Leon Willett
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Alt. Name: |
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Date of Birth: |
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Location: |
UK (Born: Edinburgh, Scotland) |
Website: |
www.leonwillett.com |
Biography / Trivia
Though he has only worked on two game titles, Leon Willett is a well-known name thanks to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. He developed his love for music by playing jazz and studying composition at Salford University and Barcelona. He improving his skills composing and orchestrating film music by creating a few short scores for film students. Though he had always loved film scores by John Williams, it wasn't until he played Medal of Honor featuring music by Michael Giacchino that he realized the potential of creating orchestral game music for games. He therefore started his search for interesting cinematic games to score.
Willett eventually contacted Funcom in Oslo and they decided to assign him to lead the score of the high-profile sequel Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. By playing through The Longest Journey, Willett gained inspiration from Bjørn Arve Lagim on how to create music for the project and integrate it into the game. He elegantly blended fantasy and science-fiction inspirations while ensuring the score worked interactively with the game and glued the plot together. The soundtrack was commemorated with suites at the Fourth Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig and the Norwegian performance of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.
For the expansion pack Anarchy Online: Lost Eden, Willett worked under Simon Poole at Funcom to produce music for the Battle Stations and Alien Mothership. He enjoyed mixing orchestra with massive metallic slams inspired by Battle Mechs. At the moment, he is taking some time to study conducting and has been commissioned to write concert music. He wants to make an artistic contribution to film and game music so is going to make sure he grows musically and develops individuality. As he explains, "commercial composing is nice, but it can also turn into a rat race, so it's good to take a step back and make sure you're also contributing artistically".
Games (2)
Albums (1)
Added by Chris on Jan 6, 2009 10:07 AM |
Edited by Chris on Jan 6, 2009 07:55 PM |