page_title: Fez (video game)
section_title: Music
hierarchical_section_title: Fez (video game) / Development / Music
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped version of File:Rich "Disasterpeace" Vreeland (7989541919).jpg
context_page_description: Fez is an indie puzzle-platform video game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve the game's puzzles. The object of the game is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe.
  The game was called an "underdog darling of the indie game scene" during its high-profile and protracted five-year development cycle. Fez designer and Polytron founder Phil Fish gained celebrity status for his outspoken public persona and his prominence in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which detailed Fez's final stages of development and Polytron's related legal issues. Fez met critical acclaim upon its April 2012 release for Xbox Live Arcade. The game was ported to other platforms following the expiration of a yearlong exclusivity agreement.
  Reviewers commended the game's emphasis on discovery and freedom, but criticized its technical issues, in-game navigation, and endgame backtracking.
context_section_description: Rich Vreeland, also known as Disasterpeace, composed the game's chiptune-esque electronic soundtrack. Despite his background in chiptune, Vreeland limited his use of that genre's mannerisms in the score. He worked with soft synth pads and reverb to push the score closer to a 1980s synthesizer sound. He also reduced reliance on percussion and incorporated distortion techniques like bitcrushing and wow. Vreeland opted for slower passages with varying tempos that could "ebb, flow, and breathe with the player". He left some portions of Fez without music. Vreeland worked on its soundtrack at night for about 14 months while scoring Shoot Many Robots, and Brandon McCartin of Aquaria contributed the game's sound effects.
  Vreeland's first composition for the game ("Adventure") became the soundtrack's first track. He wrote it after meeting Bédard but before discussing the soundtrack with Fish, and based the composition on Fez audio created prior to his arrival. Vreeland wanted to use tape recorders for their distinctive sound, but potential audio synching issues with this method led him to employ digital recording. Portions of the soundtrack dynamically change between several dozen constituent elements and react to the game environment. For example, the "Puzzle" track's elements change musical key based on the in-game time of day. Certain tracks were intended to imitate real-world sounds, such as those of bats, thunderstorms, taiko, and water falling from stalactites. Other tracks expanded from improvisations. Vreeland was also inspired by the Lord of the Rings Shire theme, 1980s horror media, the soundtrack of demoscene game Jasper's Journeys, the Legend of Zelda dungeon music, the Mass Effect soundtrack, Tangerine Dream, and Steve Reich. "Continuum" is a synthesized rendition of Frédéric Chopin's Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4. Instruments used in recording include the Sonic Charge Synplant, minimoog, "synthetic flute", and Boomwhacker.
  The soundtrack was released in a digital format on April 20, 2012. Pre-orders for the soundtrack topped the Bandcamp charts. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku wrote that Fez's sound effects evoked Jim Guthrie's Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP audio. Janus Kopfstein of The Verge called the work "fantastic" and described it as a cross between a "1980s Vangelis synth odyssey" and a submerged vinyl record from an arcade. Game Informer's Matt Miller wrote that the soundtrack contributed to Fez's "80s Nostalgia vibe". Eurogamer described the music as "lush, spooky, and electrifying", and Edge compared it to "Holst put through a Mega Drive". Oli Welsh of Eurogamer wrote that the music matched the game's themes of "hidden depth". Welsh heard influences of 1960s English psychedelia (Pink Floyd, Soft Machine), 1970s Krautrock (Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk), 1980s synth (Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis), and Erik Satie. He added that the soundtrack's contribution to Fez was "incalculable". Damian Kastbauer of Game Developer used Vreeland's soundtrack to show that a retrogaming aesthetic in sound and visuals could be both "futuristic and nostalgic" and provide the "right 'voice' to support the game's design intentions".
  Game Developer listed Vreeland in their 2012 Power 50 for his work on the soundtrack, which they described as "atmospheric, pensive, and maybe even a little bit melancholy". In keeping with Fez's theme of secrets, images visible only through spectrogram were embedded into the soundtrack audio. Vreeland released a remix album, FZ: Side F, a year later on April 20, 2013. It features tracks from other artists, including Jim Guthrie. Vreeland later released another remix album, FZ: Side Z, and all three albums were included in the August 2013 Game Music Bundle 5.
caption: Composer Rich "Disasterpeace" Vreeland, 2012
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