PlayStation 3 Archives - The Greatest Game Music

Afrika Soundtrack

Afrika Soundtrack, Wataru Hokoyama, 2008

You wouldn’t necessarily expect that one of the best orchestral game scores of the new millennium was written for what’s essentially a photography simulator. But that’s precisely what Afrika, an early PS3 title, achieved. The game itself garnered a fair amount of pre-release hype. The prospect of traversing the majestic landscapes of the African steppes and carefully ligning up shots of its exotic animal inhabitants had a fair amount of gamers and bloggers excited at the prospect of this relatively fresh gameplay idea. Ultimately though, Afrika’s reviews were fairly polarised. Some critics enjoyed the languorous gameplay, while others felt the game lacked substance.

Thankfully, there was little such ambivalence about the quality of the Afrika soundtrack – despite its scarcity. The score was only available as a pack-in bonus when purchasing the game, presented both on CD and in Dolby 5.1 on a supplementary DVD. Still, word among film music bloggers quickly spread, each new review praising the quality of Wataru Hokoyama’s creation. In the end, Afrika won Best Video Game Score at the 2008 Hollywood Music Awards, as well as three Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Indeed, Hokoyama’s makes a most auspicious game score debut with the Afrika soundtrack. Born in Japan and musically trained in America, Hokoyama had worked on smaller TV and film projects prior to Afrika. Luckily for Hokoyama – and listeners – the game’s developers were clearly aware of how important music would be in successfully transporting listeners to the game’s faraway setting. Developer Rhino Studios made a sufficient budget allowance to have Afrika recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Pictures Studios Scoring Stage.

The money was well spent. Hokoyama writes the kind of grandly sweeping, gorgeously melodic score that soundtrack fans had more and more trouble finding in Hollywood movies around the time of Afrika’s release. According to interviews, Hokoyama’s ambition was to “make the music sound like a huge Hollywood movie score” and he definitely succeeded. As so often in these cases, John Williams’ influence – particularly of his late 80s and early 90s works – is hard to ignore. That being said, the Afrika soundtrack is less obviously shaped by this stylistic influence than say Medal of Honor and there are arguably traces of John Barry and Elmer Bernstein in Afrika’s musical DNA as well.

All these stylistic antecedents are an indication that Afrika isn’t breaking new musical ground. Ethnic instruments specific to the game’s location are somewhat sidelined. “Masai” and “Hatari” are brief percussion-only interludes that introduce some cultural authenticity to the score. However, these two cues don’t gel particularly well with the rest of the soundtrack, which is almost entirely rooted in Western orchestral styles. The two sound worlds – orchestra and local instruments – only mingle to a significant degree on “Base Camp”, one of the Afrika soundtrack’s most light-hearted pieces. Its unusual combination of timbres combines glockenspiel with various light percussion instruments. The result is a creative blend of sounds that is intriguing enough to carry the slightly repetitive track.

Otherwise (disregarding a few smatterings of percussive colour here and there), Afrika is a strictly orchestral affair. The score turns the game’s safari into an almost quaintly romantic, old-fashioned undertaking. Its stylistic familiarity invites listeners to readily marvel at the wonder of Afrika’s unusual (by Western standards) location and sights. What’s particularly striking here is Hokoyama’s brilliant handling of the orchestra. With the confidence and skill of a true master, Hokoyama makes striking use of all sections of the ensemble. He creates wonderfully colourful, dense orchestrations that carry his warmly flowing melodic material with the utmost brilliance. Particularly fun are “Savanna” and “Afrika”, where Hokoyama piles up such an amount of busy orchestral ornamentations that these turn into riotous counterpoint underlining the main melody.

Speaking of which, Hokoyama’s melodic skills are never in doubt either. Opening track “Savanna” quickly introduces the score’s main theme, a majestic, long-winded French horn melody that effortlessly evokes the wide open, awe-inspiring spaces of the African savanna. At the same time, this pastoral melody has sufficient forward motion to suggest adventure rather than just passive contemplation. Cycling through variations of the main theme, “Savanna” ends with a blast of orchestral colour and energy. It’s the most spectacular scene setter one could wish for.

The main theme returns in various disguises throughout the Afrika soundtrack, if not exactly on every track. The woodwind-heavy “Heaven” presents particularly lyrical, luxurious renditions of the theme, while “Jambo Jambo” is more animated. Here, Hokoyama graces his main theme with particularly florid, polyrhythmic counterpoint that feels like several competing musical lines playing at once. It’s as if the music can’t contain its giddy excitement, both rushing forward and clinging on to its majestic tune.

A marked contrast to the main theme and its measured progression is a secondary theme that Hokoyama introduces on “Safari”. This vigorous staccato tune has a far more adventurous streak and can’t help but recall Williams’ Indiana Jones scores in its audacious swagger. The theme – once more surrounded by wonderfully busy counterpoint – isn’t heard again on the Afrika soundtrack. That is, until final track “Afrika” uses the theme to take the score to a spectacular conclusion, pulling out every single stop Hokoyama can find within the ensemble. It’s impossible not to get swept up in “Afrika”’s whirlwind orchestral bombast that still moves lightly and with grace.

Other compositions that rely on new melodic material provide necessary variations of mood. The charmingly bumbling “Okapi” gives the Afrika soundtrack a comedic touch, with delightful writing for bassoon, trumpet and tuba that combines humorous intent with harmonic complexities. “Night Safari” predictably thins out textures and slows its string material down to a crawl, producing one of the few occasions where tension creeps into the score’s otherwise good-natured demeanour. And “Big Five” brings out a different side of Afrika’s epic tendencies with the score’s most imposing brass melody. It all adds up to what despite its short running time is one of the richest, most extravagantly orchestrated game scores ever written.

