Spencer Nilsen (born April 9, 1961)[1] is an American singer/songwriter, video game music composer, film composer and producer, graphic designer, and educator. He is best known for his soundtracks to the Sega CD versions of Batman Returns, Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco: The Tides of Time, Jurassic Park, The Adventures of Batman & Robin and The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin as well as the North American version of Sonic CD. His latest work is Here and Gone an album of 10 original songs produced and engineered by Spyder James. Nilsen sang and played all the instruments on the record, with the exception of acoustic and electric guitars performed by Daniel Reiter.

Nilsen has also worked on a number of film and television scores and released a new-age album titled Architects of Change in 1989.

He is the former president of Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, California,[2] and co-chairman of the board of Music in Schools Today. He was also the owner and co-founder of Illumina Studios,[3] a full-service media design and production company. Spencer currently teaches and mentors students at Sonoma Academy college prep high school in Santa Rosa, CA.

Works

edit
Video games
Title Year System(s) Notes
Chakan 1992 Sega Genesis Special thanks
Ecco the Dolphin with Brian Coburn and András Magyari. Wrote new soundtrack for Sega CD version.
Greatest Heavyweights 1993 Special thanks
Batman Returns Sega CD
Sonic CD American version, with David Young and Mark Crew
Jurassic Park with Barry Blum, Coburn, David Javelosa and Tom Miley
The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin with Young and Eric Martin
Joe Montana's NFL Football with Coburn
Ecco: The Tides of Time 1994
The Adventures of Batman & Robin 1995 Animation score.
Wild Woody Music engineering, mixing and mastering
Cyber Speedway Sega Saturn Producer; special thanks
World Series Baseball Special thanks
Ghen War Producer
Congo The Movie: The Lost City of Zinj 1996 Executive music producer
Mr. Bones Played organ
Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future 2000 Dreamcast, PS2 Music producer
Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2008 Wii Original game supervisor
Sonic Forces 2017 Xbox One, PS4, Switch, PC Writer of "Metal Sonic Fight"
Other work
Year Album Titles Notes
1989 Architects of Change
1990 Checkfield - A View From the Edge Assistant engineer
1992 Party - Music That Cooks With various others
1994 Absolutely Rose Street Short film
Sonic the Hedgehog Boom With various others
1995 Party 2 - Music That Cooks
Sega Music Group - 1995 Sampler
1996 Sega PowerCuts 1
Ecco: Songs of Time
2003 No Return
2009 Moonlight Sonata Music and title designer
2012 99% Short film
2019 DNA
2022 Here and Gone

References

edit
edit