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Raphaël Gesqua (born February 11, 1972, in Paris) is a French composer, arranger and sound designer.
Biography
Raphaël Gesqua's professional career began in the video games industry, in the early 1990s, under his real name Raphaël Gesqua, after he was previously known in the middle of the 16-bit demoscene, under the Audiomonster pseudonym adopted in 1989.
The composer worked with game designers, such as Paul Cuisset, for whom he arranged the soundtrack of the video game Flashback, for the Amiga, in 1992. The game has remained the world's best selling French video game.
He also worked twice with Pierre Adane, creator, among other things, of the Top Spin video games series, and for which he composed the soundtracks of Snow Bros video game, for Amiga, in 1991 (that production was cancelled for at the last minute for legal reasons), and in 1993, for Mr. Nutz, a side-scrolling platformer released for Super NES, Mega Drive/Genesis and Game Boy, which was a great success and went out of stock, just days after its release.
Collaboration with Paul Cuisset also continues immediately, and the composer entirely composed and arranged the music for Shaq-Fu (featuring the famous basketball player Shaquille O'Neal), Fade to Black (direct sequel to Flashback), and Moto Racer, as a sound director of company Delphine Software International. Fade to Black and Moto Racer also got, in addition to their music, their sound effects entirely made by Gesqua. Again, Moto Racer has remained best world selling French videogame ever for several years.
After the Delphine Software period, Gesqua resumed his status as an independent composer, and created the original music, sound effects, and voices for various titles, like Marvel Super Heroes 3D, Code Lyoko, Horse Life, the DodoGo! series, Pop Island, the Cocoto series, and many other titles.
Pop Island soundtrack (Odenis Studio) earned him a nomination for Milthon 2009 awards, for Best Soundtrack.
He also composed the music for Glory Days and Glory Days 2, for which he won two nominations on the IGN site, in 2007, for best soundtrack, facing The Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass, the Nintendo game.
From 2003, Gesqua began his career in movies, and met then worked with several directors, such as Fabrice Blin, Thomas Lesourd, Christophe Monier, and Julien Maury, from the directors duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, with whom he worked twice on his shorts. He then composed the soundtrack for the first film of the duo, Inside (2007 film) / A l'intérieur), the horror film presented at Cannes Film Festival in 2007, starring Beatrice Dalle, Alysson Paradis, and Nicolas Duvauchelle, among others.
This first experience resulted in a failure, producers rejected the composer's work.
The second collaboration was a better one, and in 2010/2011, Gesqua signs his first soundtrack for a feature film, with the Livid (Livide) film, produced by La Fabrique 2, and released in theaters in France, on December 7, 2011.
A double CD limited edition of the soundtrack has been released by "Kronos Records" in 2017.
In 2013, the composer worked again with director Fabrice Blin, for his film documentary Super 8 Madness, about the genesis of Super 8 horror films in France.
The composer also signed, at the beginning of 2013, the soundtrack of a new English video game license, Nimnims from Mickim Games.
In 2014, he worked again, also, with directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, on their film Among the Living / Aux Yeux des Vivants.
The critical reception for the film's music was excellent, in the United States first, through the SXSW Austin, Texas, where the film was rated in the top 10 of the event by the famous Fangoria, and frequently praised by music critics who attended the screening.
Parallel to the film's release, a digital and CD version of the soundtrack has been released by publishers MovieScore Media and "Kronos Records".
The music of "Among The Living" obtained a nomination, in 2015, at "Soundtrack Geeks Awards", in the category "Best Horror Film Music of 2014".[1]
Last, Raphaël worked again with Christophe Monier for his latest film A Grenade under the Shirt (Une Grenade sous la Chemise), produced by Terra Cinema, and for which he won best music prize at Crash Test film festival 2020, among 3 other prizes for the film.[6][7]
Also in 2018, the composer is hired by the company Microïds to re-orchestrate and compose new novel themes for the remake of the video game Toki (Juju Densetsu in Japan), and also to realize the sound design of the game.[8]
Finally, in 2018, Raphaël Gesqua was named "Member of honor" by the MO5.COM association, as a video game world personality supporting their initiative.[9]
In 2021, he composed the music for the video game "Asterix and Obelix: Slap them all!" from Microïds, for which he also produces the sound design and some voices.
During the year 2022, Gesqua composes and re-arranges the music for the video game "New Joe & Mac", for which he also produces the sound design and the voices.
The same year, he reunited with Paul Cuisset after 25 years, to compose the music for the video game "Flashback 2", the sequel to "Flashback" and "Fade to Black".
Discography
2017 : Livide / Livid[14] original film soundtrack ("Kronos Records")
2014 : Among the Living / Aux Yeux des Vivants[15] original film soundtrack (MovieScore Media / "Kronos Records")
1996 : Fade to Black[16] original video game soundtrack (Sony Music - Delphine Records)
1996 : Mega Video Game Music[17] (videogames CD music compilation featuring Fade to Black and Mr.Nutz)