01 - Savanna Wataru Hokoyama 3:39
02 - Base Camp Wataru Hokoyama 2:56
03 - Safari Wataru Hokoyama 2:51
04 - Mission Wataru Hokoyama 1:47
05 - Jambo Jambo Wataru Hokoyama 2:02
06 - Heaven Wataru Hokoyama 2:10
07 - Okapi Wataru Hokoyama 1:29
08 - Night Safari Wataru Hokoyama 2:14
09 - Big Five Wataru Hokoyama 1:50
10 - Sunset Wataru Hokoyama 2:45
11 - Afrika Wataru Hokoyama 3:47

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Soundtrack

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Soundtrack, Mikael Karlsson, 2010

Battlefield: Bad Company’s soundtrack had turned heads through the involvement of classical composer Mikael Karlsson. As a successful writer of modern (sometimes avant-garde) classical music and with an impressive body of well-received orchestral works, ballets and operas under his belt, Karlsson seemed like an unusual choice to score a first-person shooter. The link between Karlsson and the Battlefield franchise was Stefan Strandberg, sound director at game developer DICE. Friends during their study years in Stockholm, they reconnected when Karlsson moved to New York and a demo tape of his made it into the hands of Strandberg.

Ultimately though, the Battlefield: Bad Company score album felt underwhelming. Its compositions were usually too short to develop meaningfully. Additionally, the music wasn’t as adventurous and refreshing as the references that Karlsson and Strandberg quoted in interviews (Rachmaninoff, Schnittke, Bartok) would suggest.

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 soundtrack – while stylistically more conventional than its predecessor – is a considerable improvement. Ignoring some shorter tracks that feel like filler, the score album’s meat are four substantial orchestral cues. While they run for just over 15 minutes altogether, they are among Western game music’s best developed orchestral compositions. In fact, particularly “The Secret Revealed” and “The Ancient Weapon” feel more like small concert works than soundtrack compositions. Karlsson’s background in classical music is consistently manifest in his intelligent handling of orchestral forces and dynamics. It helps that according to Karlsson, “BC2 has a much more developed, cinematic story line than BC1”.

The fun kicks off with the robust “The Storm (Main Theme)”. Its opening gestures – a resilient, solemn trumpet solo over somewhat anonymously driving string ostinati and percussion – have become musical clichés of the FPS genre. But Karlsson establishes his credentials early on. His trumpet lead melody is more long-spun and less predictable than the vast majority of competitors in this field. Countless game (and movie) soundtracks have tried to mix traditional orchestral sweep with rhythm-focused modern action score writing – far too often to underwhelming results. “The Storm (Main Theme)” is one of the few game music compositions that gets the balance right. The piece never sacrifices carefully crafted dynamics and orchestrations for the constant forward surge that this type of composition requires. The track’s requisite sense of heroism never feels cheap and doesn’t have to rely on the tired, simplistic major chord progressions of other action games.

One of the surprising things about the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 soundtrack is that “The Storm (Main Theme)” is the only composition with the expected militaristic bravado. The other three substantial cues take more subtle approaches.

“Snowy Mountains” positions itself on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum to “The Storm (Main Theme)”. It’s a far more abstract, but still accessible composition, due to its immediately striking atmosphere. As the base for “Snowy Mountains”, Karlsson uses ear-catching layers of plodding, resonant string ostinati. The music’s motoric progression remains steady to suggest constant pressing forward to fulfill a mission in white, barren lands. At the same time, rhythmic subtleties and additions like busy string pizzicati keep the mood sufficiently unpredictable and tense. Massive French horn blasts underline “Snowy Mountains”’ stark atmosphere, which is alleviated through measured woodwind melodies.

If “The Storm (Main Theme)” is the barnstorming opening track and “Snowy Mountains” evokes a particular locale, the remaining two tracks deliver the bulk of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 soundtrack’s cinematic drama – in remarkably mature and subdued fashion. Both “The Secret Revealed” and “The Ancient Weapon” surprise with their hushed, nocturnal atmosphere.

“The Secret Revealed” shifts gears after “The Storm (Main Theme)”’s swagger, opening with a rolling four-note piano motif on flute. The motif’s refusal to harmonically resolve sets the composition’s mysterious, agitated mood. A sense of foreboding flows from a high-pitched violin drone and ruminative deep string utterings. The melodic material is purposefully fragmented, but still developed smartly enough to tie the piece together. Composed with classical sensibilities and making judicious use of chamber music-sized orchestrations, all the tension that “The Secret Revealed” has carefully built up explodes in a towering brass variation of the four-note motif – suitably awe-inspiring to justify the track’s title.

“The Ancient Weapon” visits similar emotional territory, but with a more melodramatic flair. Karlsson writes a solo violin part that ranks among Western game music’s most fully-developed instrumental soli. By turns delicate, passionate, trembling, intimate, and always impeccably performed, the mesmerising solo violin is pitted against thumping percussion and hammering piano chords. Compositional subtlety once more leads to emotional ambivalence and intrigue. “The Ancient Weapon”’s solo violin part lacks any continuously flowing, comforting melody line. It refuses to deliver any definitive emotional payoffs, but offers constant allure and fascination. Karlsson’s background in modern classical music shines through once more, allowed to produce far more multi-faceted statements of intent than on Battlefield: Bad Company. Ultimately, “The Ancient Weapon” ends on the album’s most ambiguous, cliffhanging note, receding back into the darkness. It’s a welcome invitation to replay this anything but ordinary first-person shooter score.

