Montreal, Canada – Analekta, an independent classical record company in Canada, is thrilled to announce Angèle Dubeau with La Pietà newest album Game Music. Her 36th album was devoted to film music and topped the Canadian charts for the last 9 months; this new recording features unrivalled performances of strong and striking works from some of the most popular video games in the world. Never before has the realm of video game music been imbued with such virtuosity and originality.

“I have never placed limits on my choice of repertoire, and for this project, I reached toward a unique world that was creative and vibrant in its originality,” explains Angèle Dubeau, the violinist and artistic director of La Pietà. “In my quest to discover the gems of video game music, I listened to many works written and revisited by composers of great talent. Above all, I wanted to avoid distorting them, and my intention has been to preserve the form that initially won over video game aficionados while at the same time breathing new life into them.”

As Angèle did previously when she picked film music, she assembled works that were powerful and evocative enough to have a life of their own. The album features, works associated with famous games such as Tetris, Final Fantasy, Halo 3, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and Angry Birds, as well as others heard in Chrono Trigger, Heavy Rain and Secret of Mana. The album is available for digital download and can be purchased on CD starting October 23 in Canada and on October 30 in the US.

Additionally a free companion App has been released with trivia on video game music and clips from the album, it can be downloaded here.

Considered one of the most prominent violin virtuosos in Canada since she was 15, Angèle Dubeau has led a dazzling career in the great concert halls of the world. Her virtuosity and musicality have garnered many prizes over the years, and is one of the rare classical violinists in the world to have been awarded gold records. She has already sold over 500,000 albums in her career.

Driven by a constant desire to innovate, Angèle Dubeau founded La Pietà in 1997, an all-female string orchestra featuring some of Canada’s best musicians. From early on, the ensemble gained a solid reputation, playing Canada’s most prestigious venues and on television. The Los Angeles Times noted that “Dubeau is an exciting, dynamic fiddler…The performances were consistently robust and inquiring, taking nothing for granted…Dubeau’s well-drilled band played with agility, power, a nicely weighted sound and a fierce joy in the doing.”

To download the album on iTunes please go here.

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Those who have been following Halo 4 will know that it marks a serious departure for the series. Previous entries in the franchise were developed by the game company Bungie and for the most part concerned themselves with the same events (i.e. the war against the Covenant).

Halo 4, on the other hand, marks the beginning of a new trilogy and is being developed by 343 Industries, a company created specifically to create Halo games ever since Bungie  became and independent company. Although 343 Industries is responsible for last years Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remake of the first game, which makes Halo 4 the first time the company has created a game from scratch.

Some have complained about the graphics, but the game seems to be bringing Halo back to its roots. Several have noted that the game will be less of a straight-forward first person shooter and instead incorporate more elements of mystery, exploration, and discovery. Basically, the game will be more like the critically acclaimed original game and less like Halo 3 ODST.

The plot kicks up four years after Halo 3. Master Chief and his AI, Cortana, crash land on a Forerunner planet after being lost in space. The Forerunners were a species of enlightened aliens responsible for creating structures such as the Halo the series is now known for. The campaign is set on an artificial planet known as Requiem. Although the Covenant is now peaceful, a rogue group has splintered off, known as the Storm.

This time around, the story is being planned as a trilogy from the onset, which hopefully means the story will be split up between the three games, with no more annoying cliff hangers like in Halo 2. Halo 5 is planned to be a darker game than 4, and 6 will wrap things up.

Little information is out about multiplayer, but here is what has been shown so far: Two new modes will be included, Regicide and Infinity Slayer. Regicide consists of a free for all where one person is marked as the “King.” Killing other players will still net people points, but slaying the king will give out the most. The more players the king kills, the more points the player who commits the regicide receives. Infinity Slayer is a lot like normal Slayer, except weapons spawn over the course of the game, not just at the beginning of the match.

Also new is “personal ordnance.” This feature rewards individual players (as opposed to teams) for kills, assists, team support and completing objectives. Personal ordnance will play a part in all multiplayer modes, but has the biggest effect in Infinity Slayer.

In addition, players who still only have a 4GB HDD are out of luck. Installing multiplayer requires 8GB. This is not needed for single player mode.

Despite being announced at 2011’s E3, details on Halo 4 are still scarce. Stay tuned for more Halo 4 news from Toonari Post leading up to its worldwide release on November 6.

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