Aivi & Surasshu

Aivi Tran and Steven Velema first met in person at GDC in 2012 (before GDC, they had interacted only on Twitter), and discussed the idea of a piano/chiptune hybrid project.[3]

Communicating after the convention, the two collaborated on an independent album project entitled The Black Box, and released on Ubiktune in 2013. The project was a combination of original piano and chiptune music, with several video game covers including "Lonely Rolling Star" from Katamari Damacy.[4] The album was positively received, with Kotaku describing it as "lush, melodic, and well put-together".[5]

The duo were suggested to creator Rebecca Sugar of the animated television series Steven Universe by storyboard artist Jeff Liu, shortly after the release of The Black Box, and were subsequently brought onto the project.[1] The duo made use of leitmotifs expressing each character's personality, which changes slightly depending on the situation.[6] The character Pearl was often accompanied by a piano, Garnet by a synth bass, Amethyst by drums, and Steven with chiptune tones. They worked with guitarist Stemage on some parts of the soundtrack, including the opening for the second season.[1]

The first volume of the Steven Universe soundtrack reached #22 on the Billboard 200.[7] A second volume followed in 2019, peaking at #28 on the Billboard 200, and #12 on the US iTunes chart.[8][9]

On July 28, 2023, for the 10-year anniversary of their first album, the duo released the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Black Box. It includes 7 new tracks and had a limited run of vinyl, with a comic book to go alongside it.

The duo subsequently worked on numerous video game soundtracks including Soul Saga, Ikenfell,[10] Cryamore[11] and Way to the Woods,[12] as well as several interactive Google Doodles.[13]