Solasta: Crown of the Magister version 1.0 will be released tomorrow on PC. In the meantime, Maxime Hervé, composer of the original soundtrack of Solasta, gives us his feelings about his creation work.
Hello Maxime! Solasta’s soundtrack is finally about to be released. How are you feeling after all these long months of work?
Very excited to finally be able to share this work, and very impatient to know what the players think about it. Plus, it also means that I’ll get to play the game with the final version of the music.
At the beginning of production, what were your initial musical intentions?
When Mathieu Girard described Solasta‘s universe to me, we quickly agreed on the style of music. First of all, we wanted to avoid the excessive use of medieval and ethnic sounds. There are very strong themes like magic, adventure. Solasta is a fantasy epic, the player embodies a team of four characters who evolve together in a partly devastated world. Choosing grand orchestral music was essential, but with the freedom to integrate more contemporary elements.
What were your references and influences while composing the game’s music? In video games as well as in other media.
Throughout Solasta‘s music production, which lasted almost two years, my main reference was the music for the film Willow, composed by James Horner. I grew up with this movie and its music was one of the first to leave a lasting impression on me (along with those of John Williams and Ennio Morricone). You can feel the story and the characters in the melodies, it’s magnificent music which invites you to enter the film’s world.
Another obvious reference was of course The Lord of the Rings, for its symphonic aspect. The Tactical team sent me many video game music references, including music by Jeremy Soule.
Lastly, I’ve spent a lot of time lately listening to the overtures by Wagner and the opera Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel. These pieces inspired me because the music is very full of imagery and obviously written sublimely.
This is your second video game project as main composer (after Space Hulk: Tactics) and you’ve also worked on many other games, in different roles, as well as on films and TV series (Love Death & Robots), how is Solasta different from all your other experiences?
First, the action takes place in a fantasy world. This is the first time that I’ve worked as a composer for this kind of universe. Fantasy allows great freedom of musical expression, and music is one of the key elements to immerse the viewer in this type of epic.
I also had the opportunity to test more contemporary sounds, especially on the exploration tracks where Tactical gave me a little free rein.
Finally, I had a lot of fun writing the music. Depending on video games, the composer is sometimes obliged to stay on the same tempo, the same rhythmic metric as well as the same harmony. With Solasta I had fun modulating harmonies and breaking rhythmic structures. Let’s say it was a bit of a testing ground for me, and it was awesome.
How is the soundtrack organized? For example, is each track the theme of an area or a character, or are they linked to key points in the story…
We did several tests with Michèle Kopff (lead sound designer at G4F) and the Tactical team to find the best way to integrate the music into the game. We decided to use a fairly simple system where on one side there is the combat music, and on the other, the exploration music. Then comes other music based on certain key points of the story, such as when our characters return to Caer Cyflen, their meeting with the Council, or during the final combat, etc.
Can you share your work process with us? There is, for example, a melody that can be found in several tracks of the soundtrack, is that part of your initial research when you compose?
The first objective was, of course, to find the main theme, which we hear starting with the menu and which represents our four heroes. Here we can hear this fraternal, adventurous side. This theme is found throughout the story in a few exploration songs and especially in some combat music.
The Soraks theme is not a melody, strictly speaking, but rather a sonority marked primarily by two types of flutes: a Fujara, as well as a classical flute to which I’ve applied numerous sound effects.
There is also one detail that was important in my work process: each piece was first composed on the piano. I’m not using a template (ready-made sessions with all the orchestral instruments). So each time, I have to create my instruments track by track. It’s laborious, but for each piece of music I forced myself to first find the structure, the melodies and the harmonies with only the piano, then I added the instruments one by one. It allows me to take my time, and also to leave room for the unexpected, which has always been very important in my work process.
Despite the health situation, you were able to come and record the soundtrack with musicians in our G4F studios. How did that go? It’s not the first time you’ve found yourself in this role, but it must have been an incredible experience directing musicians and rediscovering your music, performed by such talent?
It was obviously a pleasure to be able to work with musicians, especially in the current context. It was an opportunity to both collaborate with musicians I already know (Paul Colomb on cello and Rachel Koblyakov on violin), and at the same time to discover new talents. Also, the opportunity to be able to work with each instrumentalist individually allowed me to test and learn new playing techniques on each instrument, which is obviously not possible when working with a full orchestra. All the musicians had incredible energy, I think they were also very happy to be able to play during this health crisis.
Among all the tracks you wrote for Solasta, do you have a favorite piece of music? Why? Was there a song that gave you a harder time composing?
I think Caer Cyflen’s music is the one that I’m most proud of, for the simplicity of its melody. It’s music that can be played just as a piano solo. The musicians were very effective in their performance, adding a lot of life and warmth to the music – we have proof of that in the music video.
On the other hand, the combat pieces were much more laborious to create because they were much more charged up. And at the same time the turn-by-turn battles are long, very strategic, you have to think about each movement, the music shouldn’t be too heady. Finding the right energy for the fights was very hard at first.
To finish up, do you still take the time to play video games? Are there any original soundtracks that have left an impression on you that you’d like to share with us?
The problem with video games is that as soon as I start one, I can’t stop. So I don’t play very much, maybe 2 or 3 games a year. The last game that really left an impression on me was Death Stranding, it’s not a game loved by everyone, but I was completely amazed by Kojima‘s universe (I didn’t play MGS), and I was attached to each character. There are flaws and it can be slow sometimes, but that’s what I love about video games, as well as in movies and literature.
Thank you Maxime for taking the time to answer our questions!
We remind you that the soundtrack of Solasta: Crown of the Magister is coming out this Thursday! Stay tune!