01 - The Storm (Main Theme) Mikael Karlsson 4:30
02 - The Secret Revealed Mikael Karlsson 4:01
03 - Snowy Mountains Mikael Karlsson 3:03
04 - The Ancient Weapon Mikael Karlsson 3:50

Dead Space 2 Soundtrack

Dead Space 2 Soundtrack, Jason Graves, 2011

“The Same. But Different. Yet Better.” According to Jason Graves, those were the words that he stuck above his monitor when composing Dead Space 2. Considering the success of Dead Space’s aural aspects – two BAFTAs and a degree of media attention few game scores ever achieve – Grave’s goal was no doubt an ambitious one. Then again, no matter how ferocious Dead Space’s soundtrack was, there was room for improvement. Graves’ breakthrough work was the equivalent of a horror movie that tries to scare its audience with jump scare after jump scare. And at some stage, watching monsters leap at the protagonist for yet another “boo!” effect gets old.

Fortunately, Graves fixes this and other issues on the Dead Space 2 soundtrack. It is still unmistakably the soundtrack for a very scary game. But at the same time, through a more varied approach to creating unease and immersion, Dead Space 2 clearly surpasses its predecessor. It delivers a surprisingly multi-faceted exploration of the dark corridors of both a haunted space station and of its protagonist Isaac Clarke’s disintegrating mind.

Grave’s creativity and his improved judgment on how to let his music achieve maximum emotional effect are demonstrated right from the start on “Isaac, Are You There?”. Graves implements one key ingredient that allows his music to register with much greater impact than before – contrast. To put it in his words: “It’s the tonal versus the non-tonal, the calm versus the chaos.” And so, “Isaac, Are You There?” opens with the mournful sounds of a string quartet whose grip on tonality soon crumbles, giving way to tortured dissonances.

Arguably, the string quartet doesn’t appear as often on the Dead Space 2 soundtrack as the score’s more traditional components. However, these introspective interludes are of utmost importance to pace the album and they never fail to impress. They’re emotionally powerful, creepy and touchingly communicate Isaac’s loneliness. The first Dead Space didn’t have much more than the threat of someone being swallowed by the terrifying unknown. Now, Dead Space 2 makes us care about that someone.

This sort of emotional involvement is also anchored in the improved pacing of the album’s acidic action pieces. Sample a track like “Titan Station Elementary”, found on the soundtrack’s Collector’s Edition release. Its strategy to open with something decidedly non-horror related – a children’s song – and slowly move from innocence to terror all the more effectively is hardly new. But this measured approach is where Dead Space 2 triumphs over Dead Space and its nearly constant hyperactivity.

It helps these dynamic contrasts immeasurably that Graves’ writing for piano passages has much improved since Dead Space. Now these quieter sections are mesmerising and retain a sense of eeriness so that listeners’ attention never flags. “The Cassini Towers” only requires echoing bell strikes to shape an unfathomable space, before vocals intensify the music’s unsettling mood. Disembodied voices and whispered, indistinguishable words uttered from a close distance evoke tangible, yet uncontrollable dread that erupts into a violent orchestral outburst.

These engrossing stretches of relative calm form a foil against which the frenzy of Dead Space 2‘s action pieces can unfold even better. While fragile, this time Isaac is more in control than in the first game. Consequently, the action tracks on the Dead Space 2 soundtrack are less chaotic and more rhythmically focused than before. On Dead Space, the music often created a head-spinning effect by going in several different directions at once. This time, the pieces’ rhythmic foundation is steadier and more dominant to give the music a recognisable forward drive. Dead Space 2’s action tracks feel like hammers wrapped in barbwire, barbaric unisono rhythms mercilessly striking again and again.

Such rhythmic focus is the hallmark of much anemic contemporary soundtrack writing. Graves’ immense achievement here is to make this sort of thumping action music exciting. Often enough, his combat pieces have the confidence to simply rely on the sheer brutal force of their rhythms. Key to these compositions’ success is the fact that the chords which the orchestra hammers out with manic focus are fiercely dissonant and visceral. Even if this is music that doesn’t dazzle like its predecessor, its uncompromising focus is even more exciting. Rather than constantly trying to stun listeners with disorienting orchestral mayhem, Graves is happy to achieve more with less. And he does so in brutally effective fashion.

And when a funereal rendition of Isaac’s theme concludes the Collector’s Edition’s version of closing track “Lacrimosa” – one of Western game music’s most emotionally and harmonically complex pieces – Graves reveals that he has managed to move all the pieces of the puzzle into the right position to make the Dead Space 2 soundtrack both terrifying and emotionally devastating. It’s an achievement of rare maturity and easily Graves’ career highlight.

01 - Isaac, Are You There? Jason Graves 5:16
02 - Padded Room with a View Jason Graves 3:11
03 - Hospital Escape Jason Graves 2:21
04 - Much Ado About Necromorphs Jason Graves 4:36
05 - Canonical Aside Jason Graves 1:56
06 - Administering Control Jason Graves 2:46
07 - The Cassini Towers Jason Graves 3:59
08 - Fear of Flying Jason Graves 4:03
09 - It Had to be Unitology Jason Graves 5:16
10 - Isaac Get Your Gun Jason Graves 1:49
11 - Titan Station Elementary Jason Graves 3:45
12 - East of the Sun and West of the Solar Array Jason Graves 2:09
13 - Awesome Hulk Jason Graves 4:14
14 - Start Spreading the Limbs Jason Graves 2:31
15 - You Got Nill Jason Graves 4:13
16 - The Government Sector Jason Graves 2:41
17 - I Only Have Eyes For You Jason Graves 5:01
18 - You Got to My Head Jason Graves 4:14
19 - Convergence Delayed Jason Graves 3:46
20 - Lacrimosa Jason Graves 8:11

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Soundtrack, James Hannigan, 2009

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turned to be industry veteran James Hannigan’s breakthrough work – a delectably luscious orchestral game score that topped Jeremy Soule’s previous contributions to the franchise and could proudly sit aside John Williams and Patrick Doyle’s Harry Potter soundtracks. It’s no surprise then that Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack doesn’t change the winning formula. Hannigan’s follow up work is as riveting as Order of the Phoenix, but it does introduce a few noteworthy changes.

