C418

DISCOGRAPHY (abridged)

Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures (2010) 5/10

Minecraft - Volume Alpha (soundtrack, 2011) 6.5/10

Minecraft - Volume Beta (soundtrack, 2013) 5/10

Excursions (2018) 5/10

   Born in Germany, 1989, Daniel Rosenfeld learned to program and produce music in his preteens with instruction from his older brother. His brother's artist name, C818, would be the basis for Daniel to make his name C418. 

   By 2007, Daniel began a blog where he would post music every week, and worked on commissions through TIGSource, an online forum where he would contribute sound effects and music to various independent video games. His reverence for soundtrack composer Danny Baranowsky would also encourage him to publish his music on Bandcamp. 

   In 2010, Rosenfeld would release Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures, a collection ambient techno with intermittent callbacks to his Minecraft pieces, as well as the full soundtrack he had composed for a game called Ezo. Rosenfeld would flex more complex IDM arrangements with adequate production for each piece. However, the melodies and themes are generally mediocre. 

   Through TIGSource, Rosenfeld would inevitably connect with game designer Markus "Notch" Persson during development of Minecraft, who would commission Rosenfeld to provide music and effects before its beta release in 2010. 

   With the game's rising popularity, an official release of his work with Notch would emerge in 2011 with Minecraft Volume Alpha, one of the best-selling ambient albums and video game soundtracks ever. 

   The cohesion is occasionally clunky and amateurish, but an endearment of innocent play prevails that is missing from more highfalutin ambient albums. What's better of course is the general competence and attention to striking minimal arrangements and electronic tones that could have come from Brian Eno's Music for Films. 

   A second volume, Volume Beta, would release in 2013.