Spooky tunes.
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Last week, I decided to sit down and write some music. Umibozu, our game, is a dark and atmospheric game centred around mysteries and sea-dwelling monsters. It is also very much inspired by steampunk with gears, steam and chunky machinery through-out. So, essentially, what I was looking for was ”spooky steampunk”. After some quick research in the field (i.e. I searched ”steampunk music” on Youtube a couple of times) I found that similar settings usually go for a Baroque or Victorian inspired soundtrack with big strings, clavs and (surprise) steam organs. Some soundtracks I looked at were James Newton Howard’s work in the Disney films Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet (which, by the way, is way too underrated). Here’s some examples: A common thing among the tracks I found particularly steampunky is that they were all very bombastic. They gave a sense of discovery, exploration and adventure, and hey, who can blame them? It’s what steampunk is all about. It did, however, not sit well with our game and felt like too much. It needed a slower pace, something stripped down and minimalistic. So, I started looking at the instruments themselves trying to break down the music and see if I could create something new out of it. This is were I found out about the harpsichord, a weird piano looking instrument from the Renaissance that I think everyone has heard but no one knew the name of, as demonstrated by this lovely lady here: When played classically, it defenitely sounds like something Marie Antoinette would party to, but played slowly through minor scales with a truck-load of reverb on top it could sound very different. I started trying different things with it in an attempt to capture the spooky and mysterious atmosphere, but alas it didn’t work. The sound, even though I only had a single instrument, still felt like way too much. The game is set on a big ocean without land in sight. The only thing you are able to hear out here is the wind and the creaks from your own fishing boat. Could I create something that mimics this? Something that accompanies ocean winds and ship noises? This is what I came up with: To me, this is horror music in its most simple form. Just a texure run through a synthesizer. It sounds kinda like the wind and kinda like a machine at the same time. While it is not especially steampunk, it certainly fits the game and kind of puts you on edge, perfect for a mystery. Anyway, that’s the journey I went through last week. I started out with big orchestral music and ended up with a single note texture. I hope I’m not rambling too much. Join me next week as I go from big band jazz to dubstep. Bye!  |