Album released 3/4/2011.
1.7k words across 43 entries.

Minecraft - Volume Alpha Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube (playlist)

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

The OFFICIAL soundtrack of the critically acclaimed multi award winning indie block game!

Features 15 additional soundtrack exclusive minutes of music you haven't heard before!

Features Cat! In STEREO!

Features CD quality music! No more extremely low bitrate youtube videos of the soundtrack!

Features a high quality image of the album cover!

C418 ✑ c418.org

This is probably why you’ve come to this website! Minecraft is one of the most popular video games in recent history, and Volume Alpha is the first official soundtrack to the game. Critics like to compare the style of my album to Erik Satie, Roedelius, and Brian Eno. Aphex Twin also once said I stole his style.

Minimalism was and is definitely key when it comes to the soundtrack. Although Minecraft in and of itself is a very frantic and wild experience, I wanted to give the game a contrast by essentially giving the player a pentatonic chill pill. Some fans actually like to listen to this album while they go to sleep, which is just as well another interesting use for it.

Volume Alpha has been released in 2011 and was the first commercial release I’ve ever published, and luckily also the most successful, kickstarting my career as an independent composer and game dev. There is a lot that I have to thank Minecraft for, and there will be much more that I can thank it for.

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For Volume Alpha, I teamed up with Ghostly to make a high quality vinyl, and I think we did a great job! One of the vinyls is lenticular and it feels really weird to stare at a flat vinyl cover and see 3D pop out of you. If you want the warmth and crackle of the old analog classic, and a great big BIG cover to boast to everyone, check out Ghostly’s store!

C418 ✑ Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

I think Minecraft is an exceptional game, but at the time I was just happy to be making the soundtrack for a game again. What really surprised me was when it was mentioned by Valve in the Team Fortress blog. I’ve done quite a few soundtracks but none of these games were ever released. I grew up with a Game Boy in my hands and have never stopped buying videogames and devices, so I think it’s a good thing if you can say, “I do it for my living.”

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There was quite a lot of work involved, actually. I did change the music a little bit so that it would be seamless between pauses. I also added an additional fifteen minutes of content so that people would consider spending four dollars on it. I think Bandcamp is the most convenient method of selling music digitally when compared with Amazon and iTunes, which will take 30% or more of sales. Even though Bandcamp is not really well known, they’re pretty much the best service to sell your music.

C418 ✑ Minecraft’s Composer Explains Why the Music Is ‘So Weird’

I like to add more stuff to the songs that are in the game because I feel that players are probably not as interested in buying music that’s already in the game. So, extending the album into a more cohesive piece that can be played on its own feels better than just taking all of the sound files and slapping them onto an album.

I have a good friend who is really into video game soundtracks, and I asked him what I should do. He said, “Don’t touch the source material, but if you want to attach something else to it you can make it like a second song type of thing.” So that’s what I did. I would extend the songs into some new territory, then render them as two songs even though they’re the same song with a short pause in between.

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There’s definitely a narrative to it, but I don’t know what the story is now. The way I structure the album is that I first render out all the songs and make sure they’re all nicely mastered. Then I slap them into one project file and basically see it as a jigsaw puzzle, putting them next to each other to see if they work. If they do, I usually like to put something in between so it makes sense that these songs are on there, but you wouldn’t even know if you listened to the album because it sounds like one whole thing.

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Let’s say I made 90 percent of all of the visual designs, like all of the cube stuff. Ghostly basically came in and cleaned up the formatting on the text, because I’m not really good at that stuff. [For the limited edition release], I wanted the lenticular print of the iconic Minecraft block—the grass block with a little bit of dirt on it—to be more 3D, so the cubes are way more 3D than they are on the normal release. I’m really happy with the way it looks.

Key Listen on: YouTube, Bandcamp

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

opens

C418 ✑ c418.org

“key” is the song that sort of introduces you to the album, whereas “door” is a little bit of a small medley that welcomes you to the world of Minecraft.

C418 ✑ Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

“Key” is a little piano arrangement I did of another song, “Subwoofer Lullaby.” I had been experimenting with the melody, playing it again on my sequencer, and I liked the idea of there being recurring themes. It gives a feeling of familiarity. Because it was such a quiet and soothing tune, I wanted for it to be a calm introduction to the Minecraft album.

Door Listen on: YouTube, Bandcamp

C418 ✑ c418.org

“key” is the song that sort of introduces you to the album, whereas “door” is a little bit of a small medley that welcomes you to the world of Minecraft.

