one

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one

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AKA One
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang soundtrack
Release date 2012-12-23
Genre Ambient, House, IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), Orchestral
Running time 1:35:42 (digital)
1:50:44 (CD)
Bandcamp $7 or more
Apple Music/iTunes $9.99
Spotify Ad-supported
Google Play Music $9.99
Fangamer $15
It's not ready!
This article is still a work in progress.
Technically all of them are, but this one might not be completely ready for public viewing.

one is C418's sixteenth released album and third major album. one serves as the original soundtrack for Minecraft: The Story of Mojang, a documentary on Minecraft and its development by Mojang. Like C418's other soundtrack albums, one favours usage of more ambient elements over soaring leads. For one, this meant the unique combination of heavy usage of mbiras and chiptune, although it also features selective use of other styles.

Official descriptions

one is the biggest album I ever created. Originally most of the songs were made for the official soundtrack to the documentary about Minecraft, but I think this album has become even bigger than that. I hope you'll like it as much as I had fun creating it!
one is the official soundtrack to Minecraft: A [sic.] Story of Mojang, which was a documentary about the development of Minecraft when things were still innocent and young. The soundtrack itself is way more than that though. Through editing it became an album on its own, something that is way more unique than what I could have accomplished by just making a dedicated album.

The tone is pretty relaxed, with a mix of live recorded chiptune, orchestral phrases and a lot of Array Mbiras. A LOT of them. I also intentionally put in a lot of repetition into the album. You will hear a lot of songs that sound similar to songs you’ve heard before. Like Leitmotivs, but actually for entire songs.

There’s a word in German, called “Schönhören”, and it roughly translates to the act of listening to something until you start to like it. So, a lot of this album is an experiment on if that can actually be true. That may sound like a lot of bogus, but I was actually genuinely curious if songs sound better if you’ve heard preview versions of them before you listen to the main track. Did it work? I think it did for me. But did it work for you? I don’t know, you tell me!

[...]

And that’s one. I think it’s probably the most polished album I ever created.

If you want to work really hard and just want to put some noise on, you should try this album. A lot of my friends told me this is like their magical programming album.
—C418, c418.org
Finally. After two long years working on this, it’s finally done.

This is the official soundtrack to 2 Player Productions documentary about Mojang, and I created the music for it. Though this album contains all the music in the film, I think I made it much stronger and bigger than that, and it works well on its own, too.

Most importantly, I managed to release a big album in 2012, albeit a bit late, hehe.

It taught me how to properly add orchestrations onto a song, and how you should mix and master them. It’s pretty hard, actually! Oh, and I used actual gameboys extensively, too. As a combination, it creates this super weird chiptune orchestra, sort of.

Also one of the highlights is that I got Laura Shigihara to collaborate on one song, called “tsuki no koibumi”. I always wanted to have a song that I cannot understand, due to language differencies, and now I have one, in this album!
—C418

Tracks

Note that while some releases of this album use title case for the track titles, the Bandcamp release uses all lowercase and so is considered to be the official version.

cliffside hinson

cliffside hinson
Length 3:46
Bandcamp $1 or more
“cliffside hinson” is the intro to the album as much as it is the intro to the movie. It seemed fitting to use it as the first song. It’s also the introduction to “social lego”, a song that appears MUCH later in the album. I think I considered it the theme of accomplishments the community of Minecraft had. All the crazy projects of gigantic cities built within the game.
—C418, c418.org

Trivia

  • Uses the same theme as social lego.
  • This song's title refers to BigGiantCircles' real name, Jimmy Hinson. Several track titles on Minecraft - Volume Alpha were named after C418's fellow indie game composers, and BGC was notably missing from there.
  • C418 collaborated with BigGiantCircles on BGC418, and remixed a track of his as Jimtention.

surface pension

surface pension
Length 6:34
Bandcamp $1 or more
“surface pension” is the main theme of the hard and often unnoticed job of working developers. If you pay attention you can hear them clicking away on their keyboards. This song also uses the same progression as “preliminary art form”, and as an antagonised version in “post success depression”. All of these songs are essentially the same, but they all carry completely different messages across. While “surface pension” is about the hard work, “preliminary art form” is about the trance you have when working on a thing for so long that it becomes second nature. Finally “post success depression” identifies with the times when working hard becomes the enemy. When your work hours are way past 60 a week. When you still have to get your work done, no matter if you want to or not.
—C418, c418.org

