{"id":8095,"date":"2015-05-28T14:20:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T14:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8095"},"modified":"2015-07-09T12:55:46","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T12:55:46","slug":"critical-hit-dazzles-with-kfmf-videogame-music-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8095","title":{"rendered":"KFMF: Critical Hit dazzles with videogame music concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

KRAKOW \u2013 U.S. orchestral rock outfit Critical Hit showed how infectious music from videogames can be with a 90-minute high-energy concert here last night that featured an ensemble of highly talented and glamorous performers.<\/p>\n

The band, which will play at every Wizard World Comic Con in the United States this year, made its international debut at the Krakow Film Music Festival.<\/p>\n

A sold-out crowd at the city\u2019s 828-seat Kijow Centrum showed its enthusiasm for 20 pieces drawn from the earliest videogames up to current hits and one not yet released. It was an evening of driving drumbeats, video images and a whizbang light show.<\/p>\n

Executive producer Michael Gluck substituted on synthesizer for Critical Hit co-founder Jason Hayes, who had to cancel at the last minute, and with regular drummer Kevin Dooley and Aleksander Milwiw-Baron, from the Polish version of \u201cThe Voice\u201d, on guitar, provided the percussive force that drove most of the music.<\/p>\n

\"fmf<\/a><\/p>\n

Five wildly attractive and accomplished female artists provided the dazzle for energetic performances of arrangements by Adam Gubman of themes familiar to the videogamers who made up much of the responsive audience.<\/p>\n

Classically trained top Los Angeles concert and session players and recording artists Salome Scheidigger on piano, Caroline Campbell on Violin, Tina Guo on electronic cello and Sara Andon on flute, along with Poland\u2019s Natalia Brzozwska on bass guitar, played with smiles on their faces as they obviously were having a great time.<\/p>\n

\"fmf_main_en\"<\/a>Composer Trevor Morris took a bow ahead of a performance of a new arrangement of his theme from \u201cDragon Age: Inquisition\u201d and several other videogame music composers sent greetings via video.<\/p>\n

They included Ari Pulkkinen, whose gypsy-inspired theme from \u201cAngry Birds\u201d was a highlight of the evening with Andon\u2019s flute in full flight and barrell-roll piano contributions by Scheidigger.<\/p>\n

Music ranged from \u201cTetris\u201d, \u201cPokemon\u201d, \u201cLegend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time\u201d and \u201cSuper Mario Brothers\u201d to \u201cWorld of Warcraft\u201d, \u201cDiablo II\u201d, \u201cSonic the Hedgehog\u201d and \u201cHearthstone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tall and elegant violinist Campbell and vivacious cellist Guo kept busy on strings while Andon\u2019s peerless flute floated within and above melodies as Scheidigger\u2019s commanding piano leant heft to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Nobuo Uetmatso\u2019s \u201cTo Zamarkand\u201d from \u201cFinal Fantasy X\u201d added some more plangent sounds from Milwiw-Baron\u2019s acoustic guitar and Campbell\u2019s violin but then the pace picked up again as the propulsive themes led to Harry Gregson-Williams\u2019s score for the yet-to-be-released \u201cMetal Gear Solid 2\u201d.<\/p>\n

After a standing ovation, Michael Gluck, a born showman, invited the entire crowd to greet the band in the lobby and said, \u201cWe are so grateful to be here in Krakow for our first international show.\u201d The audience roared its approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett KRAKOW \u2013 U.S. orchestral rock outfit Critical Hit showed how infectious music from videogames can be with a 90-minute high-energy concert here last night that featured an ensemble of highly talented and glamorous performers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1694,8,9],"tags":[4111,4101,4113,4171,4100,4112,2175,4102,4084],"class_list":["post-8095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-krakow-film-music-festival","category-music","category-news","tag-caroline-campbell","tag-critical-hit","tag-kevin-dooley","tag-krakow-film-music-festival","tag-michael-gluck","tag-salome-scheidigger","tag-sara-andon","tag-tina-guo","tag-trevor-morris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8095"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8238,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions\/8238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}