Music Releases

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Dezaemon Game Creator: The Unrealised Big Blue Bazooka Game Soundtrack

The idea I had was to create an album of songs using music sequencers found in video games. I did some work using a few different ones but now after a year or so I had lost motivation to continue this project. The stuff I tried mostly didn't go very far except for the work I did using Dezaemon.

Dezaemon is a shoot'em up editor developed and published by Athena for the Famicom (NES) released in 1991. The game let's you create your own schmup using the in built editor including the ability to customise sprites, enemy movement, backgrounds and music. The music editor allows 12 bars for each track with a selection of tones for Tone A and Tone B as well as a Triangle wave channel and a PCM drum kit.

For the project I created a number of sprites and all of the game's music. The game's level 1, 3, boss, credits and title screen music was completed but I never got around to creating the music for level 2.

In the release I have included raw emulator audio from the Dezaemon game sequencer as well as the original piano demos, MIDI files of each track and the sheet music for each track.

I have also included two extra tracks that were made using other video game sequencers, 'Pocket Song' which was made using Pocket Music for the Game Boy Color and 'Try' which was made using Warioware D.I.Y's music editor.

The sheet music and MIDI files for the music are available for download on my Bandcamp. The .mio file for 'Try', which can be imported onto and played on real hardware, and SRAM saves of Dezaemon and Pocket Music for use in loading up and playing the music in the sequencers themselves, is available to download here - drive.google.com/file/d/1oAlbTf6ZSc7slFXe_bhA-cz8DDZgACqW/

credits

released July 4, 2025

Written, Recorded, Produced and Mixed by Nicholas Kempson

Spaceship to Jupiter V

I have always loved synthesizers, especially the synth heavy space themed music from the 60's and 70's, this album is my interpretation of that era of music.

Spaceship to Jupiter V was one first songs I had started writing for the album, at this stage there wasn't even any album planned yet, I just was making whatever I felt like at the time. After I had finished the song it ended up sounding like something which reminded me of space themed synthesizer music of the 60's and 70's. Back then I only had software synthesizers but later moved onto hardware synthesizers such as the Minilogue XD, JV-1080 and Volca FM.

The album started production in 2020 with Spaceship to Jupiter V and has taken 4 years to produce although it was only sparingly worked on through the years along with other songs that have not been released yet.

credits

released November 8, 2024

Written*, Recorded, Produced and Mixed by Nicholas Kempson

*Except for The Goodbye Song (Colin Bokulic & Jason Wilson)

Album front cover and back cover art by scipai (www.instagram.com/scipai/)

Nicholas Kempson – Percussion, Electric Guitar, Electric Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Drums, Sequencing

Friendship Park

The idea of this album was to create music for different retro sound chips while staying true to the limitations of the hardware in order to create authentic sounding music that could be programmed and played on real hardware.

Some of the staples of being true to the hardware means that most of the time you have to work with a very limited amount of voices, most often 3 voices and a noise channel, but some chips only use three voices and no noise/percussion channel and others have as little as only 2 square wave voices.

The album includes music made from simple sound chips to FM synthesis to sample based sequencer music of the SPC700 sound chip used in the Super Nintendo game console.

I really enjoyed writing with limited voices such as with the NES' three part harmony limitations, it made me have to think differently about composing and harmonisation compared to when I can have as many tracks and voices as I want in modern sound production. The simplicity in both tones and harmony limitations was refreshing to work with.

Some of my biggest inspirations for making chiptune music come from Koji Kondo, who I believe is the most significant and remarkable composer of retro game console music. I am also a huge fan of Grant Kirkhope who I absolutely adore and who cultivated my love for Low fidelity sample based sequencer music as seen in his work on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 game consoles.

credits

released June 24, 2023

Written*, sequenced, produced and mixed by Nicholas Kempson

*Except for Colombian Necktie NES (Written by Big Black)

Artwork by scipai (www.instagram.com/scipai/)

Lost and Found

This album is an assortment of demos, alternate versions and other random songs and musical ideas I've created. You could consider this as a rarities and B-sides type release.

These track were created between 2019, when I started making music, to now.

credits

released August 16, 2021

Nicholas Kempson - Everything*

*Except for Don't Worry Baby (written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian), I Want to Hold Your Hand (Written by John Lennon & Paul McCartney), Pure Pure Heart (Written by Hiroyuki Maezawa), True Love Will Find You in the End (Written by Daniel Johnston), and New Years Day (Bass Guitar only).