:Lena Raine
{{Short description|American composer and producer (born 1984)}}
{{pp-pc|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| image = Lena Raine.jpg
| alt = Lena Raine promotional photo, 2018, wearing headphones
| caption = Raine in 2018
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1984|02|29}}
| birth_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.
| alias = {{flatlist|
- Lena Chappelle
- Kuraine
}}
| genre = {{flatlist|
- Soundtrack
- electronic{{Cite web |title=Lena Raine Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lena-raine-mn0003730016 |access-date=21 June 2023 |publisher=AllMusic |quote=Electronic artist aka Kuraine whose melancholy compositional style can be heard on game soundtracks such as Celeste. |archive-date=June 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621125141/https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lena-raine-mn0003730016 |url-status=live }}
}}
| occupations = {{flatlist|
- Composer
- producer
- game designer
}}
| years_active =
| label = {{flatlist|
- Radical Dreamland
- Local Action
- Materia Collective
- Ship To Shore PhonoCo.
}}
| associated_acts =
| website = {{URL|https://lena.fyi/}}
}}
Lena Raine ({{IPAc-en|'|l|eɪ|.|n|ə}} {{Respell|LAY|nə}} or {{IPAc-en|'|l|ɛ|.|n|ə}} {{Respell|LEN|ə}};{{Cite tweet |title=lay-nuh or len-uh, either is fine I just don't like 'lee-nuh' cos that's "Lina" or "Leena" to me. |author=Lena Raine |user=kuraine |number=1283492191231291392 |access-date=2023-08-21 |date=July 15, 2020}} born February 29, 1984), also known as Lena Chappelle or Kuraine, is an American and Canadian composer, producer, and video game developer. Raine is best known for her work on the soundtracks of Minecraft, Celeste, and Guild Wars 2. She has composed music for various other video games, including Deltarune and Chicory: A Colorful Tale.
Early life
Raine was born on February 29, 1984{{cite tweet|number=968877816019222529|user=kuraine|title=heya it's my birthday (observed)! fun facts: – it's actually on the 29th but yknow – I don't get twitter balloons this year – I celebrate in feb cos march isn't my birth month – I've celebrated 8.5 real birthdays now – 🎉🎈|last=Raine|first=Lena|date=February 28, 2018|access-date=}} in Seattle, Washington.{{Cite web |title=Lena Chappelle (Author of City of Tigers) |url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8312342.Lena_Chappelle |access-date=21 June 2023 |website=Goodreads |archive-date=June 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621115745/https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8312342.Lena_Chappelle |url-status=live }} Her father is a musician and her mother is a dancer.{{Cite web |date=2019-08-28 |title=Lena Raine – Celeste {{!}} Gamemusic |url=https://gamemusic.net/lena-raine-celeste/ |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=gamemusic.net |language=en-US |archive-date=August 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821233203/https://gamemusic.net/lena-raine-celeste/ |url-status=live }} She had an early exposure to music due to participation in choir at a young age. Her father was also a violinist. Through a Sonic the Hedgehog fan community she was introduced to MIDI arrangement, first recreating versions of songs she knew and then making original music. She later attended Cornish College of the Arts for a degree in music composition.
Career
In her early career, Raine worked on titles such as Dead State and Hackmud, released in 2014 and 2016 respectively.{{Cite web |last=Goldner |first=Sam |date=2019-03-29 |title=Lena Raine's Digital Ambience Can Make You Panic or Help You Relax |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/lena-raine-oneknowing-celeste-interview/ |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=VICE |language=en-US}} Raine began working at large studios while located in Seattle, Washington, doing quality assurance and certification testing at companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo. She did this while releasing her own music before she was eventually hired at ArenaNet.{{Cite web |date=March 24, 2024 |title=Lena Raine and the quest for the cosy web |url=https://notagspodcast.substack.com/p/11-lena-raine |website=NoTags}} Being best known for her work on the soundtracks of Minecraft, Celeste and Guild Wars 2; she worked on Guild Wars 2 at ArenaNet for six years as a designer and soundtrack composer. At ArenaNet, she and Maclaine Diemer were in-house composers of the music for the game's 2015 expansion, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. She left ArenaNet in 2016, but has continued to occasionally compose songs for its various releases as a freelancer.
