C418

C418
Rosenfeld in 2011
Background information
Birth name Daniel Rosenfeld
Born (1989-05-09) 9 May 1989
East Germany
Genres
Occupation(s) Independent musician, composer, sound engineer
Instruments Digital audio workstation
Years active 2006–present
Labels Ghostly International[1]
Associated acts
Website c418.org

Daniel Rosenfeld, (born 9 May 1989)[2] also known as C418 (pronounced "see four eighteen"),[3] is a German musician, producer and sound engineer best known as the composer and sound designer for the 2011 video game Minecraft. He has also written and produced the theme for Beyond Stranger Things.

Early life

Rosenfeld was born and grew up in East Germany after German reunification, the son of a Soviet goldsmith and a German mother. He says that he learned to create music on early versions of Schism Tracker and Ableton Live in the early 2000s, which were both rudimentary tools at the time.[4] It was his brother, Harry Rosenfeld, who introduced him to music composition through Ableton Live, commenting that "even an idiot" can successfully create music with it. His brother was also known as C818, from which he chose the name C418, claiming that it's "really cryptic and doesn't mean anything".[5]

In 2007, Rosenfeld started a blog where he posted a new song every week, known as "Blödsinn am Mittwoch" (English: "Silliness on Wednesday").[6] This was around the same time when he became interested in game development and audio, which resulted in him joining indie game development forum TIGSource, where he became involved with numerous smaller game developers.[7]

Minecraft

On TIGSource, Rosenfeld began collaborating with Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson. Rosenfeld was responsible for the sound effects and music in Persson's work-in-progress video game Minecraft. The sound engine in the still young Java game was not very powerful, so Rosenfeld had to be creative in his approach to creating sound effects and music.[4]

As a freelance artist, Rosenfeld was not on staff at Mojang,[8] the organization behind Minecraft. Rosenfeld still owns the rights to all the music in the game,[9] and has released two albums featuring songs from the Minecraft soundtrack.[8] The first soundtrack, Minecraft – Volume Alpha, was digitally released on March 4, 2011 on his Bandcamp page. The video game blog Kotaku selected the music of Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011.[10]

Almost half a year later, production on a documentary of the development of Minecraft started, titled Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. C418 was requested to create the soundtrack for this documentary, which was included on his 2012 album, One.

On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second album of the official soundtrack for Minecraft, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta. Many of the new songs were being added into features of the game that were not present when the first batch of music was produced; i.e. the Nether or the End.[11] Meanwhile, Minecraft - Volume Alpha was released on a physical format on Ghostly International in 2015.[1] This release consisted of a regular CD edition of the album, a vinyl edition which came with a code for a digital copy of the album, and a limited edition of the album pressed on green transcluent vinyl.

Persson and Rosenfeld worked together again after Minecraft's success on the creation of a new game, titled 0x10c. The game was never released, with Persson halting production in August 2013. Rosenfeld released an album featuring his work on the project in September 2014. The album was released digitally with little publicity; Rosenfeld simply sent out a tweet stating that it was available.[12]

Independent work

In addition to the Minecraft soundtracks, Rosenfeld composes his own independent music. He has released a large amount of music on his Bandcamp page, of which he has released sixteen albums (not including Minecraft soundtracks).

In 2008,[note1] Rosenfeld created Circle, the soundtrack album for an unreleased indie game bearing the same name, created by an unknown developer.[13] Later that year, he also released two small collections of his early music, Mixes and Bps. His third album, Zweitonegoismus, was released on 16 December 2008.[14]

In 2009, Rosenfeld released his fourth album, Bushes and Marshmallows. The album is loosely related to his blog, titled Blödsinn am Mittwoch. It is not a translation to English, as that loosely translates to "silliness on Wednesday".[6]

When Minecraft became available to the general public as an early access title, it became popular rapidly. Rosenfeld, who up until that point had worked at an assembly line for a living, could now afford to make a career switch, making music his primary source of income.[7] This inspired his album, 72 Minutes of Fame. The content of this album mostly revolves around this lifestyle-defining moment in Rosenfeld's life.[15] This album was the first of Rosenfeld's works to have a (limited) physical release.

In 2015, Rosenfeld released 148, which much like 72 Minutes of Fame carried a significant amount of personal content, albeit slightly more hidden under lyrics and effects.[16]

His recent works include 2 Years of Failure in 2016, and Dief in 2017.[11] He says he does not seek fame, and he struggles with public attention, such as critical comments from his large group of followers on Twitter.[9] The Guardian has compared his compositions to those of Brian Eno and Erik Satie because of their ambient quality.[4]

On 20 July 2018, Rosenfeld announced a studio album, Excursions, with the release of its lead single, "Beton".[17] Its second single, "Thunderbird", was released on 20 August 2018.[18] The album was released on 7 September 2018.[19]

Discography

Studio albums

Filmography

Year Title Director Type Notes
2012 Minecraft: The Story of Mojang Paul Owens Documentary Composer[20]
2017 Beyond Stranger Things Michael Dempsey Television series Composer[21]

References

  1. 1 2 "C418 - Minecraft Volume Alpha Release Page". Ghostly.com. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  2. ↑ "C418 on Twitter: "So, uh, how do you change the age of your own Wikipedia page? Do I need to have an interview that says I've been born in 89, not 86?"". Twitter. 2015-05-13. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  3. ↑ "Minecon 2012 - The Music of Minecraft & Minecraft Documentary". YouTube. 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  4. 1 2 3 Keith Stuart, How Daniel Rosenfeld wrote Minecraft's music, The Guardian, 7 November 2014.
  5. ↑ BebopVox. "C418 INTERVIEW, Minecraft Music & Sound Composer". YouTube. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  6. 1 2 Rosenfeld, Daniel (January 27, 2017). "Bushes and Marshmallows". C418.org. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Who is Daniel?". C418. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  8. 1 2 Luke Plunkett, The Soothing Sounds Of...Minecraft?, Kotaku.com, 9 March 2011.
  9. 1 2 Charlie Hall, Minecraft's composer discusses Mojang's unreleased game, Notch's departure, Polygon.com, 18 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk. "All of the Best Video Game Music of 2011". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
  11. 1 2 "Minecraft Volume Beta on Bandcamp". November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
  12. ↑ Andy Chalk, Minecraft composer releases 0x10c tracks, muses on Notch's departure from Mojang, PC Gamer, 17 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "circle". C418. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  14. ↑ "C418 discography". Bandcamp. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  15. ↑ "72 Minutes Of Fame". C418. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  16. ↑ "148". C418. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  17. ↑ Bein, Kat (2018-07-19). "Minecraft Composer C418 Shares Lead Single 'Beton' Off Upcoming Album: Exclusive". Billboard.
  18. ↑ "Premiere: Minecraft Composer C418 Releases Sprawling, Synth Track "Thunderbird"". Magnetic. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  19. ↑ Bruce-Jones, Henry. "Minecraft composer C418 announces new album Excursions". Fact. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  20. ↑ 2 Player Productions. "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang". Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  21. ↑ "Beyond Stranger Things (TV Series 2017)". IMDb. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
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