy Soule, also illustrates how you can learn about other composers — Edvard Grieg, for instance — from video games.

Jeremy Soule and Guild Wars 2 on Top Score

Karl and Will Brueggemann, known as the Super Marcato Brothers, live and breathe retro video games. They compose original and game-inspired music, often playing a number of instruments in the tracks.

Top Score: Super Marcato Brothers

Christophe Heral

Billy Martin

Christophe Heral and Billy Martin collaborated on their second Rayman game: Rayman Legends.

Christophe Heral and Billy Martin Talk Rayman Legends on Top Score

Peter McConnell

Peter McConnell teamed up with Tim Schafer and Double Fine Studios for a gem of a score for "Broken Age". McConnell talks to Emily Reese on this week's Top Score.

Peter McConnell and Broken Age on Top Score

Ari Pulkkinen

Finnish composer Ari Pulkkinen was already an established composer in the gaming industry when he wrote the theme for Angry Birds.

Ari Pulkkinen and Angry Birds on Top Score

Back in 2012, video game media outlets were ablaze with news about  FEZ . This press helped launch the career of the game's composer, a then-relatively unknown Rich 'Disasterpeace' Vreeland.

Top Score: A composer known as 'Disasterpeace'

Paul Ruskay

On this week's Top Score, Emily Reese talks with composer Paul Ruskay, who created the soundtrack for 'Homeworld Remastered'. He explains how he brought the soundtrack back to life from its original version, composed 15 years ago.

Top Score: Composer Paul Ruskay

Olivier Deriviere

Composer Olivier Derivière blended his own original music with traditional Haitian music for the score to Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry.

Olivier Deriviere Scores Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry

Greg Edmonson

Greg Edmonson talks about his music for the Uncharted trilogy on Top Score from Classical Minnesota Public Radio.

Greg Edmonson and Uncharted 3 on Top Score

Color

Composer Daniel Sadowski possesses that rare ability to see music in color, so when he was asked to compose music for the vivid game 'Stormthrone', it was a dream come true. Daniel Sadowski is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.

Composing music in full color

Tina Guo

Cellist Tina Guo is best known for shredding on her electric cello. But the lonely, meditative sonority of a video game soundtrack shows the depth of her playable emotion. Cellist Tina Guo discusses her intense classical upbringing and modern musical rebellion on Top Score.

Cellist Tina Guo on Top Score

Andrew Aversa

Hard-working composer Andrew Aversa shares his various experiences writing music for video games, and he also invites aspiring composers to get in touch with him for feedback and advice. Listen to the interview with this busy -- and very nice -- composer.

Top Score: Composer Andrew Aversa

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Best Episodes on Science, Humans & The World

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