In 2018, Raine released the text adventure ESC on itch.io. Raine was the developer and composer for ESC, with visuals created by Dataerase. In 2019, she released her debut album, Oneknowing. She would continue to do freelance and self-published work from 2019 onward, with her composition work for larger studios, such as her mastering work on Steven Universe: The Movie soundtrack,{{Cite web |title=Steven Universe: The Movie (Original Soundtrack) by Steven Universe |url=https://genius.com/albums/Steven-universe/Steven-universe-the-movie-original-soundtrack |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=Genius |language=en}} being released during the same time as her personal work on websites like Bandcamp.
She composed music for Minecraft, creating four new pieces of music which were included in the 1.16 "Nether Update" in 2020. A year later, she returned to Minecraft, composing six new tracks for the 1.18 "Caves & Cliffs: Part II" update, alongside fellow video game composer Kumi Tanioka.{{cite news |last=Leston |first=Ryan |date=October 20, 2021 |title='Minecraft' just added some new music |work=NME |url=https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/minecraft-just-added-some-new-music-3075321 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020201018/https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/minecraft-just-added-some-new-music-3075321 |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |url-status=live}} A year after that, she also composed another three new tracks for the 1.19 "The Wild Update", and then about two years later, she composed five new tracks for 1.21 "Tricky Trials". Raine created the soundtrack for the adventure RPG Chicory: A Colorful Tale, and assisted with the soundtrack for the second chapter of Deltarune, both released in 2021.{{cite news |author=Klaus |date=September 25, 2021 |language=French |title=Deltarune Chapter 2 est disponible gratuitement sur Nintendo Switch et PS4 via une mise à jour du premier épisode |trans-title=Deltarune Chapter 2 is available for free on Nintendo Switch and PS4 through an updated to the first episode |work=Nintendo-Difference |url=https://www.nintendo-difference.com/news/deltarune-chapter-2-est-disponible-gratuitement-sur-nintendo-switch-et-ps4-via-une-mise-a-jour-du-premier-episode/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926083223/https://www.nintendo-difference.com/news/deltarune-chapter-2-est-disponible-gratuitement-sur-nintendo-switch-et-ps4-via-une-mise-a-jour-du-premier-episode/ |archive-date=September 26, 2021 |url-status=live |quote=La bande originale composée par Toby Fox, qui a été aidé par Lena Raine et Marcy Nabors, ... |trans-quote=The original soundtrack composed by Toby Fox, with assistance from Lena Raine and Marcy Nabors, ...}}
On May 28, 2024, Raine announced Anothereal, a game combining elements of shoot 'em up and role-playing video games,{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Ollie |date=2024-05-29 |title=Celeste Composer Reveals New Shmup RPG Anothereal |url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/05/celeste-composer-reveals-new-shmup-rpg-anothereal |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=Nintendo Life |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Serin |first=Kaan |date=2024-05-29 |title=Celeste's composer announces a shoot 'em up RPG that recalls Undertale - a pitch almost as grand as I know the soundtrack will be |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/games/celestes-composer-announces-a-shoot-em-up-rpg-that-recalls-undertale-a-pitch-almost-as-grand-as-i-know-the-soundtrack-will-be/ |access-date=2024-06-03 |website=GamesRadar+ |language=en}} Raine is credited with being the primary designer of the project, with work having begun in 2021. The game is being developed by Radical Dreamland, Raine's single-person development studio.{{Cite web |title=ANOTHEREAL |url=https://cohost.org/anothereal?page=0 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250102081226/https://cohost.org/anothereal?page=0 |archive-date=2 January 2025 |access-date=7 October 2024 |website=cohost}}{{Cite web |title=ANOTHEREAL - Press Kit |url=https://kuraine.notion.site/ANOTHEREAL-Press-Kit-989a8c52cdb8451b8b6f3a9373980ebe |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=Notion}}
Personal life
