What is Kong in Concert?

Kong in Concert is a collaborative arrangement project born from the music of Donkey Kong Country and created for the purposes of reviving, reinterpreting, and rearranging its entire soundtrack with our combined talents; honoring those who originally composed it; and reawakening the nostalgia and love for a landmark videogame.

Why this music and this game?

The Donkey Kong Country soundtracks are different from those of most videogames in that they excel beyond their medium; they are strong in melody, developed in form, and possess sound quality which is impressive to this day. This project concentrates on the first game, whose classic soundtrack was composed by Robin Beanland, Eveline Fischer and substantially Dave Wise; though they each worked on sequels, DKC was their only collaboration. Created by Rare and released by Nintendo on the SNES in 1994, DKC set a new standard with music as rich and colorful as its graphics. Rearranging it without simple regurgitation would be a challenge for any experienced artist, yet each of us found significant room for creative liberty and personal interpretation.

How was this album produced?

The project began April, 2004 when artists were brought together to chose whichever track they wished to arrange, regardless of how many had chosen it. Once all arrangements were complete, contentions were resolved by a peer review in which everyone involved in the project was included. The two competing arrangements deemed by majority vote to be superior were selected for those two tracks (Theme and The Credits Concerto) on the album. After the album was finalized and the project was complete, Kong in Concert was released on September 12th, 2004. This album is in no way commercial and is free to download.

We hope you enjoy.


Credits:

The artists
Trevor Wishart - site design
Chris Roman - CD cover art
Binnie Katti - project director




Original game content is copyright Nintendo.
Contact Binnie Katti about this project or website.