Digital Fusion

Digital fusion is an internet-era genre that combines the sound of chiptune — music made with, or imitating, vintage game-console sound chips — with the harmony, improvisation and instrumental virtuosity of jazz fusion. Developed in the early 2010s by game-music composers and online artists such as *Protodome* and *Aivi & Surasshu*, it layers square-wave leads and arpeggios over live-style piano, bass and drum performance, complex chord progressions and odd meters. Released largely online and through game soundtracks, digital fusion treats the 8-bit palette as a compositional voice rather than a nostalgia effect.