Bleep

2015 saw Ghostly International press up the first album of music made by composer C418 (Daniel Rosenfeld) for the Minecraft series - a collection Rosenfeld had previously self-released in 2011 as Minecraft Volume Alpha. Now the label repeats the trick with Minecraft Volume Beta, the follow-up LP which initially emerged in 2013.

Those who play Minecraft regularly will know that C418’s compositions for the game are quietly vivid bits of world-building soundscapes. Stylistically the album hovers on the border between IDM and ambient composition. Many of the tracks tend towards a weightless style which, while achieved via synthetic instrumentation, maintains an organic, almost utopian quality. It’s a sound which means that C418’s music here is as reminiscent of Brian Eno’s pioneering ambient work or the scene-setting atmospherics one finds on some FaltyDL albums as it is of fellow video game music composers like Lena Raine.

Mind you, there are some moments where dark clouds appear on the horizon - after all, it’s not for nothing that Minecraft Volume Beta has become known among fans of the game as a somewhat moodier collection than its predecessor. On this count one should check the fifteen-minute-long epic ‘The End’, a cut which is shrouded in the grainy textures and ominous drones that one associates with Biosphere.

Ghostly’s new editions represent the music’s first outing on vinyl - please be aware that, while the digital re-release presents the album in full, not all thirty tracks were able to fit onto Ghostly’s double-LP pressing. The full set is included on a download card which comes alongside the vinyl.