Draft:Lords of the Sound

Lords of the Sound
Lords of the Sound in Antequera (Málaga) on August 1991
Background information
Origin	Barcelona
Genres	Video game music
Years active	1989–1992
Labels	Topo Soft Opera Soft Zigurat Commodore Spain O.M.K.
Members	Narciso Quintana Varo Àngel Martínez Domingo
Website	youtube.com/@narcisound1970

Lords of the Sound were a Spanish video game music band formed in Barcelona in 1989 by Narciso Quintana Varo (Narcisound) and Àngel Martínez Domingo.

Before 1989 Narciso wrote tunes for Commodore 64 demos while Àngel wrote tunes for Commodore Amiga demos. A common friend of both, Ángel Carlos (ACM), introduced them in 1988 and not too much after that Lords of the Sound began to sound in the Spanish computer scene.

In 1990 Commodore Spain ordered them a song for its stand at Informat, the computer congress of Barcelona. They wrote a theme called Robodream II for the Commodore Amiga. That was its first official song and it was a great succees.

The very next year they were writing the songs for the games of some of the most importatnt spanish videogame companies.

But it all ended in 1992, when an economic crisis in Spain and the change from 8 bits to 16 forced the large Spanish video game companies to close.

Lords of the Sound ended but Narciso and Àngel continued writing music. Among other works, Narciso composed soundtracks for short films while Àngel published his compositions and CDs on websites such as Mp3.com or Amp3.com.

Some years ago Narciso came back to write songs for Commodore 64 games, which is doing nowadays and he also performs in concerts at retro events, playing songs directly on a Commodore 64. Àngel continues writing electronic music and soundtrack music as a hobby.

History

Prelude (1984–1988)

Narciso Quintana in 1984

When Narciso was 8 years old, his parents bought him a Casiotone PT-20, which had chords using very small keys. As his parents saw the great interest he showed in his firts synth, they soon bought him a better polyphonic synth.

However, Narciso made the big move in 1984 with the Commodore 64 which allowed him to work with 3 monophonic tracks. Very soon he was already writing songs for the demos of the most important Commodore 64 group in Spain called Blasters Inc.

In the summer of 1998, thanks to Ángel Carlos (AMD) Narciso met Àngel Martínez and had the opportunity to write music on an Commodore Amiga 500, which improved its songs because the Comoodore Amiga has 4 sampled tracks implemented.

Àngel Martínez studied Classical guitar and music theory for one year when he was 7 years old, deciding that that was not his thing. The acquisition of the Commodore 64, like Narciso and many other people in Catalonia thanks to a promotion from a bank in 1984, marked his professional life, initiating his interest in computer programming and musical composition. In 1986 he acquired a Commodore Amiga 500 and wrote songs for the demos of groups of the time such as The Human Torches, The Black Corsairs and Blasters Inc.-Amiga Section.

Andante: Catalan video game scene (1989–1990)

Àngel Martínez in 1990

In 1989 Narciso and Àngel decided they wanted to write songs for Spanish video games.

First of all they needed a name for the group. It had to be a powerful name, and since they were fans of Maniacs of Noise, this name served as a template for them to end up choosing Lords of the Sound.

In 1989 they continued writing songs for Blasters Inc. demos, but this time using the name Lords of the Sound. Shortly after, this name was already heard throughout the Commodore community.

Some of the tunes written in of 1989 among many others, were Secret Code, The Black Adder, Farilow 1.0, Silvia's dream, Paradise, The Blasters Theme.

At the beginning of 1990 Commodore Spain ordered them to write a song to demonstrate the sound capacity of the Commodore Amiga for the Barcelona's computer congress Informat 90.

Àngel wrote Robodream II, a simple song full of samples from the movie Robocop, which impressed the audience because people at that time were not used to a computer speaking with that quality and clarity.

At Commodore Spain they were so satisfied that they asked them for 4 or 5 songs and a performance playing and writing live music for the next Barcelona's congress of Sound and Image Sonimag 90, that would be held in next September..

Some of the songs composed at/for Sonimag 90 were: In Revenge of Lost by Narcisound, ¿Que tenemos que hacer? by Àngel, Karate Dojo by Narcisound, F19 Simulator by Àngel, Peace for all by Narcisound, Time soldiers by Àngel

That same year, the company O.M.K. from Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona) contacted Lords of the Sound to adapt the music from the popular cartoon series La corona mágica for the game of the same name that O.M.K were developing on Commodore Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Msx and Spectrum. — They gave us a cassette tape with the original soundtrack. We took it to my house, Narciso listened to it a couple of times at most and composed an adaptation of it for the Amiga 500 almost without blinking. But when we saw the finished game (already on sale) on the Commodore Amiga, it turned out that the programmer put our routine to play the music in the same thread as the movement routine so the music disappeared and appeared constantly!!! —

Scherzo: Spanish video game scene (1991)

Lords of the Sound permorming at Soimag 90

In 1991 Narciso had to go to live in Antequera (Málaga), where he continues living now, leaving the group separated by almost 1000 km away at a time without internet and without mobile phones.

