Afrika Soundtrack

Afrika Soundtrack, Wataru Hokoyama, 2008

You would not necessarily expect one of the finest orchestral game scores of the new millennium to have been written for what is, essentially, a photography simulator. Yet that is precisely what Afrika, an early PS3 title, delivered. The game itself generated a fair amount of pre-release hype. The prospect of traversing the majestic landscapes of the African savanna and carefully lining up shots of its exotic animal inhabitants intrigued plenty of gamers and bloggers. In the end, however, Afrika’s reviews were fairly polarised. Some critics appreciated its languorous pacing, while others felt the game lacked substance.

Thankfully, there was far less ambivalence about the quality of the Afrika soundtrack, despite its scarcity. The score was available only as a pack-in bonus with the game, presented both on CD and in Dolby 5.1 on a supplementary DVD. Even so, word quickly spread among film-score bloggers, and review after review praised the quality of Wataru Hokoyama’s work. In the end, Afrika won Best Video Game Score at the 2008 Hollywood Music Awards, along with three Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Indeed, Hokoyama makes an auspicious games debut with the Afrika soundtrack. Born in Japan and musically trained in America, he had worked on smaller film and television projects before Afrika. Fortunately for both Hokoyama and the listener, the game’s developers clearly understood how important the music would be in transporting players to so distant a setting. Rhino Studios allocated enough money to have the score recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Pictures Studios Scoring Stage.

The money was well spent. Hokoyama writes exactly the kind of grandly sweeping, gorgeously melodic score that soundtrack listeners were finding harder and harder to locate in Hollywood cinema around the time of Afrika’s release. According to interviews, his ambition was to “make the music sound like a huge Hollywood movie score”, and he unquestionably succeeds. As so often in such cases, the influence of John Williams, especially his work from the late 1980s and early 1990s, is difficult to ignore. That said, the Afrika soundtrack is less obviously moulded by Williams than, say, Medal of Honor, and there are arguably traces of John Barry and Elmer Bernstein in its musical DNA as well.

All of these antecedents indicate that Afrika is not breaking fresh musical ground. Instruments specific to the game’s setting are largely kept at the margins. “Masai” and “Hatari” are brief percussion interludes that lend the score a degree of cultural colour, but they do not sit especially naturally within the rest of the soundtrack, which is rooted overwhelmingly in Western orchestral style. The two sound worlds, orchestra and local percussion, only truly mingle on “Base Camp”, one of the album’s lighter pieces. Its unusual blend of timbres combines glockenspiel with various light percussion instruments. The result is imaginative enough to carry a track that is otherwise slightly repetitive.

Otherwise, apart from a few scattered percussive colours here and there, Afrika is a strictly orchestral affair. The score turns the game’s safari into an almost quaintly romantic, old-fashioned enterprise. Its stylistic familiarity invites listeners to marvel readily at the wonder of Afrika’s unusual, at least by Western standards, landscapes and wildlife. Particularly striking is Hokoyama’s brilliant handling of the orchestra. With the assurance of a seasoned master, he makes vivid use of every section of the ensemble. He creates wonderfully colourful, dense orchestrations that carry his warmly flowing melodic writing with real brilliance. “Savanna” and “Afrika” are especially enjoyable in this respect, as Hokoyama piles on so much busy orchestral ornamentation that it turns into riotous counterpoint beneath the main melody.

Speaking of which, Hokoyama’s melodic gifts are never in doubt either. Opening track “Savanna” quickly introduces the score’s main theme, a majestic, broad French horn melody that effortlessly evokes the vast, awe-inspiring spaces of the African savanna. At the same time, the theme has enough forward motion to suggest adventure rather than mere passive wonder. Moving through a series of variations on this central idea, “Savanna” closes with a burst of orchestral colour and energy. It is as spectacular a scene-setter as one could ask for.

The main theme returns in various guises throughout the Afrika soundtrack, if not on every cue. The woodwind-heavy “Heaven” offers especially lyrical, luxurious statements of it, while “Jambo Jambo” is more animated. Here, Hokoyama surrounds the theme with particularly florid, polyrhythmic counterpoint that gives the impression of several competing lines sounding at once. It is as if the music cannot contain its own excitement, simultaneously rushing forward and lingering over its majestic melody.

A marked contrast to the main theme and its measured movement is the secondary idea introduced in “Safari”. This vigorous staccato tune has a far stronger adventurous streak and cannot help but recall the audacious swagger of Williams’ Indiana Jones scores. Surrounded once again by superbly busy counterpoint, the theme does not reappear for the rest of the album until the final track, “Afrika”, where Hokoyama uses it to bring the score to a spectacular close, pulling out every possible orchestral stop. It is impossible not to be swept up in “Afrika”’s whirlwind of orchestral bombast, which still moves with grace and lightness.

Other compositions built on new melodic material provide welcome changes of mood. The charmingly bumbling “Okapi” gives the soundtrack a comedic touch, with delightful writing for bassoon, trumpet, and tuba that mixes humorous intent with harmonic sophistication. “Night Safari” predictably thins the textures and slows the strings almost to a crawl, creating one of the rare moments in which tension enters the score’s otherwise warm-hearted world. And “Big Five” reveals another side of Afrika’s epic streak with the soundtrack’s most imposing brass melody. Taken together, these qualities add up to one of the richest and most extravagantly orchestrated game scores ever written, despite its relatively short running time.