When George Lucas released Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1997, hardcore fans and media networks quickly exclaimed that a 30-year-wait was at last over. This kind of overstatement not only borders on the absurd, but also renders the speaker completely inept. However, the story of TRON: Legacy’s journey to the screen is indeed one of the longest and mostly widely publicized in the history of motion pictures.In 2002, Walt Disney Home Entertainment decided to lavishly celebrate the 20th anniversary TRON’s release with a Two-Disc Collector’s Edition of the film. At the beginning of this DVD was an advertisement for a new TRON game then titled “TRON Killer App.” In addition, the feature-length documentary about the film ended with concept art and discussion about the possibilities of a “new TRON for the 21st century.” With a next generation video game already in development, it appeared that the world was finally ready for the vision that Steven Lisberger put forth in a film that was literally decades before its time.
The release of Monolith Games “TRON 2.0” expanded the TRON Universe by extrapolating the ENCOM System into present day by following the journey of “Jet” Son of Alan Bradley and Lora Baines into the Computer. Stylistically and Musically, TRON 2.0 is a very close adaption of the world created for the original film. Many concepts from the film are perfected and brought forward. There are some truly beautiful environments, as well as some very well written music most of which was directly inspired by Wendy Carlos’ highly experimental score.
With less than a week before the official release of Daft Punk’s incredible score for TRON: Legacy, I thought that E82 should take some time to reflect on the evolution of TRON’s musical landscape. When the game came out, it had NO official score release, it had NO promotional Disc, in fact very little was talked about or even discussed in regards to this truly beautiful electronic work.
A WORLD PREIMERE RELEASE
Re-Making the Score
After years of collecting music the “doesn’t technically exist,” NO was not a word I would accept in relation to this new work from the World of TRON! Not long after giving-up my search, I decided to make the soundtrack myself! I began unpacking the game’s “.rez files” and quickly discovered that reassembling the score would be no easy feat. Each theme had to be remixed piece-by-piece from 8 second long “riff tracks.” Literally hundreds of cuts! Then came the truly hard part assembly and editing.
Most Film Soundtracks if taken cue-by-cue are largely unlistenable. As a result, producers will often combine pieces to form larger compositions resulting in a structure that is pleasing to the ear. After playing the game several times and taking notes of all levels, scenes and plot-points, I began building the soundtrack to resemble that of a traditional soundtrack. Finally, artwork created for the game was adapted and modified to create a believable approximation of an Official Soundtrack. What you’ll hear are the results…
WARNING: This album WILL leave you wanting a lot more!
