Growing up in the South Bay Area of Greater Los Angeles, Uelmen began taking piano lessons at age six from his tutor, Lenee Bilski, who provided him with a strong theoretical foundation. At 13 years old, he moved with his family to San Jose, California, where he completed high school. During this time, Uelmen was self-taught, mostly influenced by jazz, classic rock, and classical music, especially Liszt and Debussy while he was in high school, and Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Tom Waits later on. He later diversified his instruments to include the flute, guitar, keyboard and percussion.
He studied at Georgetown University from 1989 to 1993, where he earned the Mary Catherine Mita Prize for his thesis Cannibal Culture, Technology and American music in 1993. During college, he was also a keyboardist in a six-member bar band, where he acquired practical experience and learned about "arrangement, interaction and economy". He began working in video game music in 1994, when he was hired by Condor. His first notable work in this period was on the game Justice League Task Force for Sunsoft, released in 1995 for the Sega Genesis.
In March 1996, Blizzard Entertainment acquired Condor, which was renamed into Blizzard North. On December 31, 1996, Blizzard released their first game of the company's successful series, Diablo. His work in Diablo was so well received that Uelmen was loaned to Blizzard's StarCraft team (but stayed in Redwood City), where he did sound design; that game was released two years after Diablo, in 1998.
On June 29, 2000, Blizzard launched the second game of the Diablo series, Diablo II. In 2001, Uelmen, who composed the Diablo II Soundtrack, and cinematic soundtrack composers Jason Hayes, Glenn Stafford and Andrea Pessino won the International Game Developers Association award for Excellence in Audio for their work on Diablo II. Continuing his work in the Diablo series, on June 29, 2001, Blizzard launched what would be believed to be the last game of the series, the expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. In an interview with Gamasutra, Uelmen was asked about his time at Blizzard between 2001 and 2005. When asked whether he had worked on the earlier version of Diablo III prior to the shutdown of Blizzard North, he responded, "I guess at this point I can say, yes, more or less. Blizzard has always had a number of projects, though, that may or may not see the light of day. Some of those have been talked about, but there definitely was more than one thing going on development-wise at the time."
From 2005 to 2007, Uelmen created some of the sound and music for Blizzard's popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft's expansion pack, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade; his work represents the majority of the music in the new area of the game, Outland. He is one of about ten composers who have contributed to World of Warcraft. After his departure from Blizzard, his work was used as the basis for some of the tracks in the Blizzard Entertainment and Eminence Symphony Orchestra collaboration, Echoes of War (2008).
In 2009, Uelmen joined the newly formed Runic Games, which includes several former Blizzard North and Flagship Studios employees. He composed the score for their 2009 game, Torchlight and served as sound designer. He continued to work at Runic on Torchlight II, which released in September 2012. Runic Games closed down in November 2017, shortly after releasing Hob.
In 2016, Uelmen followed his former long-time colleague Max Schaefer as he started the new game company Echtra Games. As of April 2020, he is working on the soundtrack to Torchlight III.
Desert
Matt Uelmen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I was introduced to Mustafa Waiz through our sound designer, Scott Petersen, in February of 1999. Scott was responsible for a great deal of sound work as well as much of the drum samples heard on Diablo II, and had been rehearsing with Mustafa in his Oakland, California basement studio for a performance at a soccer game that spring. I was gearing up to get some material rolling for Act II, and was excited about getting some authentic flavor in the mix for these tunes. Mustafa put down some truly amazing stuff on the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals which was a real pleasure to build tracks around.
I generally spend a great deal time more cleaning up my own instrumental performances than I do with the actual recording of them, so I was pleasantly surprised to have tracks that were so good that almost no editing was needed. I have a vivid memory of sticking an eight bar sample into the sequencing program I use - an ancient windows 3.1 relic - and being shocked to find that it needed absolutely no tempo adjustment. Every beat was as perfectly timed as if it had come from a machine.
The material I came up with is a definite mixed bag - somehow I ended up with moments that seemed more like 70's jazz fusion or particularly strange euro-disco than anything "middle eastern" in spots, but I was still largely happy with the results. I could not resist putting down that synth bassline which enters at 1:00 in the track - the 303 had been trying to work its way into the soundtrack from the beginning, and I had to give it its half-minute of raver glory somewhere.
The song "Desert" by Matt Uelmen was created in collaboration with Mustafa Waiz, a percussionist who played dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals to provide authentic flavor to the track. Uelmen was impressed by the quality of the tracks and did not require much editing to achieve the desired sound. He describes his surprise at how perfectly timed the beats were, as if they came from a machine. Despite the mixed bag of styles present in this track, Uelmen is largely happy with the results.