The most important thing first: Half-Blood Prince once again features near-symphonic depth in its orchestrations and counterpoint. And of course, once more its melodies are gorgeous, full-bodied creations. Like Order of the Phoenix, it’s a work that sits very near the top of orchestral game soundtracks. The most significant difference between Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix is a greater sense of scope and scale. Outside of its roaring battle cues, Order of the Phoenix mostly pivoted between light-hearted mischievousness and hushed nocturnal wonder. The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack tips the balance in favour of a sweeping sensation of adventure.

“Return to Hogwarts” begins proceedings with a soaring all-guns-blazing opening that catapults listeners into the skies above an immeasurably large fantasy world, bursting with joy and anticipation. As always on Hannigan’s first two Harry Potter scores, the composition rarely stays in one spot for too long. Order of the Phoenix’s Friendship theme is reprised and led through a number of permutations, from bombastic to a solo flute rendition against humming choir.

Arguably, Half-Blood Prince – like Order of the Phoenix – doesn’t feature much thematic coherence. Once caught up in the music’s orchestral splendour – an easy undertaking – such concerns matter little though. Following “Return to Hogwarts”’ spectacular curtain-raiser, “Quidditch Tryouts” bursts forth, full of youthful energy and a dancing mood that can still erupt into bombastic, more combative strains. Again, Hannigan and orchestrator Allan Wilson handle such changes of atmosphere with absolute ease through their dazzling instrumentations. “Race Ginny”’s whirlwind of orchestral colours is the most impressive display of their virtuosity.

From Half-Blood Prince’s more serious inclinations, Hannigan derives the license to indulge more often in long-winded, emotional string melodies. Compare “Hogwarts by Night” with similarly nocturnal tracks on Order of the Phoenix. As a calm string adagio with harp accompaniment, “Hogwarts by Night” is allowed to revel in its melodic beauty. Like on “Boathouse at Night”, this time Hogwarts’ nightly locations project restful serenity, rather than intertwined tension and bewonderment.

This greater melodic focus allows Hannigan to tug at listeners’ heartstrings effectively when the game’s narrative requires this. Witness how “Loss at Hogwarts” makes its statement with a sorrowful, yet noble variation of the Friendship theme. That sort of emotionality is the main reason why Half-Blood Prince’s album finale hits hard. “Sadness at Hogwarts” is one of the album’s melodic highlights in its calm sorrow and yearning. At the same time, it never makes the same mistake as Nicholas Hooper’s movie score – to underplay the tragedies at the heart of Half-Blood Prince’s story. Album closer “Friendship Theme” is even on par with the finale of Patrick Doyle’s Goblet of Fire. Both scores manage to convincingly snatch optimism and hope from the jaws of defeat and death.

Another difference between Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix lies in each soundtrack’s narrative arc, at least on album. The Order of the Phoenix album producers arranged its music clearly to move from light to darkness and then to a blazing finale. The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack is more flexible in its progression, but also less focused. Moving through the album, there is little sense of momentum or urgency building. The way “Wandering Day 1” segues into “Final Battles” is a bit baffling, so jarring is the transition and lack of build up to the soundtrack’s final battle cue.

However, one positive effect of Half-Blood Prince’s more varied running order is the earlier introduction of Hannigan’s outstanding battle cues. “Duelling Club” hits early on and announces the album’s greater rhythmic focus during its action tracks. On “Duelling Club”, it’s the ever-changing orchestrations that make such a focus on potentially repetitive material work. On “Slytherin Combat”, that job gets done courtesy of the awe-inspiring intensity that Hannigan forges from his relentlessly hammering ostinati. Hannigan avoids listener fatigue by turning these ostinati into catchy melodic hooks that push the composition with white-hot single-mindedness. It all culminates in a triumphantly gigantic climax that is impossible to resist.

Even “Final Battles” doesn’t quite reach the same monumental heights. Still, 99% of game soundtracks would be glad to call its crashing waves of brass, choir and percussion their own. And so it is with the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack as a whole. It falls just short of perfection, but still outguns almost everything else in its genre.

01 - Return to Hogwarts James Hannigan 3:25
02 - Quidditch Tryouts James Hannigan 1:32
03 - Race Ginny James Hannigan 3:02
04 - Journey to Hogwarts James Hannigan 2:06
05 - Hogwarts by Night James Hannigan 1:46
06 - Duelling Club James Hannigan 2:31
07 - Wandering Day 5 James Hannigan 1:02
08 - Slytherin Combat James Hannigan 3:25
09 - Loss at Hogwarts James Hannigan 1:09
10 - Wandering James Hannigan 2:08
11 - Mixing Potions James Hannigan 1:59
12 - Quidditch James Hannigan 4:44
13 - Get to Quidditch James Hannigan 2:23
14 - Wandering Day 4 James Hannigan 1:36
15 - The Boathouse at Night James Hannigan 2:49
16 - More Potions James Hannigan 1:37
17 - Wandering Day 3 James Hannigan 1:47
18 - Wandering Stealth James Hannigan 2:20
19 - Get to Potion James Hannigan 1:59
20 - Wandering Day 1 James Hannigan 2:42
21 - Chase Draco James Hannigan 1:08
22 - Lovesick Ron James Hannigan 2:50
23 - Fred and George Return James Hannigan 1:29
24 - Exploring with Luna James Hannigan 2:30
25 - The Final Battles James Hannigan 3:42
26 - Sadness at Hogwarts James Hannigan 2:00
27 - Friendship Theme James Hannigan 2:14

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack, James Hannigan, 2007

There is some irony to the fact that in several interviews, James Hannigan voiced his concern about film scores by default overshadowing the music written for the game adaptation. If anything, Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack is the opposite case. Nicholas Hooper’s movie soundtrack was largely deemed underwhelming. Meanwhile, Hannigan garnered praise for his game score that in the eyes of many was the superior work. Indeed, it hits almost all the right notes for a sweeping, yet relatable fantasy epic like the Harry Potter series. Hannigan achieves a perfect balance between humour, magic and gravitas, mixing moods and orchestral colours masterfully. The only thing missing might be a more pervading sense of adventure and romanticism. Fortunately, this is something that Hannigan would address on The Half-Blood Prince.

