What I'm listening to this week: the amazing Unravel score

I finished this game last week, and I've been listening to the soundtrack ever since. Never before was there such a game so quietly nostalgic, a pet project realized by a gifted team of developers and visionaries.

What I'm listening to this week (AKA always): the official Life is Strange official soundtrack

"I'm going to get better about writing on my music blog again!" Hahahaha good luck, fool.

In January 2016 (a few months ago), Life is Strange released a physical disc version of the game with bonus director's commentary and the official soundtrack. Even though I already owned the game on Steam and had been listening to the Life is Strange official soundtrack since last summer, I bought it. That's the level of fangirl that I am.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture by Jessica Curry - the future of video game music, or just another soundtrack?

Is this score a revolutionary view into the future of video game scores, or is it just another soundtrack?

Buy. This. Book.

Are you a composer? Indie developer? Professional musician, video game enthusiast, proprietor of gaming delights? Buy this book.

The Last of Us soundtrack ruined my life

My friends, this is the story of how the soundtrack for The Last of Us ruined my life.

You Can't Break Into This Industry - Film/Television/Video Game Composing

My video game cabinet - yes, my PS3 is dusty. Not pictured: Nintendo DS, Game Cube, or the pile of games on the coffee table.

It used to be that networking was enough - but not anymore.

Musically Notable Weekly Digest, Week ending March 8th

Greetings and Happy Friday! I was actually able to go outside without a coat today, so it would seem that Spring is within our grasp! Here are the top stories of this week:

• Brainpickings.org wrote a piece on how to bust through writer's block!

• Brandon Nelson wrote a great overview of Franz Liszt on the Polonious Sheet Music blog.

• The American Academy of Arts and Letters have pieced Charles Ives' music studio back together, and the results are fantastic. (Source)

• Reports of opera's death have been greatly exaggerated: (Source)

• Manuela Hoelterhoff gives her opinions on the Met - (Source)

• NPR reports that Robert Ashley,the  innovative opera composer, died March 3rd.

• Spotify has purchased Echo Nest, a company that specializes in music recommendations. (Source)

• Scientists have identified a condition called "musical anhedonia" which can cause some people to be indifferent to music. (Source)

• Mamoru Samuragochi, the composer who faked a disability and used a ghost writer for 20 years, made his first public appearance since the scandal broke, has apologized.

Here you have it, this week's biggest and best stories in music. Stop by every weekend for your Musically Notable digest! If you have a story or a project that deserves mentioning, please submit your ideas to me on Twitter @AngelinaPanozzo or through my website, AngelinaPanozzo.com. Thanks for reading and have a fantastic weekend!

The "Beethoven of Japan?" More like "The Great Pretender!"

As enthusiasts of video game music will already have heard, the famous composer...er, "composer," Mamoru Samuragochi admitted to be a festering fraud this week. He has built his massive career on the foundations of the immensely successful Resident Evil soundtrack, which is renowned for its spectacular atonality. That soundtrack was released in 1997 - and he has admitted that everything released under his name during the past 18 years has been written by a ghost writer.

Samuragochi has found success "writing" for video games, beginning with the iconic Resident Evil soundtrack and Onimusha, and culminating in the widely successful Symphony no. 1, "Hiroshima." This symphony was written (by someone else) as a memorial to the victims of the atomic bomb. What better way to memorialize over a half a million people than to pretend to write a symphony for them? Granted, the intent is good, but as we all know the path to hell is littered with good intentions.

A new piece of music, Sonatina for Violin, is set to premier at the Olympics in Sochi - I guess we'll have to wait and see who gets credited for it.

A man by the name of Takashi Niigaki has come forward, claiming that he is the ghost writer. In this article from IGN, Niigaki reveals that Samuragochi probably isn't even deaf - which means he decided to fake a disability to garner the moniker "Japan's Beethoven," and then hired a ghost composer to boot. That's pretty despicable, if you ask me, and admitting to the fraud is a very small consolation to his deception.

"We carry on normal conversations. I don't think he is [handicapped]," Niigaki said, "At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually.... He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role [of a deaf person]."

Niigaki also suggested that Samuragochi threatened to kill himself if the ghost-writing were to cease. Samuragochi has yet to respond to these accusations.

His record label isn't impressed. They've put an immediate moratorium on shipments of his music, ceased the online sales of his music, and a planned tour is now on hold.