Shortly after Narciso's departure, Lords of the Sound received Topo Soft's first order from Rafael Gómez, the music for the game Zona 0. — Rafa asked us to write a song for a futuristic motorcycle game, like the movie Tron. They wanted it for Spectrum and for the monophonic speaker on the PC. At that time sound cards for PCs did not yet exist. Rafa told us what they were going to pay us, I called Narciso and we accepted. I choose Narciso's song for the game since it was much better than mine. Together with a friend named Juanjo (JJ) we wrote a routine in 8086 machine code to play notes on the PC speaker and I wrote the melody transcribing the notes into numbers.—

That same year, Topo Soft, always through Rafael Gómez, ordered to Lords of the Sound the songs for their games, which were Tour 91, Desperado 2 and Black Crown

Lords of Sound also wrote the soundtrack for the game Kuwait Assault by O.M.K. and the version of Commodore 64 of Jai Alai from Opera Soft.

All the songs were written by Narciso on a Commodore 64 and arranged to other computers by Àngel, except Jai Alai by Opera Soft which was written directly on Commodore 64 by Narciso, since the only version that Lords of the Sound made is the one on the Commodore 64.

Finale Moderato assai: Game over (1992)

Lords of the Sound in 1991

Along with the start of Lords of the Sound in 1989 the decline of the Spanish video game industry also began. On one hand a crisis had also begun in the Spanish video game companies, which did not know how to adapt themselves to the new 16-bit computers and on the other hand an financial crisis had also begun in Spain, that arose finally in 1993.

1992, the year in which the Olympic Games made Barcelona known to the world, was also the year of the dissolution of the video game music band born precisely in that city.

Lords of the Sound's last work was the soundtrack for Topo Soft's Luigi and spaghetti, a game divided into 7 different locations: Egypt, Amazon, Italy, Camelot, USA, Transylvania and the last one is Moon. Each place had its own musical theme. Narciso wrote the songs for 4 locations while Àngel wrote the other 3.

Musical style and influences

Although Narciso has always commented that his favorite composer was Vangelis, there are no influences from this music writer in the songs that Narciso wrote during his time with Lords of the Sound. Influences are found from other Commodore 64 composers such as Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway and Maniacs of Noise: Jeroen Tel and Charles Deenen. He also had some influence from Spanish Synthpop (in Spain called Tecno), specifically from Azul y Negro and from electronic music groups of the time such as Technotronic and Pet shop boys among others.

Àngel and Narciso had in common that their favorite composer was Vangelis. But Àngel's songs from his Lords of the Sound stage have clear influence from Narcisound himself, The Alan Parsons Project and synthpop (Techno) groups such as Depeche Mode, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Real Life (band) among others.

Band members

Current members

• Narcisound (Narciso Quintana Varo)
• Àngel Martínez (Àngel Martínez Domingo)

Discography

Computer demos

• Narcimix by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• Always on your Blast by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• Rock 'n Hit by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• C64 Remix by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• In Revenge of LOST by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• Crazy for your brain by Narciso Quintana (1989)
• Burning Blues by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• The Black Adder theme by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Secret Code by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• The New Sound of Andromeda by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Silvia's dream by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• The Blasters theme by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• In an hour by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Sleepwalk II by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Bit in a house by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Dance of the crown by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Space theme by Àngel Martínez (1989)
• Disco night by Àngel Martínez (1989)

Computer congresses

• Robodream II by Àngel Martínez for Informat 90 (1990)
• Lords Mix by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• The Fantastic Sound by Àngel Martínez for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Ghsot and girls by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Beach wind by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• The Creature by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Pro Soldiers by Narciso Quintana & Àngel Martíenz for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Galaxian wars by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Time of Fist by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Western Games II by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• The Wielgenstain legend by Àngel Martínez for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Wonderful Lots by Narciso Quintana & Àngel Martíenz for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Time wars by Àngel Martínez for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• F19 Simulator by Àngel Martínez for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• ¿Que tenemos que hacer? by Àngel Martínez for Sonimag 90 (1990)
• Wonder girls by Narciso Quintana for Sonimag 90 (1990)

Video games

• La corona mágica O.M.K. by Narciso Quintana and Àngel Martínez (1990)
• Zona 0 Topo Soft by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Tour 91 Topo Soft by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Desperado 2 Topo Soft by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Kuwait assault O.M.K. by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Black Crown Topo Soft by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Jai Alai Commodore 64 version Opera Soft by Narciso Quintana (1991)
• Luigi and Spaghetti Topo Soft by Narciso Quintana and Àngel Martínez (1992)

External links

• Narcisound YouTube
• Narcisound Soundcloud
• Àngel Martínez Soundcloud