Welcome to WillowTree Audioworks, online home of award-winning composer Ian Dorsch.

January 29, 2010

  • I am putting the finishing touches on the EP release this weekend.  It's going to be called GWJOST, and will feature both the new GWJ Conference Call Theme and just about everything that I wrote (that doesn't suck!) for the GWJ Radio and GWJCC podcasts, from 2005 through the present.  Watch this space and the GWJ podcast for more information.

January 13, 2010

  • Happy new year!  Because you are awesome, I have a new Airborn track to share with you.  Who loves you?  Me, that's who.  Also, I've written a new theme song for my friends at the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call podcast.  The song debuts in the newest episode.  In the next week or two, I will have an extended, 3:00+  version of the theme up for download, with some guest guitar work from my good friend and former band mate, Richard Chambliss.  Rather than simply post the track to the demos page, I'm going to try something a bit different and put up a link to donate whatever you'd like for access to a high quality version of that track, and a few others from my archives.  It will be an experiment.  I'm testing the waters for a possible CD release later in the year, and the results of this sort of mini digital EP pseudo release will both help fund the CD project, and inform the way I handle the CD release.  At any rate, look for that to pop up before the end of the month.

October 2, 2009

  • So that was summer, huh?  Man, that was fast.  Ah well, time for an update!  There's lots to report.  In the Escapist department, we've recently premiered a new show, Escapist News Network.  It's a humorous look at gaming news from the Unskippable/LoadingReadRun crew.  The theme music is way over-the-top action news kind of stuff, and it was a lot of fun to put together.  Also, I'm going to be interviewed for The Escapist Listening Lounge on All Games Radio.  Check out the show next Tuesday at 8:30 pm EST.
  • Airborn has been released into the wild, and entered into Epic's Make Something Unreal Contest.  It's basically a proof of concept, so there's not much in the way of gameplay yet, but it's worth taking for a spin just to appreciate the gorgeous artwork and atmosphere.  Check out a brief teaser trailer featuring some of my in-game music here.
  • Love's open alpha is up and running.  The audio engine is not yet in place, so you won't hear any of my music in there, but it's fantastic to see Eskil's world in action.
  • And finally, I've been getting a lot of email requests for guitar tab for the Zero Punctuation theme.  As pleased as I am that people want to learn it, and as much as I would love to provide such a thing, I simply don't have the time to transcribe those guitar parts.  However, what I can do is post a series of videos demonstrating how to play the various parts of the song.  I'm making plans to hit the rhythm guitar stuff some time in the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully that will be helpful for you guys.

July 21, 2009

  • I am very pleased to announce the Escapist Music Library.  All of my Escapist themes are now available there for free download, including Zero Punctuation, Doomsday Arcade and The Escapist Show.  Enjoy!

June 2, 2009

  • I've been writing some music for a 3rd-person action adventure game called Airborn.  The team is mainly comprised of some very talented European freelancers, and the game was covered last year by Edge UK.  Airborn started life as a UT3 mod aimed squarely at Epic's Make Something Unreal Contest, but at least one big game development studio has recently expressed some interest in their efforts, so they are now focused on getting a playable demo together.  Anyway, it's coming together beautifully from what I've seen, and they've just approved my main theme music, so I thought I would share it with you guys.  The temp track they were using had a very swashbuckling Zelda/classic RPG kind of vibe, so it was an enjoyable challenge to try to mine that vein without getting too kitschy.  Download here.  Enjoy!

February 27, 2009

  • Hey, it's probably time for an update!  If you're finding me by way of The Escapist, you're probably already aware that I'm now working as music coordinator/semi-in-house composer guy for their video division.  I've recently written themes for The Escapist Show, Unskippable and Doomsday Arcade.  I'm working with The Escapist to figure out a mutually acceptable way to put those themes--and the Zero Punctuation theme--out for download, so if the stars all align I'll have more to report in that department soon.  I appreciate all the emails expressing interest in those tunes, and I hope to be able to hook you guys up soon.

October 15, 2008

  • Rock Paper Shotgun has the exclusive debut trailer for the game Love, for which I provided the music.  The trailer soundtrack is a variation on a piece of music I worked up for Eskil some time ago, but I realize now that it's something I never posted to the site.  So if you're interested, here it is.

September 10, 2008

  • I worked up a rock version of the theme for the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call for their 100th episode.  I've posted it here for your listening enjoyment.

July 28, 2008

  • The Escape Radio Theme song has been getting a new lease on life as music for The Escapist's E3 Video Coverage.
  • Eskil Steenberg, designer of Love, has given me the OK to post some works-in-progress for download.  These are not in-game tracks, but rather pieces of music I've put together in an attempt to peg the musical style for which Eskil is looking.  This one is an attempt at a main theme for the game, featuring some vocals from me and my wife, mezzo-soprano Joy Dorsch.  Enjoy!

July 9, 2008

  • My good friend Russ over at The Escapist has been putting me to work lately, and the first fruits of our collaborative efforts can be heard in the new theme song to Zero Punctuation, Ben "Yahtzee" Chroshaw's enormously successful and hilarious video series. If you're unfamiliar with ZP, be warned that it can be a bit on the edgy side, so don't fire up the video at work or around anyone who may object to particularly vivid use of profanity. If you like the way it turned out, feel free to drop me a line via the Contact page or take a minute to drop a comment in the Escapist's forums.
  • I'm working on some music for Love, a "first person not so massively multiplayer online procedural adventure game" created by one-man-army Eskil Steenberg. If you're unfamiliar with the game, there is some great coverage over at Rock Paper Shotgun. It's a tremendously exciting project, and I'll have some demos to post here soon.
  • The good lads at Black Leaf Games have put up a very cool site to promote their upcoming PC and Xbox 360 title, Art of War, which features some music by me. Check it out.