Rez Team Recalls Unfinished Aphex Twin And Underworld Tracks
The roundtable is the first time the Rez team has described these unreleased artist tracks in public, making a 2001 release a test case for using outside dance musicians in game soundtracks.
Key Facts
- Rez was released in 2001 and fused music game mechanics with 3D shooting.
- The 25th anniversary Rez stage event was held on September 22 and 23 at the Institut francais du Japon in Tokyo as part of The Tenth Mosaic.
- The roundtable featured producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, director Jun Kobayashi, music producer Masakazu Hiroishi, and techno artist Ken Ishii.
- Fatboy Slim's track for Stage 2 was withdrawn about three weeks before Rez launched after a sampling concern, and Ebizo finished a replacement track in two weeks.
- Rez HD was released in 2007 and Rez Infinite, with the Area X stage and VR support, was released in 2016.
Reporting from 3 sources: Denfaminicogamer, GameBusiness.jp, Game Spark.
A 25th anniversary stage event for Rez was held on September 22 and 23 at the Institut francais du Japon in Tokyo, as part of the game culture festival The Tenth Mosaic. Producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi gave a lecture on the game's origins, followed by a roundtable with original director Jun Kobayashi, music producer Masakazu Hiroishi, and techno artist Ken Ishii. Mizuguchi said an Underworld version of Rez was made but never released, and that Fatboy Slim's track for Stage 2 was pulled about three weeks before launch over a sampling concern. Hiroishi said he pitched Rez to Aphex Twin in London, and that the artist accepted the job before failing to deliver. Performer Ebizo, also known as sound director Nobuhiko Tanuma, replaced the Fatboy Slim track in two weeks.
Mizuguchi traced Rez back to a 1997 electronic music street parade in Zurich. Roughly 400,000 young people filled a city of about 300,000, and around 150,000 gathered in a stadium at night. The crowd surrendering to the music reminded him of the painter Wassily Kandinsky, who depicted sound as abstract painting. That idea became the Kandinsky Project, or K Project, the predecessor to Rez.
Kobayashi said he built his own video after hearing the pitch, and on rewatching it found it was already close to the finished Rez. Mizuguchi recalled the team starting with three or four people and deliberately inviting a Nippon TV crew to film the troubled production, because he thought the project would otherwise fall apart.
The artist shortlist was wider than the roundtable suggested. Ken Ishii was the first candidate, followed by The Future Sound of London, Underworld and Fatboy Slim. Adam Freeland and Coldcut joined the pool through Hiroishi's introductions. Mizuguchi and Hiroishi visited Adam Freeland's home in Brighton, and Coldcut used the word "synesthesia" unprompted during the pitch.
Ken Ishii said the Rez request was unlike any prior game job because he had to break the song into individual elements, down to cutting the bass one note at a time. As an artist he hesitated at revealing his hand, but hearing the concept changed his mind.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Denfaminicogamer 「エイフェックス・ツイン」「アンダーワールド」が参加していたかもしれない──音楽とゲームが融合した名作『Rez』の25周年座談会。水口哲也氏ら4人が明かす、幻の参加アーティストと修羅場すぎる制作の裏側【The Tenth Mosaic】
- GameBusiness.jp 『Rez』はいかにして生まれ、そしてなぜ“気持ちいい”のか？水口哲也ら語る、音・映像・操作がひとつになるインタラクティブ・ミュージックのシナスタジア
- Game Spark 『Rez』はいかにして生まれ、そしてなぜ“気持ちいい”のか？水口哲也ら語る、音・映像・操作がひとつになるインタラクティブ・ミュージックのシナスタジア