Steven von Kampen

Audio Director
The Collective

Home: Newport Beach, CA

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (X-Box)
Wrath (X-Box)

Music: DS9 The Fallen (PC-MAC)

Sound FX: Mission Critical, Star Control III, Descent II and Descent FreeSpace

I'm first generation American. My parents were Germans who immigrated here after WWII. In 1967, the year I was born, they returned to Germany, where we stayed until I was 16. We then returned to the States and lived in Washington D.C. However, my heart was still in Europe, so after graduating from Woodward High I moved to London instead of going to college, much to the dismay of my parents. I told them I'd start an industrial band and become a great musician. Well, I did start a band, we were signed and then...we were dropped, didn't make it, and basically were broke and starving. We were called Meatmachine, and above all, we were lousy. After five years in England I was about as thin as a toothpick. I decided to return to DC. That was 6 years ago. My self-esteem and confidence were at an all time low, until by chance, a wonderful lady by the name of Kathleen Bober heard me messing with some weird noises at "Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center" where I was working selling keyboards and such. She said she worked for a game developer by the name of "Legend Entertainment"; they had just lost their Sound FX guy, and wondered if I would be interested. Games, hmhmhmhm. That was it. I did their cut scene sound FX, got a call from a headhunter and was off to sunny California, freelanced a bit and ended up as an Audio Director at "The Collective". Funny how life works.

"The soundtrack for The Fallen is one of the best soundtracks for a game on the market today. It delivers a full range of emotion, from tense subtle cues to dynamic action crescendos and everything in between. The Music recalls to the music from the shoe but does not become a second-rate copy of it. Without this original music, The Fallen would not be half the game that it is." —Inside Mac Games

"Before the main menu loads, The Fallen opens with a sweeping glance at the space station in which the TV show and game are set; the music that accompanies this sequence is nothing less than poetic. The main theme's rich strings, subtle horns and celestial voices fill the space around the PC with a sense of sci-fi wonder; the effect is similar to listening to James Horner's wonderful scores for the second and third sequels in the film series. It's a good example of game music that is as much about emotion and art as arrangements for the cinema." —The Adrenaline Vault

"The soundtrack is not only suited perfectly to the concept of science fiction adventuring, but this time it's use as situational scoring is flawless. Even the incidental music often gave me chills. To be perfectly honest, I tried playing the game without sound and found my enjoyment was significantly decreased. I was quite amazed." —GameZone

"You are immediately aware of one of this game's strongest features: it's superb soundtrack. It is perhaps the best I've heard in a game. Dynamic music has been done before but never this well." —GamesDomain

Gear:

Medal Of Honor (Music), HalfLife (SoundFX) and DS9 The Fallen...of course.