Stylistically, Hannigan’s lushly orchestrated and meticulously crafted compositions don’t deviate from a certain generic fantasy sound one would expect from a soundtrack like this. This is not a work like Everquest II, out to expand and subvert genre conventions. Then again, on an assignment like this – writing for the sixth entry in a game series with an established sound world – upending expectations was never the aim. Instead, Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack fits snugly into the franchise’s musical history. At the same time, it is most definitely not a copycat of its illustrious predecessors.

Hannigan pens three recurring themes of his own, although they are heard less often than “Hedwig’s Theme” throughout the game. Thus, Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack sits somewhere between John Williams’ heavily thematic work and Jeremy Soule’s largely theme-less franchise scores. Easily the standout among Hannigan’s thematic ideas is the Friendship theme, spectacularly setting the scene on “Welcome to Hogwarts”. The theme is a warmly ingratiating, malleable creation. No wonder it easily adapts to the various contexts Hannigan deploys it in: calmly inward looking on “A Gathering of Friends”; a love theme of sorts on the beautiful cello/flute duet that is “Cho and Harry”; surprisingly skittish on “A Task at Hand”. However, the theme’s most memorable appearance occurs on “To Catch An Owl”. Here, it turns into a majestically soaring melody – one of the score’s few instances of optimistic grandeur.

Hannigan’s imposing action cues deliver some of the most viscerally satisfying bombast game music has produced. Starting with “The Inquisitorial Squad”, Hannigan never makes the mistake of fashioning directionless sound and fury – a trademark of so much action game music. Instead, his raging battle pieces always retain a sense of melody that helps shape and direct the massive brass explosions, crashing percussion and insistent string ostinati. The album release bundles these pieces at the end of the album, raising stakes at precisely the right moment.

And even after all the orchestral outbursts that precede it, “Dumbledore & Valdemort” manages to outdo its album brethren. Its passage for unaccompanied fortissimo choir is a moment of hair-raising intensity. In their sombre, almost religious gravitas, Hannigan’s action pieces recall Patrick Doyle’s similarly heavy compositions for The Goblet of Fire. But the sheer elemental force possessing Hannigan’s battle tracks ultimately stands alone in the Harry Potter canon.

The second facet that establishes the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack’s stylistic independence is the sense of sustained nocturnal wonder and mystery that pervades the album after its sunny first half – something not found on Williams, Doyle or Soule’s franchise scores. Feelings of hushed tension and loneliness run through these intriguingly brooding pieces. At the same time, Hannigan doesn’t neglect the necessary sense of magic and makes frequent use of harp and celesta. One might argue that the soundtrack album’s subdued second half moves further away from any sense of swashbuckling fantasy adventure. At the same time though, it’s here that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix deviates most strongly from common fantasy score tropes and evokes a surprising degree of intimacy.

This ongoing expedition into darker territories is a result of the soundtrack album sequencing, which follows a fairly obvious pattern. The first half of the album is stacked with playful, at times frolicking compositions. Signifying encroaching danger, the mood then darkens, before exploding in the turbulent home stretch of rousing battle pieces. Hannigan handles the shift from one emotional pole to the other with utmost aplomb.

During particularly busy sections of the album, Hannigan adopts the scherzo format often found on John Williams’ scores. The album’s whiz-bang agility hits its peak when Hannigan applies this scherzo format to his action music on “Wand Combat”. Combining the album’s magical celesta-aided sense of mystery with the brassy force of the soundtrack’s battle cues, “Wand Combat” is the most spectacular, virtuosic composition on a score that is hardly lacking these attributes at any moment. Imagine Raiders of the Lost Ark’s “Basket Chase” transposed into the world of Harry Potter – it’s that good. Arguably, here and elsewhere Hannigan follows a prescribed formula – but within these parameters, he comes enticingly close to perfection.

01 - Intro James Hannigan 1:56
02 - Main Title James Hannigan 1:10
03 - Fred and George James Hannigan 1:09
04 - Portrait Gallery James Hannigan 2:25
05 - Dolores Umbridge James Hannigan 0:43
06 - Invisibility - Stealth and Scurrying James Hannigan 2:47
07 - To Catch an Owl James Hannigan 2:13
08 - Witchcraft James Hannigan 2:03
09 - Cho and Harry James Hannigan 0:47
10 - The Inquisitorial Squad James Hannigan 2:12
11 - Dark Hogwarts James Hannigan 1:01
12 - A Task in Hand James Hannigan 1:58
13 - A Sense of Urgency James Hannigan 1:44
14 - Climbing the Owlery James Hannigan 2:16
15 - Darkness Falls James Hannigan 2:29
16 - Death Eaters James Hannigan 4:13
17 - Evading Filch James Hannigan 1:42
18 - Darkly Wandering James Hannigan 2:23
19 - Navigating the Grounds James Hannigan 1:21
20 - The Dark Acts James Hannigan 1:43
21 - Welcome to Hogwarts James Hannigan 2:43
22 - A Gathering of Friends James Hannigan 1:06
23 - Beware Umbridge James Hannigan 2:36
24 - Courtyard Frolics James Hannigan 1:31
25 - Navigating the Grounds Part 2 James Hannigan 2:00
26 - Wizardry James Hannigan 2:45
27 - Wand Combat James Hannigan 2:35
28 - The Department of Mysteries James Hannigan 2:18
29 - Exploring Hogwarts James Hannigan 1:13
30 - Dumbledore & Voldemort James Hannigan 2:32
31 - Ending James Hannigan 0:29

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack, Jeremy Soule, 2009

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey arrived at the tail end of the World War II game genre’s huge popularity. As such, game music fans had witnessed many different approaches to underscoring this most devastating of armed conflicts. Especially Michael Giacchino‘s oeuvre had been a potent display of how to put war into music in various ways.