Connections

  • The theme from this song reappears later on the album, such as in preliminary art form. surface pension features a warmer, more synthesised version of what is essentially the same soundscape. It also contains a variety of chiptune-style synthesizer sounds, an mbira, and a subdominant role for a piano. During the song, the sound of typing on computer keyboards is used as percussion to emphasise the theme of the life of computer developers. preliminary art form is more minimal in its approach in that it mostly focuses on the piano. Both versions retain an upbeat atmosphere, much unlike post success depression. As the name hints at, post success depression is of a darker nature. It is a lower-pitched version of the song, transposed into a minor scale. post success depression starts small but slowly builds up to an entire orchestra.

independent accident

independent accident
Length 4:11
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • independent accident is the first-presented version of what has been nicknamed the "independent accident theme". Only a few songs in one feature this theme.

danny makes chiptune

danny makes chiptune
Length 2:46
Bandcamp $1 or more
“danny makes chiptune” is yet another introduction to “social lego”. It’s like an intro without the rest.
—C418, C418.org

the first million

the first million
Length 3:19
Bandcamp $1 or more
“the first million” is about the feeling of relief and the happiness of finally having your project be successful and you’re no longer struggling with money. However, it’s also with the sudden change of your social life. You have money, therefore everyone looks at you with completely different eyes. They think before they talk to you. It’s kind of weird and not in a fun way. Still, at least you have the success?
—C418, C418.org

certitudes

certitudes
Length 4:33
Bandcamp $1 or more
“certitudes” is another main theme, it stands for friendship and the feeling of not being the only one.
—C418, C418.org

impostor syndrome

imposter syndrome
Length 2:24
Bandcamp $1 or more

buildup errors

buildup errors
Length 3:26
Bandcamp $1 or more
“buildup errors” is a name that is quite literal. This song had a few glitches at the beginning, but I decided to make these glitches into a song. It’s a somber little melody that builds up to explode in melancholy. There’s no real meaning behind this little piece. I just liked how a glitch made me have this sort of spiritual time with creating a song.
—C418, C418.org

for the sake of making games

for the sake of making games
Length 1:33
Bandcamp $1 or more

preliminary art form

preliminary art form
Length 3:07
Bandcamp $1 or more
“preliminary art form” is about the trance you have when working on a thing for so long that it becomes second nature.
—C418, C418.org

lawyer cage fight

lawyer cage fight
Length 1:58
Bandcamp $1 or more
“lawyer cage fight” introduces “social lego”, yet again. But this time it tells us that things might not be as good as they seemed before? Is it going to be bad?
—C418, C418.org

lost cousins

lost cousins
Length 1:31
Bandcamp $1 or more
“lost cousins” ... is a more somber, introspective variant [of "certitudes"], yet still talking about the same feeling of friendship.
—C418, C418.org

total drag

total drag
Length 1:31
Bandcamp $1 or more
“total drag” introduces the final and last song, “tsuki no koibumi”
—C418, C418.org

drunken carboni

drunken carboni
Length 3:04
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • Named after Anthony Carboni.
  • Used in the New Year's 2011 sequence in the film.

the weirdest year of your life

the weirest year of your life
Length 3:58
Bandcamp $1 or more
“the weirdest year of your life” is about literally that. The weirdest year of your life. Maybe that’s when you got fired and were in a ditch. Maybe it was when you finally finished school and had to go into the unknown. With any luck, it was about changing your life for the better.
—C418, C418.org

swarms

swarms
Length 2:51
Bandcamp $1 or more

diskdance

diskdance
Length 2:22
Bandcamp $1 or more

pr department

pr department
Length 1:25
Bandcamp $1 or more

faux video production

faux video production
Length 3:08
Bandcamp $1 or more

one last game

one last game
Length 1:19
Bandcamp $1 or more
“one last game” is about the hope that one day you will have the friends you had in your past.
—C418, C418.org

this doesn't work

this doesn't work
Length 3:08
Bandcamp $1 or more
“this doesn’t work” is about having fun and not caring what the next day has to offer. Sometimes you gotta just let your emotions roam free and not constantly worry if you have enough money to pay the bills. Sometimes you just gotta party.
—C418, C418.org

wooden love

wooden love
Length 1:33
Bandcamp $1 or more
“wooden love” is about the loss of friendship. Friends you wish were still your friends do not appreciate or want to talk to you anymore, you feel alone. Again, it’s essentially the same song, several times. But yet, they all have completely different meanings.
—C418, C418.org

