"Still a teenager, I promised myself that should I ever decide to present my music to an audience bigger than the circle of my closest friends, I will take on the name of Laren d'Or, the lonely bard, my favourite fantasy hero.
Mostly I compose instrumental music, yet I like to wander sometimes to other genres - pls. listen to my game soundtrack music samples: grunge rock, swing, funky - on my soundtrack web site. (see below)

My music was influenced by the great figures of instrumental music: Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Klaus Schulze, Jean-Michel Jarre, Solaris and Tangerine Dream.

And I am convinced that classical music, the eight years spent with practising the piano, had also been most formative since my musical pieces are mainly meant as orchestral music. Working with more and more advanced musical instruments, I was impressed by the opportunity to on my own compose and play as well complete orchestral works."

Sidenote
Laren d'Or's is a talented and well-known composer in the classical music scene. His compositions; Gothic II, Heart of the Dragon and 4.12 (April Ride) was recently listed in the Top 10 Classical Chart on Besonic.

You can reach him by dropping an email to his wife, Kriszta.Attila Heger is better known as Laren d'Or, the famed game music composer and general nice bloke. We, at Darkstation, were overjoyed, when we were approached and asked to do an email interview with the man, and I was particularly overjoyed when the webmaster gave the task to me...

Interview conducted via email by Gyaku Tsuki.

What do you see as the crowning achievement of your career to date?
As for your question: one of our recent projects - the PSX version of Wacky Races was a very exciting challenge for me. Here I had to compose remarkably varied styles in a relatively short period of time, starting from the beloved swing through the funky as far as the country scores.

The cinematic scores of Ecco the Dolphin - Defender of the Future must be mentioned. I guess it is a prominently good piece which I am very proud of, I suppose so I could catch the atmosphere of the real underwater world combined with the dramatic movie feeling.

Are you a Playstation gamer yourself? What game is occupying your time at the moment?
In my family our daughter - the 13 year-old Alexandra - is the main playstation fan. Although I did like Metal Gear Solid very much indeed, and from amongst the games I have been involved in I think Tiny Tank and the Contra '96 were quite remarkable. Our daughter is a big fan of Gran Turismo, I’m currently struggling with Deus Ex.

Have you noticed large changes in the way the game music industry conducts itself?
Big budget productions are larger than ever. Nowadays it is no surprise if a game features music from a famous pop celebrity or band (Quake, Omikron, Homeworld, etc.). Of course it is a marketing gimmick but the real truth behind this is that game systems finally are able to reproduce very high quality music thanks to the wonders of audio-CD. Game music is no more a technical issue finally (as it was in the 80's when everybody listened open-mouthed to a simple three-channel tune in a game).

How much of an influence has Kriszta been on your work?
She is my wife and my muse. She gave the inspiration for the cream of War of Angels - my first non-game music album. The first track on this CD - 4.12 (April ride) - was composed for her birthday, it is on 12th of April. Kriszta also acts as manager and agent for my music, it’s thanks to her my first album was released and my next is on its way.

How do you see the future of the game industry as a whole?
Technology evolves rapidly and the day when the so-called "Total Immersion" is available is not far away. A good example for this is the PS2, when I saw the next Metal Gear game's trailer, I was fascinated. It is beautiful, but the main premise is this: beautiful and interactive. Add some fancy 3d sound to the gorgeous graphics and you can see that the current technology is cool enough to suck the gamer into its world!
Internet enables global multiplayer experiences, however I think that the best multiplayer setup is a room crowded by your buddies and each of you shouts while you are playing Crash Team Racing head to head!

Do you have any regrets about your choice of career?
No, absolutely not. I have been learning to play the piano for eight years. As I arrived home from my previous work, over many years I composed my own music every night. I suppose I was predestined to this game musician job. It was one of the most wonderful opportunities and decisions in my life when I applied for this job - and they chose me as an in-house composer at a game developer company. Since then - it is more than 8 years - I still think this is the one and only job, with which I can relate both as a profession and a hobby.

Where would you like to be in ten years time?
I would like to sit in my studio in Scotland, I would like to publish a few pieces per year, every morning I would like to ride with my wife and daughter on horses to our estate, I would like to keep dogs and maincoons. (Eh? - Editor)

What are currently working on?
Our most recent projects were: Ecco the Dolphin - Defender of the Future for the Dreamcast, which is available now in Europe. And there is Wacky Races, which is an upcoming game for PSX and PC. Since we have no bigger project for the near future, I write midi music for the bonus.com website.

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