Jeremy Soule hadn’t worked on a WWII game before Birds of Prey and the same year’s Order of War. However, his fantastic action material on Total Annihilation had a militaristic ferocity and soaring momentum that made him a logical choice to score a flight combat game such as Birds of Prey. True, the game itself didn’t add anything new video games’ depiction of the clash between Allied and Axis forces. However, Soule’s IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack found an approach both novel and rooted in the composer’s previous works.

What Soule attempts is to monumentalise the conflict he’s underscoring – even more so than Giacchino’s Medal of Honor: Frontline. In many of his previous scores, Soule displayed his classical ambitions, realised to varying degrees of success. The IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack is Soule’s most obvious attempt to write a score in reference of classical music’s great masters. It’s a very lofty ambition, particularly for an artist whose oeuvre is characterised so often by atmospheric meanderings. However, Soule pulls off this unexpected feat and writes a work of astounding weight and import.

From “The Engagement” onwards, Soule shows that he is far more interested in achieving a sense of overwhelming awe and grandeur, rather than putting into sound the dizzying motion of combat planes darting through the skies (something that Giacchino’s Secret Weapons Over Normandy was concerned with). Birds of Prey moves at a comparatively slow pace, not trying to impress through agitated energy. Instead, it establishes a majestic presence that feels unstoppable in its heroic might. Such monumentalism comes with its own set of dangers though, as the border separating the sublime and the ridiculous is thin. Thankfully, Soule manages to stay on the right side of the divide.

What precisely is the shape of the classically-inspired sound Soule aims to emulate? Interestingly, on Birds of Prey he deviates from most other ambitious orchestral game soundtracks. These often dazzle with their complexity, be in their textures, themes or other areas. Soule walks down a different path. He bases the majority of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack on constantly churning string ostinato rhythms. On top of these, he layers positively towering brass fanfares and melodies, interspersed with beautiful woodwind interludes. It’s an approach clearly derived from Anton Bruckner’s symphonies, whose influence is most clearly felt on “Theatre of the Delusionary”.

This method is a risky one to adopt. In the wrong hands, it could easily result in monotonous, dreary orchestral bombast. And it’s precisely here that Soule triumphs, as he manages to mimic his role models to perfection. In the way these compositions shape their motifs, melodies, rhythms and harmonic progressions, they do sound like the real deal – romantic orchestral works written for the concert hall.

While Birds of Prey lets the brass do almost all of the heavy lifting, this focus never becomes an issue. Soule manages to call upon a never-ending supply of genuinely rousing material. Actually, on few game soundtracks does the brass section get to shine as much as here. The difference is staggering when comparing the quality of the brass writing here to that of many Remote Control-inspired game scores, where this instrument group is often called upon to evoke drama and gravitas in disappointingly lazy fashion. The IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack is nothing less than a master class in how to write for brass.

For proof of the enormous effect that Soule’s approach yields, head straight to “Valor and Triumph”. The piece confronts the listener with what might be the most memorable and bold theme of Soule’s career. His supremely powerful invention is a proud brass melody that has the force of a battering ram. “Valor and Triumph”, in its tremendous sweep achieved through its tidal rise and fall, points to another characteristic of classical music that Soule smartly adopts here: an unwavering sense of careful, unhurried development.

While Soule’s patience characterises the entire album, “Code of Honor” is the best demonstration of this virtue. The track builds over its entire running time from a faint choral opening and tentative French horn melody. It gradually becomes more and more emotional, before it reaches a solemn, deeply-felt climax. “Theatre of the Delusionary” paces itself equally well, quieting down after its thunderous start and building again. Still, the piece delays the big pay-off until the composition’s very end, to cathartic effect.

With this magnificently realised feeling for development also comes a true sense of dynamism, as Soule clearly realises that evocations of musical bombast also need downtimes to make their full impact. There are many examples of when Birds of Prey‘s robust action cues realise it’s best to temporarily quieten down. Take “The Hunt”, which surprises with tender passages for solo cello. It’s yet another example of the chances Soule is willing to take on this album, and the heights to which they can propel his work when he’s at his best.

01 - IL-2 Sturmovik March Jeremy Soule 3:29
02 - The Engagement Jeremy Soule 3:28
03 - The Hunt Jeremy Soule 4:05
04 - Code of Honor Jeremy Soule 4:34
05 - Rain Ghosts Jeremy Soule 3:30
06 - The Great Death Mistress Jeremy Soule 3:13
07 - Theatre of the Delusionary Jeremy Soule 5:28
08 - Chariots of Endearment Jeremy Soule 3:16
09 - Hammer of Defeat Jeremy Soule 2:41
10 - Valor and Triumph Jeremy Soule 4:45
11 - Lament for a Pilot Jeremy Soule 1:04
12 - Victory Jeremy Soule 0:41

Lair Soundtrack

Lair Soundtrack, John Debney / Kevin Kaska, 2007

The dichotomy of “bad game, great music” has rarely presented itself more strikingly than in the case of Lair. A much-hyped PlayStation 3 title, Lair crashed and burned due to its unwieldy control scheme. Ultimately, probably the only good things to emerge from the wreckage were Lair’s gorgeous visuals and its excellent music. Written by film score veteran John Debney with support from Kevin Kaska, the Lair soundtrack quickly gathered praise from game music reviewers. In fact, soon the music achieved such acclaim that soundtrack fans clamoured for a complete score release. Their pleas were answered in 2014, when La-La Land Records released a two-disc set of the Lair soundtrack with improved sound, making the previous iTunes release superfluous.