Subwoofer Lullaby Listen on: YouTube, Bandcamp

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Imagine a forest with a subwoofer on overdrive...

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Subwoofer Lullaby” is a song I named that way because I always imagine a big speaker somewhere far far in a forest blasting this odd little melody.

Death Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Totally worth it though

Living Mice Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Yes, I mean you.

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Living Mice,” or the opposite would be deadmau5, hah. Joel did help me a bit with making this album, so there’s that reference.

Moog City Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Imagine that!

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Moog City” is a fun track. Moog actually contacted me on it, telling me how much they liked it. I’m glad they never found out I actually didn’t make it with a Moog device. I kinda created this song because I ordered a Moog, but I didn’t have it yet.

Haggstrom Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

MHG MHG MHG

Minecraft Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

The very first and last song.

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Minecraft” is by far the most minimalist song and also the first song I created for the game. It’s purely pentatonic in scale, builds up very slowly, and then slowly fades away. This is kind of what I built the entire soundtrack around on.

C418 ✑ Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

“Minecraft” is the first song I ever did for Minecraft. It was extremely ambient and experimental, building up very slowly before vanishing. I like the simple notations of it. In my mind it’s the main song, even if it is really calm. It has sold well on iTunes, so that might be one of the favorites. “Minecraft,” “Sweden” and “Clark” were the ones named “Calm 1, 2, 3.”

Oxygène Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Accidental reference obviously.

Équinoxe Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

No reference in here!

Mice on Venus Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Or mars.

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Mice on Venus”, or Mouse on Mars. MOM is a definite inspiration for me, and this album directly. It’s a highly experimental German musician duo that has been super active in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and I obsessed over their work. The song started as a piano solo, but as game development went on, I added a kind of, uh, addendum to it. A little cheeky piece that kind of says, Minecraft is also quite silly.

Dry Hands Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Yep!

Wet Hands Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

And cold too.

Clark Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

<3

C418 ✑ Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

“Minecraft,” “Sweden” and “Clark” were the ones named “Calm 1, 2, 3.”

Chris Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

He likes it.

Thirteen Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

No human was harmed in the making of this recording.

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Thirteen” is a creepy little record you can find in Minecraft. I always wanted the player to find it somewhere deep within a cave, because it’s being played by a device, creating a creepy atmosphere. But it turns out it’s just a creepy song being played. We never actually did that in the game though.

Excuse Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Excuse” was originally intended to be a song for Minecraft’s hell world, the “Nether”. However when I started creating this album, I wanted it to be more than just carbon copies of what’s in the game. I wanted to give people more. So I ultimately decided that “Excuse” would be one of several exclusive songs only to be found on this record.

Sweden Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Wonderful country

C418 ✑ c418.org

"Sweden" is by far the most popular song, and I think it's because of it's very minimalistic chord progression that you can follow very easily. It is also based on the principle the song "Minecraft" is built on. Slow buildup, slowly fading away.

C418 ✑ Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

“Minecraft,” “Sweden” and “Clark” were the ones named “Calm 1, 2, 3.”

Cat Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

You know what they say - curiosity killed the cat.

C418 ✑ c418.org

"Cat" is a whimsical little track. People seem to like it a lot! I don’t know why!

C418: Q&A: C418’s Minecraft – Volume Alpha Soundtrack

Some of the classic tracks, like “Cat,” I wanted to appear further down in the list so that there could be some anticipation for them.

Dog Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

I don't know about dogs though..

Danny Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

All his fault

Beginning Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

All his fault

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Beginning” because the end is always just the beginning. And with Minecraft, now we do know that this is not the last album and there is more to discover. That’s why I named it that.

Droopy likes ricochet Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Featured in the video on minecraft.net

Droopy likes your face Listen on: Bandcamp, YouTube

C418 ✑ Bandcamp description

Not featured in the video on minecraft.net but nontheless completes the song

C418 ✑ c418.org

“Droopy Likes Ricochet” and “Droopy Likes your Face” are both songs from “life changing moments seem minor in pictures”. It’s a song I haven’t created for anything in particular, but the first Droopy song ended up in the first official Minecraft game trailer. I get a lot of questions on what Droopy says. To be fair, I don’t know. It’s a sample library that you receive if you buy Kontakt. As far as I know, it’s a toy you could buy in the 80’s or 90’s which says random phrases about itself.