Rik Schaffer

Rik Schaffer
Genres
OccupationComposer
Years active1988–present

Rik Schaffer is an American composer, musician, and sound designer. He's known as one of the top sound designers in the video game industry. He formed Womb Music in 1996 after being in the music industry as a member of several acts such as Tomorrow's Child and Engines of Aggression. He often works with his partner Margaret Tang.

Rik has also composed original soundtracks for video games, gaining recognition particularly for his work on The Elder Scrolls Online and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

Discography

Studio albums

Tomorrow's Child (glam rock band active between 1988-1996, lead guitarist).

  • Tomorrow's Child (Dream Circle, 1993)
  • Rocky Coast, Rough Sea (Dream Circle, 1996)

Engines of Aggression (industrial metal band active between 1993-2001, lead guitarist).

  • Speak EP (Priority, 1993)
  • Illusion Is Real single (Priority, 1993)
  • Inhuman Nature (Priority, 1994)
  • Engines of Aggression EP (self-released, 2001)

Womb (grunge project, vocals by Todd Miller except for As Lonely As I Am done by Jamie Alexander).

  • Bella (Dream Circle, 1996)
No.TitleLength
1."Drip"5:35
2."Clean"3:08
3."Mother"5:26
4."13"5:20
5."Ruin"4:50
6."Selfless Doubt"5:21
7."Golden Arms And Silver Charms"4:09
8."As Lonely As I Am"5:44

Instrumental versions of Clean, Selfless Doubt and As Lonely As I Am (retitled Poinsettia) are present on the soundtrack of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (as well as an edit version of the instrumental Golden Arms And Silver Charms retitled Innocence Once Lost).

It was reissued on Spotify in 2025 with a slightly altered tracklist (As Lonely As I Am has been dropped, while two outtakes has been added) as Bella+.

Nectar (prog rock project, vocals by Stephen Shareaux of Kik Tracee except for We Just Disagree done by Dean Ortega).

  • Afterglow (Dream Circle, 1997)
No.TitleLength
1."Subtract The Fool"5:01
2."We Just Disagree"6:25
3."Resurrection"4:47
4."Crash Course"5:46
5."Hormones"4:38
6."Superfine"4:05
7."Girlfriend"4:44
8."Pussyfoot"3:21
9."Blind Fly"4:01
10."Fifteen Minutes"5:12
11."Black Sheep"4:01

An instrumental version of We Just Disagree (retitled as All That Could Ever Be) is present on the soundtrack of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

The last track Black Sheep is misspelled as "Back Sheep." on the cd jewel case.

Rik Schaffer (solo instrumental project)

  • Fruit of the Poison Tree (alternative rock, self-released in 20 October 2025)
No.TitleLength
1."Devil in the Details"3:36
2."Yesteryears"3:20
3."Embers"2:53
4."Searching for Anchors"4:13
5."Chords of Remorse"1:11
6."Cathedral Rain"4:21
7."Innocence Once Lost"3:31
8."Nightscape"6:12
9."Apparition"4:26
10."Sunshine From Space"3:38
11."Unanswered Prayer"2:52
12."Trevaleah"4:31
13."Another Bite of the Eternal"4:38
14."You Took a Piece of Me"2:44
15."Evening in Koreatown"5:06
16."Fairwell Medley"4:02

Innocence Once Lost is the same edited track originally from Bella, while Another Bite of the Eternal and Evening in Koreatown are reworked versions of The Bite is Eternal and Chinatown Theme (from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines) respectively.

  • Soundtrack of the Soulless (alternative metal, 2026)

Announced in April of 2026, it was supposed to be released in June, postponed twice and then, apparently, shelved. Only the lead single Bending Fate has been released so far .

  • Road Through Glenumbra (classical, self-released in August 31, 2026)

Released without any announcements on his social accounts, this album is inspired by his compositions made for fantasy soundtracks like Elder Scrolls Online.

Main videogames original soundtracks

Source:

Other videogames editorial, sound design and ambient music

Source:

References

  1. 1 2 "Tomorrow's Child - Tomorrow's Child". Discogs. 1993. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  2. 1 2 "FABRYKA INDUSTRIAL ROCK & METAL ENCYCLOPEDIA - Engines of Aggression [reviews]". industrialrock.net. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  3. 1 2 "Womb Music". Womb Music. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  4. ↑ "The first song, Walk In The Woods, was previously released in the Street Survivors compilation of 1988". Discogs. 1989. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  5. ↑ "Reformed in 2024 with a new lineup (which only kept the original singer)". enginesofaggression.com. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  6. ↑ "Engines Of Aggression". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  7. 1 2 "Womb (9) - Bella". Discogs. 1996. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  8. ↑ "WOMB - Bella". ROCK HARD Heavy-Metal-Magazin. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  9. ↑ Issued on Japan by Alfa Music with an extra track, Black Sheep, picked from Nectar's Afterglow
  10. ↑ "The CD booklet states it's from 1996, while the digital reissue it's from 1995". Spotify. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  11. ↑ "Rik Schaffer - Womb Bella+". Spotify. Retrieved 2025-11-17.
  12. ↑ "Nectar (10)". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  13. ↑ "Re: KiK Tracee singer????".
  14. ↑ Rik Schaffer - Fruit Of The Poison Tree, 2025-10-20, retrieved 2025-11-17
  15. ↑ April 2, 2026. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  16. 1 2 Bending Fate. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  17. ↑ August 7, 2026. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  18. ↑ "Road Through Glenumbra". SoundCloud. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  19. 1 2 "Rik Schaffer Titles". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2024-02-25.
  20. ↑ "Various - Dark Age Of Camelot: A Musical Journey Through The Realms Of Hibernia, Midgard And Albion (Original Online Game Soundtrack)". Discogs (in Italian). 15 January 2002. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
  21. ↑ "Release "The Elder Scrolls Online (Original Game Soundtrack)" by Jeremy Soule, Brad Derrick, Rik Schaffer & Malukah - MusicBrainz". musicbrainz.org. Retrieved 2019-08-31.