In a way, it’s not a surprise that Debney and Kaska’s work turned out so well. Debney had demonstrated his ability to write outstanding orchestral action music with Cutthroat Island (ironically another financial disaster). Developer Factor 5 was keen to give the game’s fantasy narrative a cinematic, widescreen feel. This led to Debney being hired to provide a suitably grand score. In several interviews, Debney mentioned how much he enjoyed the creative freedom he was given on the project. With a budget to record with full orchestra and several soloists at Abbey Road Studios, Debney made the most of this opportunity to write a score that would be a love letter to the fantasy genre and to Debney’s personal inspirations – John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Basil Pouledouris and others. As Debney puts it in the album’s liner notes, his aim was to write “Star Wars meets Conan”.

That the influence of these other composers is so keenly felt on the Lair soundtrack has been the most frequently raised criticism of Debney and Kaska’s work. Yes, stylistically this is a derivative score, with Williams’ Star Wars prequel scores casting a particularly long shadow. But the same issue didn’t stop Michael Giacchino’s Medal of Honor from becoming a game music classic. In the end, what Debney and Kaska achieve is to convincingly emulate the works of some of the greatest film composers.

In fact, the Lair soundtrack contains some of the best orchestral action music ever written for a video game. More than a dozen battle tracks, packed with frantic orchestral activity, are the roaring centre piece of the Lair soundtrack. Beginning with “Breaking the Ice”, Debney and Kaska unleash one extraordinarily dense and powerful orchestral power house after the after. This is clearly music by two composers who know how to make use of the orchestra’s full resources.

What’s particularly impressive is how these displays of flurrying noise and fury never turn into the sort of empty bombast that action game music often descends into. Debney and Kaska construct their action tracks from a multitude of short, always engaging melodic and rhythmic phrases. This way, the game’s audio engine can easily chop up the compositions as required. At the same time, the music still flows with purpose outside of the game context and never lacks direction or substance. Simply put, the excitement and rush of adrenaline never cease for one second.

The Lair soundtrack’s fierce battle cues are helped by the exemplary thematic density that Debney and Kaska establish. Debney writes three primary themes for Lair. The first one is for the game’s protagonist, dragon rider Rohn. His theme rings with a predictable, but always effective sense of noble heroism (although the theme’s nearly pastoral rendition on “Rohn’s Theme” is arguably more intriguing). The theme for the game’s antagonist – the Diviner – is equally unsurprising and yet impacting, a brassy march of extraordinary power. Lastly, there’s the solemn theme for the ancient Mokai civilisation, split into two phrases.

Together with a number of sub-themes, these thematic ideas keep swirling through the action pieces. They provide most of the melodic guidance that holds this centrifuge of raw orchestral energy together. It all comes to a head on “Battle for Asylia”. A jaw-droppingly intense confrontation between Rohn’s and the Diviner’s theme, “Battle for Asylia” more than deserves the term “epic”

Indeed, this is a constantly heavy and self-serious score. Everything takes place on a relentlessly gigantic scale, with hardly a moment of levity in sight. Thankfully, Debney and Kaska not only write excellent battle cues. As sequenced on the La-La Land release, the Lair soundtrack alternates between frenzied outbursts and calmer compositions. The result is an album pace that is predictable and yet couldn’t work any better – like so much on Lair.

While Debney and Kaska’s slower pieces are as grandiose as their frenetic counterparts – in their quieter way – these cues explore more emotionally complex territory. The standout composition is “Love Theme”, an impassioned string adagio of nearly religious intensity that recalls Miklós Rózsa. “Prologue” and “Lair Main Menu” perform important feats of world building. Particularly the former creates a potent musical image of the game’s barren, yet awe-inspiring landscapes. Much needed moments of introspection come on “The Search for Food” and “The Last Straw / Campfire Discussion”. Both tracks highlight the contributions that ethnic instruments – duduk and erhu – make to the soundtrack, together with Lisbeth Scott’s heartfelt vocals. These instruments don’t serve to evoke a particular location or culture (different to Debney’s Passion of the Christ). Instead, they summon a more generic sense of ancient otherworldliness. What’s more, they also give Lair’s quite stereotypical fantasy stylings some character and intimacy.

Ultimately, these more reflective compositions create a coherent world and narrative for the action tracks to exist in, giving all the conflict transpiring on the battle cues some meaning. And so, when “Epilogue” ends with a hair-raisingly intense, titanic flourish, the moment actually hits as the triumphant culmination of what indeed has been a monumental adventure.

01 - Lair Main Title John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:13
02 - Breaking the Ice John Debney / Kevin Kaska 1:31
03 - Prologue John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:24
04 - Love Theme John Debney / Kevin Kaska 4:01
05 - Diviner Battle John Debney / Kevin Kaska 4:17
06 - Darkness Theme John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:59
07 - Firestorm John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:56
08 - Diviner's Theme John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:09
09 - Blood River John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:33
10 - The Last Straw John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:38
11 - Bridge Battle John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:31
12 - Lair Main Menu John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:24
13 - Lodan John Debney / Kevin Kaska 1:52
14 - Serpent Strait John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:28
15 - Rohn's Theme John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:06
16 - The Search for Food / Campfire Discussion John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:22
17 - Bridge of the Ancients / The Ice John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:43
18 - Mokai Camp Attack / Reach Mokai City John Debney / Kevin Kaska 4:30
19 - Defenses Overrun John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:32
20 - The Holy City of Mokai John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:16
21 - Return to Mokay City, Pt. I John Debney / Kevin Kaska 1:51
22 - Preparing for Battle / Maelstrom / After Burners John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:38
23 - Return to Mokay City, Pt. II John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:44
24 - Mokai Theme John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:15
25 - Elegy John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:25
26 - Ruins of Mokai John Debney / Kevin Kaska 1:04
27 - Final Attack John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:09
28 - Desert / The Guardians Decide / Prophet Battle John Debney / Kevin Kaska 2:59
29 - The Search for Water / Deadman's Basin John Debney / Kevin Kaska 4:59
30 - Battle for Asylia John Debney / Kevin Kaska 4:24
31 - Epilogue John Debney / Kevin Kaska 3:18

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Soundtrack

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Soundtrack, Michael Giacchino, 2008

No doubt, Michael Giacchino‘s body of work includes some of game music’s best and most influential orchestral scores. Specifically, it’s the Medal of Honor soundtracks that secured his name in the annals of game soundtracks. However, Giacchino’s most fascinating and curious work of game music is another one: the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty soundtrack.

