|
Home News Biography Compositions Games Audio Scores Images Press Contact Links |
|
My activity in several arenas has received positive notice in the press.
This page contains some noteworthy excerpts and links. Several recent articles discuss the Seattle School composers collective, to which I contributed from its first performance through several successful shows in Seattle, until moving to Shanghai in August 2004. To read some favorable remarks about the Sound Currents concert series that I founded and produced with some stalwart composer pals, check out the Sound Currents press page. There are also a few interviews and reviews of the music and sound design of the computer games Arcanum and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. Interviews and Related Articles: "Game Boy: Video Game Virtuoso Ben Houge," That's Shanghai, November 2006 "Bring the Noise!," Shanghai Talk, June 2006 "Sound Man: The Art and Science of Composing Soundtracks for Computer Games," Shanghai Talk, March 2006 "Klasyka wchodzi w gre (Classics comes into the game)," RMF Classic, January 27, 2006 "Interview with Ben Houge," G Soundtracks, October 19, 2005 "Interview with Arcanum Composer Ben Houge," Music4Games, August 23, 2005 "An Interview with Ben Houge," 4Players, March 2005 "Songwriters really face the music in iron composer competition," The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 17, 2004 "Composing Insanity," The Stranger, September 9, 2004 "Going Yoko," The Seattle Weekly, March 31, 2004 "The New Opera," The Seattle Weekly, April 30, 2003 "Video-game music isn't just kid stuff, it's a concert," The Seattle Times, February 23, 2003 "Seattle Live Game Music Concert," Music4Games, February 2003 "Interview with Ben Houge - Music for Arcanum," RPGDot, May 15, 2001 "An Interview with Ben Houge," Videogamedesign.com, January 29, 1998 On Psalmus (2005): "[Psalmus] includes overlapping monk-esque chanting, chimes and bells. It reminds me of church music on acid." --Shanghai Talk, December 2005 On Laudate Dominum (2004): "The Houge work is destined to become an audience favorite. An electronic hum ran through it, beginning with a din as the singers rapidly chanted the same phrase separately, like dozens of talking heads in their own worlds, to Borg-like effect.... Suddenly, the chorus split into three groups. Each appeared to have singers in all four voice parts, facing and following their 'new' conductor. The breakdown triggered an awareness of sonic layering that continued through the concert, beyond when the singers reunited and finished Houge's piece in a fade of whispers." --Jen Graves, The News Tribune, December 7, 2004 On Arcanum (2001): "The Arcanum suite, recorded by four exceptional string players from the Seattle Symphony, is sophisticated enough to pass muster on its own as an extended string quartet." --Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times, February 23, 2003 "From the interesting voice actors to the beautifully haunting classical Victorian music, the sound is some of the best we've ever heard in a computer game." --Next Generation Magazine, October 2001 "Ben Houge's musical score strikes you immediately. The melancholy, soulful adagio for string quartet that accompanies the intro movie sets an unusually introspective, romantic mood for a game. While there are some ambient tracks, most of the game's music is in fact scored for string quartet, and to great effect: the few instruments allow for music that's intimate yet diverse and usually emotionally effective. The unusual scoring suits the game's unusual setting." --Games Domain, September 2, 2001 "One of the best soundtracks ever heard in PC gaming." --Game Addicts Network, August 23, 2001 "Musical Score:  I was impressed with the quality of
Arcanum's musical score. Sierra composer Ben Houge uses an elegant-sounding
string quartet playing a variety of themes conveying a sense of the 19th
century, while leaving room for the renaissance/middle ages feel usually
found in fantasy RPGs."--Adrenaline Vault, September 21, 2001 "The music in Arcanum is wonderful...beautifully composed and very atmospheric." --GameStats, September 8, 2001 "The musical score is truly unique. Rather than the typical sweeping orchestral soundtrack as in Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale, Arcanum features cellos, violins, and other instruments that are meant to evoke an atmosphere appropriate to the Industrial Revolution that Arcanum is undergoing. The music is pleasantly different from the norm in RPG music these days." --RPG Planet, November 10, 2000 "The in-game music...is absolutely superb, and sets a new high water mark for computer game compositions." --The Wargamer, October 17, 2001 "Deep cellos and violins give the entire game a classic, mature feel that's foreign to most adventure games. Instead of crashing cymbals and orchestrated layers, you're left with a small, sincere, sparse soundtrack that never even dared to get boring during the entire time I played." --IGN PC, Nov. 2, 2000 "The music...yes indeed, the music was very well done. Perfect." --Head 2 Head, September 18, 2001 "The music is a unique and haunting blend of classical with some Victorian themes and instrument selections. It fits the theme of the game perfectly and blends into the background where it never becomes annoying or repetitive." --Multi-Player Online Gaming, September 21, 2001 "The music in this preview version is brilliant, very atmospheric.... Going on the music so far we can't wait to check out more from other parts of the game." --Gamerush, March 5, 2001 "Aurally, the team has stated its desire for the music to enhance the mood of various game areas and events without being overwhelming. In more than 40 hours of playing the beta, this seems to have been achieved. Like the graphics, the music is understated and effective." --RPG Vault, Nov. 6, 2000 "In short, the music of Arcanum is fantastic." --BlueSmoke, May 21, 2001 On King's Quest: Mask of Eternity (1998): (Note that I shared composing duties on King's Quest with two other composers, Mark Seibert and Kevin Manthei; I also designed all of the in-game sound effects.) "Mask of Eternity has a lush, orchestral soundtrack that greatly enhances the gaming experience.... And the sound effects are uniformly excellent." --GameSpot PC, December 29, 1998 "As with every graphic adventure, KQ:MOE relies heavily on sound, and the audio team did a superb job of integrating the soundtrack as well as the sound effects into the game. There is a dramatic, dynamic fantasy soundtrack that fits the settings perfectly, and the environmental noises and sound effects are extremely well done, actually changing with surface characteristics and distance. For example, the sound of your footsteps will change as you tread on different surfaces such as cobblestone paths, earthen trails, or grass." --IGN PC, January 8, 1999 |