The song contains a broad mix of influences, ranging from the Middle East to 70's jazz fusion and even strange euro-disco elements. At the one-minute mark, a synth bassline enters that gives the song a raver glory that Uelmen simply couldn't resist. "Desert" is an excellent example of the collaborative spirit that went into the making of the Diablo II soundtrack.
Line by Line Meaning
I was introduced to Mustafa Waiz through our sound designer, Scott Petersen, in February of 1999.
The singer met Mustafa Waiz through a sound designer named Scott Petersen in February 1999.
Scott was responsible for a great deal of sound work as well as much of the drum samples heard on Diablo II, and had been rehearsing with Mustafa in his Oakland, California basement studio for a performance at a soccer game that spring.
Scott was involved in sound work and drum samples in the Diablo II game and had rehearsed with Mustafa in his studio for a soccer game performance later that spring.
I was gearing up to get some material rolling for Act II, and was excited about getting some authentic flavor in the mix for these tunes.
The singer was preparing for Act II and wanted to incorporate some authentic flavor into the music for the upcoming tunes.
Mustafa put down some truly amazing stuff on the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals which was a real pleasure to build tracks around.
Mustafa played the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals incredibly well and the artist was happy to have those tracks to use in building the music.
I generally spend a great deal time more cleaning up my own instrumental performances than I do with the actual recording of them,
The artist typically spends more time cleaning up their own musical performances than recording them.
so I was pleasantly surprised to have tracks that were so good that almost no editing was needed.
The tracks from Mustafa were so well done that minimal editing was required by the singer, which was a pleasant surprise.
I have a vivid memory of sticking an eight bar sample into the sequencing program I use - an ancient windows 3.1 relic - and being shocked to find that it needed absolutely no tempo adjustment.
The singer used a sequencing program and remembers being surprised that an eight bar sample they used did not need any tempo adjustment, despite the old version of the program they were using.
Every beat was as perfectly timed as if it had come from a machine.
The timing of every beat in the sample was perfect, as if it had been made by a machine.
The material I came up with is a definite mixed bag - somehow I ended up with moments that seemed more like 70's jazz fusion or particularly strange euro-disco than anything "middle eastern" in spots,
The music created by the artist was a mixture of different styles, some of which sounded similar to 70's jazz fusion or strange euro-disco rather than being clearly "middle eastern" as intended.
but I was still largely happy with the results.
Despite the mixed styles of the music, the artist was still mostly satisfied with the final outcome.
I could not resist putting down that synth bassline which enters at 1:00 in the track - the 303 had been trying to work its way into the soundtrack from the beginning, and I had to give it its half-minute of raver glory somewhere.
The singer added a synth bassline to the track and admits it was due to their affinity for the 303 sound. They wanted to incorporate it into the soundtrack and felt that this section was the perfect place to showcase the bassline.
Contributed by Luke I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@nollix
I dunno if anyone shares the same feelings I do, but this music is so beautiful and nostalgic, it makes me want to cry, remembering the good old days of PC gaming.
Matt Uelmen and everyone else at Blizzard at the time were simply amazing, saying they had a passion for what they were doing is a tremendous understatement. They were nothing but pure talent. I love all their old games and soundtracks so goddamn much. I hope someone else out there feels this way.
@Kater2
+nollix I echo your feelings. I am in awe of Uelmen's music. Diablo I and II are masterpieces. I have told my family that, when I die, I want the original Tristram theme played in full at my service.
@phobos2k2
+nollix I think that today we are over-saturated with media. So many games and movies with just insane amounts of sharing on the web that it is very difficult to impact viewers. Back then, a game like this was just a staggering event. The atmosphere and the feeling of playing it was something that can never be replicated because in all reality, the world is a different place now. This was just magic then--everything aligned in just the right way to blow our minds and all of us who experienced it are very lucky indeed.
@hashypaharo449
fucka you
@orangesss777
haha nice!
@janpretorius5261
Absolutely - I feel the same way, and I share the sentiment of emotion when listening to the soundtracks or playing the games. I've spent so much time playing Diablo 1, Diablo 2, Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 2 that the games' sound design and experiences are embedded in my mind. They are all masterfully crafted.
@bestlaidplans4511
These percussionists absolutely murdered this piece. One of the all-time greatest game soundtracks.
@thesinfultictac5704
The tabla is not an easy instrument either
@reeceytaylor
@TheSinfultictac which one is the tabla?
@Eric-yj5xg
Tabla? Where can I get one yesterday?