C418 is Daniel Rosenfeld, the German electronic musician who composed the Minecraft soundtrack — minimalist piano and ambient synths that became a generation's comfort music. Minecraft - Volume Alpha (2011) is the place to start, with Ghostly International pressings issued in multiple variants. Find C418 vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Daniel Rosenfeld, performing as C418, was born in Iserlohn, Germany on May 9, 1989. He composed the soundtrack to the video game Minecraft beginning in 2009, with the music released as the albums Minecraft - Volume Alpha (2011) and Minecraft - Volume Beta (2013). The Minecraft soundtracks have become cultural touchstones for a generation of gamers and have been widely discussed as influential ambient electronic works in their own right. Rosenfeld parted ways with Mojang (the Minecraft developer) and Microsoft in 2020 and has since released non-Minecraft material.
C418's sound combines ambient, electronic, and downtempo with minimalist piano arrangements, atmospheric synthesizers, and contemplative pacing. The Minecraft soundtracks were specifically designed to be unobtrusive accompaniment to extended gameplay, a goal that has shaped C418's broader aesthetic sensibility.
Vinyl pressings of Minecraft - Volume Alpha and Volume Beta have been issued through Ghostly International in multiple color variants and limited editions, including 10th anniversary editions.
Listeners new to C418 typically start with Minecraft - Volume Alpha (2011).
