It's been with some emotion, and also concern that I've returned to Deadside. Having not written similar music since 1997-1999. It's also a worry writing new material that will be compared to the old (which had all the backings of an excellently atmospheric video game).

With Asylum : Dark Chambers - I decided to focus on one particular area of the game - The Asylum, "the place where all the madmen and the murders go when they die. It's a really fucked up place." A quote from Guy Miller (Creative Director) and Simon Phipps (Lead Game Designer), which struck a chord with me back in 1997 and has always inspired me.

The Asylum is where the souls of the worst of the worst, play out their weirdest fantasies. The original origins of the Asylum were not heavily explain in the video game, but I feel it was once a place of incarceration, but the lunatics took it over, and Legion - the games arch villain, and his architect friend Jack "The Ripper", bend it to other nefarious ends.

The ambient music for these areas of the game really delved into the most unpleasant aspect of humanity, I created scenarios with sound design that were layered beneath the industrial rhythms, some more obvious than others, and some so disturbing that several players reported having to switch the music off - because it disturbed them so greatly. Within the score there are references, to infant death, rape, torture, mutilation, and insanity, and also references to childhood, and the loss of innocence.

It's grizzly stuff, and my wife Elaine will not listen to the music, she listened to the original score once, and the new material once - to just confirm that indeed it was terrifying and disturbing, she loves what I do - but in this case I was pleased when she said she never wanted to hear it again, because that means I got it right.

The 9 tracks, refer to 9 chambers within the Asylum, within the first 5 chambers, I reference the original Shadow Man score, to give the connection with the past - but these new pieces are still quite far removed from the original game material. I used some of the same sounds from my sample library that I used back in 1997-1999, and certainly the dark attitude remains. But this series of music also needed to be its own journey and tell its own story. So each track builds on the tension from the last, getting darker and more disturbing, leading to a climax within Dark Chamber No.9

The original Shadow Man score had many more styles of music within it, I took inspiration from African Tribal music to tie into the Voodoo themes within the game story, and there were elements of Choir, Opera, and Electro Punk, all incorporated. I do hope to do a follow up album that embraces and pays tribute to other areas of the original score. I also think there is more to come from the Asylum, I still have many ideas about what other elements could inspire me to make more Dark Ambient music, with this release I have focused on the industrial elements more so than say the Vocal Choir element that were present in the original score, as a creative composer, I could noodle on forever - remixing elements and refining, but I was very conscious that I need to set a time limit and cut off point, otherwise the material may never have seen the light of day.

So here it is, 9 new pieces of music inspired by the Asylum, I hope it disturbs you, scares you, but also inspires you to be creative and explore all aspects of dark fantasy.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/asylum-dark-chambers/id516155918