Chris Jensen
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Chris Jensen is an American composer and musician who performed contract work for Valve.
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Biography[edit]
Jensen was born in the Silicon Valley and currently lives in Seattle. He has composed several albums of ambient and melodic style, "with a sci-fi twist": Avatar (2006), Prelude to the Solitude (2007), IF? (2009), and Cheri Angelique (2009).[1]
Jensen spent his childhood in a padded soundproof room with only an analog tape recorder and an acoustic piano, while listening to Beethoven, Walter (later Wendy) Carlos and the earlier works of Jean Michel Jarre. He is also a graphic artist and photographer who creates fantastical photo-realistic worlds. He often uses the nickname "Emo Fitzmorris" or simply "Emo".[1]
With Doug Lombardi, Jensen also created the band / duet RB Productions, an experimental project delving in electronic / ambient music, in the San Francisco Bay Area around 1985. In this duet, Jensen is in charge of lead keyboards, acoustic piano, sound effects, sampling and rhythm devices. Lombardi is in charge of lead vocals, plays guitar, bass, keyboards, and also programs the drum machine.[2] Jensen started working for Valve thanks to Lombardi.[3] Aside from music for the Half-Life series, he composed music for Gearbox's version of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero[4] as well as promotional music for other Valve-produced games such as the Gunman Chronicles trailer.[5]
For his scoring and composing purposes, Jensen used to play unfinished versions of the games and mods for which he was composing the music, sometimes ending in unfinished sections and outside of the maps he was in.[3]
At the time of Opposing Force's production, Jensen's music was made with old equipment, including an analog 4-track recorder.[3]
Work for the Half-Life series[edit]
He composed the Half-Life: Opposing Force soundtrack (reused for Half-Life: Blue Shift)[5] and the promotional track for the first Half-Life 2 trailer that was to be shown at the cancelled E3 2002 presentation, and was leaked in 2003.
Selected gameography[edit]
- Half-Life: Opposing Force soundtrack (1999)
- Half-Life: Blue Shift (2001) (reused Opposing Force soundtrack)
- Half-Life 2 E3 2002 trailer (2002) (reused a track cut from Opposing Force titled "Mishaps In The Reactor Chamber Part 1 - Track 03")
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chris Jensen's personal website - Main page (archived)
- ↑ RB Productions' official website (archived)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hey Classmates - From Chris Jensen on Google Groups (September 19, 2011)
- ↑ Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Live Chat on Gameplanet (December 8, 2001) (archived)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chris Jensen's personal website - Music for Games (archived)
External links[edit]
- Chris Jensen on Bandcamp
- Chris Jensen on SoundCloud
- Chris Jensen personal website (archived)
- RB Productions' official website (archived)
