Sascha Dikiciyan

Sascha "Buzzfunk" Dikiciyan , also known as Sonic Mayhem and Toksin (* 1970 in Stuttgart ), is a German composer and musician . As such, he mainly composes soundtracks in the field of computer games .

biography

Born in Stuttgart and raised in Berlin , Dikiciyian came into contact with classical music a lot during his childhood. He learned to play the piano as a child, but then switched to drums at the age of twelve. For his studies, however, he could not make friends with the traditionally classically influenced courses of study at European music conservatories. Therefore, he moved from Berlin to Los Angeles in 1993 to study keyboards, music theory and recording technology as part of a music degree at the Musicians Institute (Hollywood). He then studied film composition and orchestration at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music . Inspired by the first computer games with specially recorded accompanying music, especially Quake , Dikiciyan wrote his first own music production Methods of Destruction in 1996 , which he distributed himself. He applied to Quake manufacturer id Software as the composer of the successor title Quake II and was ultimately accepted, succeeding Trent Reznor . Since then he has worked as a composer on numerous computer game productions , mainly under his pseudonym Sonic Mayhem, alone and in collaborations with other musicians. A stylistic characteristic of Dikiciyan's work is the fusion of orchestral sounds with electronic music.

In 2005 Dikiciyan came in contact with the American game composer Cris Velasco while looking for a supporter for his own project . Since then, both have been working together on almost all projects. Under the pseudonym "Toksin" Dikiciyan also publishes his own pieces of music and remixes with influences from the areas of industrial rock , breakbeat and drum and bass . His place of residence and work is Los Angeles.

Discography (selection)

• Quake II (1997)
• Quake III Arena (1999)
• Unreal Tournament (1999)
• James Bond 007: Tomorrow Never Dies (computer game) (2000)
• Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006)
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent (2006)
• Stranglehold (2007)
• Hellgate: London (2007)
• God of War II (2007)
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008)
• Haze (2008)
• Borderlands (2009)
• Prototype (2009)
• Tron: Evolution (2010)
• Mass Effect 2: Kasumi (2010)
• MAG (2010)
• Mass Effect 2: Arrival (2011)
• Mortal Kombat (2011)
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (2011)
• Mass Effect 3 (2012)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)
• The Long Dark (2017)

Web links

• Official website of Sonic Mayhem
• Toksin Official Website
• Sascha Dikiciyan Interview on GamesArt.de
• Sascha Dikiciyan at MobyGames (English)
• Sonic Mayhem at MobyGames (English)
• Sascha Dikiciyan in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sonic Mayhem: About ( Memento February 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ). Official website, accessed April 22, 2012.
2. ↑ Scoring TRON: Evolution with Cubase ( English ) In: Official website . Steinberg Media Technologies . Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 22, 2012. 
3. ↑ GameSlice Interview with Sonic Mayhem: The Music of Quake ( English ) In: GameSlice . Ola Balola LLC. Archived from the original on April 11, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
4. ^ ^{A b} Sonic Mayhem: Biography . Official website, accessed April 22, 2012.
5. ↑ Composers Sascha Dikiciyan & Cris Velasco: Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad, Beowulf? ( English ) In: Tracksounds . November 2007. Retrieved April 22, 2012.