I glove thy flob

I glove thy flob
Length 1:47
Additional artist(s) disco
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

post success depression

post success depression
Length 3:12
Bandcamp $1 or more
“post success depression” identifies with the times when working hard becomes the enemy. When your work hours are way past 60 a week. When you still have to get your work done, no matter if you want to or not.
—C418, C418.org

social lego

social lego
Length 4:51
Bandcamp $1 or more
Finally, “social lego” appears, and it’s probably not what you expected. It’s minimal and it never even once changes its main chord. It’s constantly the same, yet building up to something. Builds up to the moment your project is finally done, and it’s as good as you hoped it would be.
—C418, C418.org

jayson glove

jayson glove
Length 3:18
Bandcamp $1 or more

clumsiness and innovation

clumsiness and innovation
Length 3:03
Bandcamp $1 or more

no pressure

no pressure
Length 3:04
Bandcamp $1 or more
“no pressure” ... [is] essentially a good bye. Albums gotta end! I can’t make them last forever, even though I wish I could. I’m obsessed with gigantic albums, as you probably know.
—C418, C418.org

one

one
Length 2:27
Bandcamp $1 or more
“one” [is] essentially a good bye. Albums gotta end! I can’t make them last forever, even though I wish I could. I’m obsessed with gigantic albums, as you probably know.
—C418, C418.org

fifflas

fifflas
Length 1:34
Additional artist(s) Nifflas
Bandcamp $1 or more

Trivia

  • A collaboration with game developer Nicklas Nygren, also known as Nifflas.

tsuki no koibumi

tsuki no koibumi
Length 5:07
Additional artist(s) Laura Shigihara
Bandcamp $1 or more
“tsuki no koibumi” [is] sung by Laura Shigihara. It’s about being together once more. Laura’s lyrics probably nail it. It’s about the Moon loving the Sun, yet they are constantly separated. The Moon just wishes to see the Sun again.
—C418, C418.org

Lyrics

Original

tsuki ga taiyō ni koibumi o kai te i ta
gikochinai kotoba

kimi no hikari ga mottomo akaruku kagayai ta

hoshi tachi ni kakoma re te hitori boc chino sora
yoru

anata to mata aeru yō ni
kimi no hikari o terashi tsuzukeru
yakusoku

tsuki ga taiyō to deai aijō o motome te
ima shit ta

kore a saidai kyori de haruka afureru kimochi kie nakat ta

hoshi tachi ni kakoma re te hitori boc chino sora
yoru sagashi teru

anata to mata aeru yō ni
kimi no hikari o terashi tsuzukeru
yakusoku

Translated

Note that these lyrics were translated by fans and may not be accurate.

The moon wrote a love letter to the sun
albeit in awkward words

Your light shined the brightest

It was surrounded by the stars, the lonely night sky
it said –

Promise me that
Your light will continue to shine
So that we can meet again

The moon meets the sun, seeking for love
Now I know

This feeling of distance, overflowing with
remoteness, it never ceased to exist

It was surrounded by the stars, the lonely night sky
Looking for the night, it said –

Promise me that
Your light will continue to shine
So that we can meet again

Trivia

  • The lyrics are sung by game developer and singer-songwriter Laura Shigihara.

CD exclusive tracks

The CD physical copy of one includes four remixes of songs from the album, remixed by various artists. These tracks are available only by purchasing the CD copy.

no pressure (But the Snow in Brooklyn)

no pressure (But the Snow in Brooklyn)
Length 4:40
Remixed by Crashfaster

jayson glove (2 players 1 little piggy)

jayson glove (2 players 1 little piggy)
Length 3:15
Remixed by Bud Melvin

the first million (MultiMillion Mix)

the first million (MultiMillion Mix)
Length 3:00
Remixed by Danimal Cannon

preliminary art form (Nether Mix)

preliminary art form (Nether Mix)
Length 3:15
Remixed by minusbaby

CD tracks

one is the first and only C418 album to have a physical CD release with more than one disc.

Disc one

  • cliffside hinson
  • surface pension
  • independent accident
  • danny makes chiptune
  • the first million
  • certitudes
  • imposter syndrome
  • buildup errors
  • for the sake of making games
  • preliminary art form
  • lawyer cage fight
  • lost cousins
  • total drag
  • drunken carboni
  • the weirdest year of your life
  • swarms
  • diskdance

Disc two

  • pr department
  • faux video production
  • one last game
  • this doesn't work
  • wooden love
  • I glove thy flob
  • post success depression
  • social lego
  • jayson glove
  • clumsiness and innovation
  • no pressure
  • one
  • fifflas
  • tsuki no koibumi
  • no pressure (But the Snow in Brooklyn)
  • jayson glove (2 players 1 litlle piggy)
  • the first million (MultiMillion Mix)
  • preliminary art form (Nether Mix)

Gallery