Lena Raine is transgender. She has also written a book titled City Of Tigers, and has begun composing more LGBT-oriented fiction in her spare time.{{Cite web |date=September 3, 2015 |title=Interview: A Conversation with Lena Chappelle |url=https://pinkfae.org/2015/09/03/interview-a-conversation-with-lena-chappelle/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703171934/https://pinkfae.org/2015/09/03/interview-a-conversation-with-lena-chappelle/ |archive-date=July 3, 2020 |access-date=September 20, 2020 |website=PinkFae Gaming |language=en-US}}
Awards
Raine was nominated for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and won American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Video Game Score of the Year in 2019 for Celeste.{{Cite web |date=March 11, 2019 |title=BAFTA Games Awards winners 2019 |url=https://www.bafta.org/games/awards/bafta-games-awards-nominations-winners-2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029172316/http://www.bafta.org/games/awards/bafta-games-awards-nominations-winners-2019 |archive-date=October 29, 2019 |access-date=September 11, 2019 |website=www.bafta.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=2019 ASCAP Screen Music Awards |url=https://www.ascap.com/news-events/awards/2019/screen-awards |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529183137/https://www.ascap.com/news-events/awards/2019/screen-awards |archive-date=May 29, 2019 |access-date=September 11, 2019 |website=www.ascap.com |language=en}} Her soundtrack for Celeste was also nominated for Best Score/Music at The Game Awards 2018.{{Cite magazine|last=Chalk|first=Andy|date=November 13, 2018|title=The Game Awards 2018 nominations have been announced|url=https://www.pcgamer.com/the-game-awards-2018-nominations-have-been-announced/|access-date=November 7, 2020|magazine=PC Gamer|language=en-US}}
Discography
= Albums and singles =
= Soundtracks =
Games
| class="wikitable"
!scope="col"|Year !scope="col"|Title !scope="col"|Role |
| rowspan="2" |2018
|ESC |Writer, designer, programmer, composer{{Cite web |title=ESC by Radical Dreamland |url=https://radicaldreamland.itch.io/esc |access-date=May 17, 2022 |website=itch.io |language=en |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517080116/https://radicaldreamland.itch.io/esc |url-status=live }} |
| Celeste
|Writing assistance, composer |
| 2019
|Special thanks |
| 2023
|Misericorde: Volume One |Special thanks |
| TBA
|Anothereal |
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite web |last1=Johnson |first1=Leif |title=Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns Review |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/07/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-review |publisher=IGN |access-date=April 16, 2020 |date=November 6, 2015 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108115040/https://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11/07/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-review |url-status=live }}
{{cite news |last=Winslow |first=Jeremy |date=April 15, 2020 |title=Minecraft Update Adds New Blocks And More For Older PC Version |url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-update-adds-new-blocks-and-more-for-olde/1100-6476073/ |work=GameSpot |access-date=April 15, 2020 |archive-date=October 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211012163831/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-update-adds-new-blocks-and-more-for-java/1100-6476073/ |url-status=live }}
}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{Official website}}
{{Extremely OK Games}}{{Minecraft}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raine, Lena}}
Category:American women composers
Category:American video game composers
Category:Transgender women musicians
Category:American transgender musicians
Category:American LGBTQ composers
Category:Transgender composers
Category:Indie game developers
Category:Canadian LGBTQ composers
Category:Canadian women composers
Category:21st-century American composers
Category:21st-century American women musicians
Category:21st-century Canadian women musicians
Category:21st-century Canadian composers
Category:Canadian women in electronic music
Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
Category:Canadian transgender musicians
Category:Canadian transgender women
Category:American transgender women
Category:LGBTQ people from Washington (state)