Chris Huelsbeck

Chris Huelsbeck
Huelsbeck in 2011
Background information
Born	Christopher Hülsbeck (1968-03-02) 2 March 1968
Origin	Kassel, West Germany
Genres	Electronica, video game music
Occupation	Composer
Years active	1986–present
Website	Official website

Christopher Hülsbeck (born 2 March 1968), known internationally as Chris Huelsbeck, is a German video game music composer.^[1][2] He gained popularity for his work on game soundtracks for The Great Giana Sisters and the Turrican series.

Huelsbeck's music career started at age 17, when he entered a music competition in the German 64'er magazine, taking first prize with his composition "Shades".^[3][4] He took a job in music production with the company Rainbow Arts.^[4]

In 1986, Huelsbeck released the SoundMonitor program for the Commodore 64 computer. The program was released as a type-in listing in the German computer magazine 64'er. This program, featuring the idea of notation data rolling from down to up, is assumed^[5] to have a significant influence on Karsten Obarski's Ultimate Soundtracker (1987), which was a starting point for the still continuing tradition of tracker music programs.^[6]

Huelsbeck has written soundtracks for more than 70 titles, the latest being Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. Many of his scores for the Commodore 64 are regarded as classics among enthusiasts today, most notably The Great Giana Sisters. He is best known for the soundtracks to the Turrican series of games.

He also created a music replay routine for the Amiga called TFMX (an abbreviation of "The Final Musicsystem eXtended"; it features more musically-oriented features than rival Soundtracker, such as logarithmic pitch-bends, sound macros and individual tempos for each track.

His music from Apidya, Turrican II, Turrican 3 and The Great Giana Sisters was performed live at the Symphonic Game Music Concert series in Leipzig, Germany between 2003 and 2007, conducted by Andy Brick. Huelsbeck's music from Apidya was thus part of the first game concert outside Japan in 2003.^[7]

On 23 August 2008, his music was performed at Symphonic Shades, a concert devoted exclusively to his work. For the first time ever in Europe, an orchestral concert was dedicated to a game composer and broadcast live on the radio.^[8] The WDR Radio Orchestra and a choir performed classics such as The Great Giana Sisters, Turrican, R-Type and others in Cologne, Germany under the direction of Arnie Roth.^[9] On 19 March 2009, the concert Sinfonia Drammatica at the Konserthuset in Stockholm, Sweden was announced, with Arnie Roth conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The event took place on 4 August 2009 and combined performances of Huelsbeck's Symphonic Shades with excerpts from Drammatica by Yoko Shimomura.^[10]

Additionally, the London Video Game Orchestra (initially founded in 2019) performed an arrangement of The Wall from the Turrican 2 score. This was during their Remastered concert performed on 11 June 2022.^[11]

• 1991 Shades^[12]
• 1992 To be on Top^[13]
• 1992 Apidya
• 1993 Turrican Soundtrack
• 1994 Native Vision - Easy life (single)
• 1994 Rainbows
• 1995 Super Turrican 2
• 1995 Sound Factory
• 1997 Tunnel B1 Soundtrack
• 1997 Extreme Assault soundtrack
• 1998 Peanuts feat. Doc. Schneider - Leben betrügt (single)
• 2000 Bridge from the past to the future (released at MP3.com)
• 2000 Collage (released at MP3.com)
• 2000 Merregnon Soundtrack, Volume 1
• 2001 Chris Hülsbeck in the Mix (released by ZYX Music)
• 2004 Merregnon Soundtrack, Volume 2 (English and Japanese edition)
• 2007 Number Nine
• 2008 Symphonic Shades
• 2013 Turrican Soundtrack Anthology (Volumes 1-4)^[14]
• 2015 The Piano Collection
• 2017 25 Years - Turrican II The Orchestral Album by Chris Huelsbeck^[15]
• 2017 Turrican - Orchestral Selections^[16]

^{[17] [18] [19][20]}

• Ballblazer Champions (PS1) (SFX)
• B.C. Kid (Amiga) (Sound Support)
• DeathTrap (Amiga) (SFX)
• Emergency: Fighters for Life (PC) (SFX)
• HB Race Game (Amiga) (Music conversion)
• Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures (MD/Gen) (unreleased) (Additional conversions)
• Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (N64) (Music conversion)
• International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (MD/Gen) (Music / SFX conversion)
• Jaguar XJ220 (SNES) (unreleased) (Music conversion)
• Journey to the center of the Earth (C64) (SFX)
• Lair (PS3) (Music editing / Voice line editing / Implementation)
• Perry Rhodan: Operation Eastside (PC) (SFX)
• Rendering Ranger: R2 (SFC/SNES) (Additional Sounds)
• Resident Evil 2 (N64) (Music conversion)
• The Secret of Monkey Island (Music conversion)

^[17]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Hülsbeck.

• Official website
• Artist profile at OverClocked ReMix
• ElectronicScene.com profile
• Chris Huelsbeck discography at MusicBrainz