New Kojimatic album - "Press Start to Play"
Insert your cartridges and boot up your old consoles - here is a soundtrack straight from the gaming sessions of your childhood! The latest release of my music project Kojimaic (which has been renamed from Kenji Kojima for this occasion) "Press Start to Play" is pure chiptune goodness with catchy melodies that could come right out of a 80's or 90's console game.
The 5-track album is now available on my Bandcamp page at https://kojimatic.bandcamp.com and will is available on all major streaming and download platforms (like Apple Music, Spotify or Amazon).
Here's some trivia about the album:
- Inspiration for these songs obviously came from chiptune music and soundstracks of 80's and early 90's computer game music. The pixel artwork of the cover is a nod to that. The song titles also roughly resemble a game soundtrack.
- No real instruments, no vocals, just MIDI tracks with chiptune plugins - this project reduces music to the bare minimum. I always preferred working with real instruments, but here, not being restricted by my instrument skills when composing actually resulted in a lot of freedom in composing. It also sped up the process a lot, as these songs were much easier to mix since I didn't have to worry with several different recordings, instruments and vocals for each song.
- I actually never liked using MIDI that much and found working with it somewhat cumbersome. I thus used MIDI rarely before, mostly with plugins that simulated real instruments (like the cello in "Owaru Sekai" from my album "Atarashii Sekai"). When I started researching chiptune music, little did I know that it would spark a huge amount of inspiration. I had a ton of fun composing these songs and I think it shows.
- The first song I did for the project (that song later became the title track "Press Start to Play") was composed almost exactly one year ago in December 2018. After a longer break, I returned to the project in late summer and autumn 2019 to compose the other four songs. The last song I created for the album ("Cutscene") was actually composed just two weeks before the release and within three days.
- A lot of 80's and 90's game music makes use of weird time signatures and rhymthms. While this isn't prevalent in a lot of the songs from this album, "Cutscene" actually alternates between 3/4 and 4/4 signatures, with the main melody ending with a bar of 4/4 and then switching back to 3/4. You can find a few cases where a beat is added or removed in some of the other songs as well.
- The release date December 14 is not random. Three years ago on this date, my previous album "Atarashii Sekai" was released, so Happy Birthday to that album!
Hamburg Fire Department Sends Greetings to Germany's National Soccer Team Ahead of the 2018 World Cup in this Video Filmed by me
The Soccer World Cup is almost here and the Hamburg Fire Department (Feuerwehr Hamburg) is looking forward to it. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I filmed and edited this video as our support for Germany's soccer team. For this project, I drove more than 500 km all across Hamburg to visit all fire stations and special departments.
Kenji Kojima - “Atarashii Sekai“ - First Anniversary Special Offer
Exactly one year ago, a new world was born: my album “Atarashii Sekai“ (Japanese for "new world") was released on December 14, 2016. Yaaay! It's time to celebrate, and thus I have a special offer on Bandcamp for you: get the digital MP3 download for just 4 EUR (instead of 7 EUR) or the CD for 10 EUR (instead of 15 EUR). Offer valid until December 31, 2017 and on Bandcamp only.
Get it here and celebrate with me: https://kenjikojima.bandcamp.com
My New Photo Exhibition “From Kaispeicher to Elbphilharmonie” Opens Today
Happy to announce my latest photo exhibition “From Kaispeicher to Elbphilharmonie” which opened today at Bezirksamt Hamburg-Mitte.
Almost a year after its completion, the Elbphilharmonie is firmly anchored in Hamburg's cultural life and in the skyline of the city. This exhibition takes a look back at the development of Hamburg's new landmark. The photos document not only the transformation of the building itself, the manifold perspectives also demonstrate how the Elbphilharmonie increasingly took its place in the urban landscape of Hamburg – from the original Kaispeicher A warehouse in a largely undeveloped Hafencity district to the glamorous opening of the new cultural and architectural lighthouse on the shore of the river Elbe.
October 27, 2017 - March 30, 2018
Bezirksamt Hamburg-Mitte
Klosterwall 8, Building D, 4th Floor
Mon - Thu 9am - 5pm
Fri 9am - 2pm
For further information, please check out the announcement on my photo portfolio which also includes a gallery of the photos from the exhibition.
New Kenji Kojima Music Video "White Plains"
Here's our latest music video for "White Plains". Landscape and driving footage from Utah, USA by p.a.dcttr. Performance footage and editing by Tobias Münch.
Buy or stream our album "Atarashii Sekai"
here:
Bandcamp (download & CD)
iTunes/Apple
Music
Amazon USA
Amazon
Germany
Spotify
Google
Play
Follow Kenji Kojima on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kojimatic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kojimatic
Looking for really old Kotogoto news? Check out the blog archives.