It’s surprising to see how little attention this score has attracted. Of course, the easiest explanation is the score album’s rarity. Never available commercially, the album came as a bonus item of the game’s Xbox 360 collector’s edition. Another reason why the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty soundtrack disappeared from view is the game’s commercial failure. But the most intriguing explanation for the obscurity of Giacchino’s work for Turning Point is the unusual nature of its sound world – both when compared with Giacchino’s other game scores, and Western game soundtracks in general. This is Giacchino at his most experimental and acerbic – both across his game and film scores.

True, “Main Title”’s French horn melody has the same sense of proud patriotism as the composer’s Medal of Honor scores. However, soon surprisingly dissonant violin tremoli attack the noble theme, which is one of Giacchino’s best melodic inventions. These harsh interjections are a harbinger of what is to follow throughout the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty soundtrack. Giacchino’s writing had already turned decidedly less melodic and overtly emotional on Call of Duty and Medal of Honor: Airborne. However, Turning Point takes these inclinations further and introduces a new sense of disorientation and chaos to Giacchino’s music.

Those who expect Giacchino to continue the emotionally gushing approach of Medal of Honor: Frontline are in for a rude awakening once “Skyscraping” brushes aside even the last bits of “Main Title”’s sentimentality. This fierce composition savagely hammers out heavy rhythmic accents and forcefully strident melody progressions. Fittingly, the pounding percussion rhythms – often doubled by brass and xylophone – keep abruptly changing direction and volume. And what little consonant, melodic material we hear almost desperately struggles to hold its own against the music’s jagged aggression.

Turning Point’s percussion onslaught is by no means a way to simply give the music an adrenaline kick. Instead, the percussion section’s biting, irregular patterns give the soundtrack a nervy edge and jittery energy that feels driven, never uplifting or empowering. Both harsh and invigorating, the music moves in enigmatic stops and starts, creating claustrophobic feelings of tension and fright. Giacchino’s material is purposefully fragmented, but in another display of his compositional skills, the music never loses the listener’s interest. The most impressive display of this quality is “The Tower of London”. After its edgy opening ostinato, the composition disappears into a twilight netherworld. Only hushed fragments of sounds float through the nocturnal ether for minutes on end – and it’s captivating all the way.

“The Tower of London” is the soundtrack’s most deconstructive moment, pushing the boundaries of Giacchino’s musical vocabulary. The way the composition willfully undercuts first-person shooter scoring traditions highlights one of Turning Point’s most exciting traits. At times it feels like Giacchino heightens the music’s already plentiful sardonic bite and turns it into open satire. Just listen to the way “The White House”’s ferocious brass attacks are almost frivolously imitated by flute and xylophone. The latter play the same supposedly commanding rhythms, mocking them through the xylophone’s inevitably light-weight timbres.

It’s no surprise then that for most of the album, there is no romantic sense of glory, of valiantly fighting against the odds. All that remains in these sometimes maniacally driven compositions is the breathless hope for survival. Remarkably, even when the music calms down during a few interludes, relief or maybe even encouragement remain elusive. The harmonic material on “Escape from New York”, “On the Trail to DC” and “DC in Ruins” is bleakly sparse. Their sustained string chords hover in limbo, mournful but not melodic enough to inspire grief or any particularly emotional reaction.

In the end though, the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty soundtrack – believe it or not – has a happy conclusion. Throughout the score, the main theme returns as a harbinger of safety, an ordering force amidst the continuous tumult. Giacchino’s careful thematic preparation finally bears fruit on penultimate track “The Zeppelin”. The composition opens with Giacchino’s most harmonically advanced string writing on any game project of his. Feelings of insecurity then slowly fade away as the main theme asserts itself, more and more forcefully, until it leads the piece to a triumphant, reassuring finale that minutes ago would have seemed out of reach.

Arguably, the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty soundtrack is the enigmatic culmination of Giacchino’s writing for war games. It’s fascinating to behold how Giacchino has found the most effective way to remove the glamour from first-person shooters’ depiction of war – not through sincerity as on the Medal of Honor games and Call of Duty, but instead through caustic near-mockery. There’s little else like Turning Point in the realm of game music, where composers use satire and parody far too rarely.

01 - Main Title Michael Giacchino 5:27
02 - Scyscraping Michael Giacchino 5:05
03 - The Barricades Michael Giacchino 4:03
04 - Escape from New York Michael Giacchino 4:21
05 - On the Trail to DC Michael Giacchino 2:00
06 - Rescuing Donovan Michael Giacchino 2:03
07 - DC in Ruins Michael Giacchino 2:14
08 - The White House Michael Giacchino 4:11
09 - Vigilante Justice Michael Giacchino 2:01
10 - The Tower of London Michael Giacchino 6:19
11 - London Bridge Is Falling Down Michael Giacchino 3:10
12 - Bullets & Strife Michael Giacchino 1:38
13 - The Zeppelin Michael Giacchino 3:49
14 - Axis on the March Michael Giacchino 1:16