2023-10-07 16:45:00
Music from Tetris, Pokémon, Mario… Meaningful sounds that even those who have never played video games can recognize in a few seconds. At the time, this was only used to indicate actions to the player: time passing, enemy approaching, success of a quest.
Today, the video game industry weighs more than those of music and cinema, according to an Accenture study published in 2021. And with its growth, it is the development of everything that revolves around video games which explodes, his music included. So much so that it attracts renowned artists, such as the group with 40 million albums sold, One Republic.
Their new single, “Mirage,” is the soundtrack to the new Assassin’s Creed. “The song is designed by Interscope (the One Republic group’s record company, editor’s note) as a single in its own right from their next album,” rejoices Alkis Argyriadis, Director of Music at Ubisoft which owns the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
A star composer
Especially since, on the music side, expectations were high. The latest opus of the franchise, Valhalla, won the very first Grammy Award in the history of video games, the category having been created in early 2023. And to do this, the team behind the game which takes place in Baghdad, in 861, called on a musician… Who has nothing to do with video games.
“It was a first for me,” says Brendan Angelides, a songwriter living in San Francisco. To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Assassin’s Creed music before. I listened a lot to what had been done before to send my demo. »
The Californian, who is also behind the composition of the four seasons of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, had to adapt to the specificities of music for a video game: “The game takes place in an ancient era, but there are a futuristic side. We had to find the right mix of the two, respect the sounds, the environments in which the player will find themselves… And have cohesion. »
One year of work
A job that took him a year, accompanied by the New York Arabic Orchestra. “We also had to watch out for hearing fatigue,” adds Brendan Angelides. Because, yes: a video game like Assassin’s Creed can be played for dozens, even hundreds of hours.
“Now, with streaming platforms, it is possible to immerse ourselves in music to make us relive the experiences we had as a player,” explains Alkis Argyriadis, who has seen video game music become a genre of its own. entire, which can be listened to even without knowing that it is a game… Or make you want to take an angel’s leap into a haystack. Watch our video at the top of the article.
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