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Aivi & Surasshu

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aivi & surasshu
Genres
Years active2013–present
LabelsUbiktune, Materia Collective, Infloresce Records
Members
  • Aivi Tran
  • Steven "surasshu" Velema
Websiteaivisura.com

Aivi & Surasshu (stylized as aivi & surasshu) are an electronic composition duo, composed of Vietnamese-American pianist and composer Aivi Tran and Dutch electronic musician Steven "surasshu" Velema. They are most known for composing soundtracks, including that of Cartoon Network's animated series Steven Universe.[1] The duo began as a remote band and began working together in person after they married in 2015.[2]

Career

The Black Box (2013)

Aivi Tran and Steven Velema first interacted on Twitter in 2011 and met in person at GDC in San Francisco in 2012, where they discussed the idea of writing duets for piano and chiptune.[3]

Communicating after the convention, the two collaborated remotely on an album project titled The Black Box, released by the netlabel Ubiktune in 2013. The project featured original duets for piano and chiptune, and covers of "Lonely Rolling Star" from Katamari Damacy[4], "Distance" by Asturias, and "Mabe Village" from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The Black Box charted on Bandcamp's best-selling albums and was positively received, with Kotaku describing it as "lush, melodic, and well put-together".[5]

Steven Universe (2013–2020)

Shortly after the release of The Black Box, storyboard artist Jeff Liu encountered Aivi's Soundcloud demos for the in-progress video game Cryamore. Jeff Liu suggested Aivi to Rebecca Sugar, who was currently developing the animated television series Steven Universe for Cartoon Network. Aivi asked surasshu to partner with them once again to compose the show's instrumental score.[1] After discussing ideas with Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey, aivi & surasshu wound up representing each of the show's characters with a motivic instrument, allowing the show's instrumental score to be shaped by which characters were on screen.[6] The character Pearl was accompanied by a piano, Garnet by a synth bass, Amethyst by electronic drums, and Steven with a mixture of chiptune, strings, and brass instruments. They worked with musicians from the video game scene to record instruments for the show's soundtrack, including guitarist Stemage.[1] The duo also composed music for Steven Universe: The Movie and a sequel series, Steven Universe Future, alongside co-composer Jeff Ball.[7]

aivi & surasshu collaborated with Rebecca Sugar to compose the end credits theme of Steven Universe, "Love Like You" and the end credits theme of Steven Universe Future, "Being Human".[8] The first volume of the Steven Universe soundtrack reached #22 on the Billboard 200.[9] A second volume followed in 2019, peaking at #28 on the Billboard 200, and #12 on the US iTunes chart.[10][11]

Infloresce Records & Meanwhile (2022-Present)

In 2022, Aivi founded Infloresce Records.[12] The label released their first compilation album Infloresce Vol.1 - Floral Folklore featuring music from artists such as Lena Raine, telebasher, and miles morkri. aivi & surasshu composed the track "Mai and the Snake" for the album based on the Vietnamese folktale, "The Legend of the Yellow Mai Flower". In addition to their track, surasshu mastered the album and Aivi served as album director.[13]

On July 28, 2023, the duo released the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Black Box through Infloresce Records. It included 7 new tracks and had a limited run of vinyl, and was accompanied by a printed comic book illustrated by Diana Jakobsson.

In 2023, aivi & surasshu released their sophomore album, Meanwhile. Originally intended to be a sequel to The Black Box, the album shifted into a reflection of their life together since their debut album.[14] The album was met with generally positive reviews, but received noticeably less attention than their previous work.

Other projects

The duo composed the soundtrack for the video game Ikenfell[15], as well as several interactive Google Doodles.[16] They are currently composing the music for the video game Way to the Woods.[17]

References

  1. Thurm, Eric (January 15, 2016). "Dropping Gems: An Interview with the Composers of the Score for 'Steven Universe'". Noisey. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  2. "About". Surasshu. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  3. surasshu (October 2, 2016). "r/stevenuniverse - We're aivi & surasshu, the music composers of Steven Universe. Ask us anything ♫". reddit. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  4. "aivi & surasshu - The Black Box". ubiktune.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  5. Hamilton, Kirk (November 3, 2013). "Acoustic Piano Meets Chiptunes, And It's Freakin' Lovely". Kotaku. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  6. McDonnell, Chris (July 11, 2017). Steven Universe: Art & Origins. ABRAMS. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-1-68335-083-5. OCLC 1096293421.
  7. "Steven Universe Future (Original Soundtrack) by Steven Universe & Aivi & Surasshu on Apple Music". October 23, 2020.
  8. Tran, Aivi. "aivi - piano & sine waves".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. "Top 200 Albums: Week of June 24, 2017". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  10. "'Steven Universe, Vol. 2 (Original Soundtrack)' by Steven Universe (American Albums iTunes Chart)". iTunesCharts.net. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.
  11. "Soundtrack Steven Universe, Volume 2 Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  12. "About – Infloresce Records". infloresce.com. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  13. "Infloresce Vol. 1 - Floral Folklore, by Infloresce Records". Infloresce Records. Archived from the original on October 9, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  14. "Meanwhile, by aivi & surasshu". aivi & surasshu. Archived from the original on December 28, 2024. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  15. tran, aivi (November 16, 2018). "Music by me & @surasshu/ Guitars performed by @Stemage/ Follow @ChevyRay for updates on Ikenfell".
  16. tran, aivi (June 13, 2018). "I'm working on @Cryamore, Ikenfell, and contributing to some other game soundtracks I also composed music for two Google Doodles games (Halloween 2015 and Olympics 2016) with my boy @surasshu".
  17. Rizzo-Smith, Julian (June 24, 2019). "Meet The Young Aussie Behind The Most Beautiful Game Of E3". Junkee. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2019.