Harmony: The Fall of Reverie composer shares the special rule she followed for the game's worlds
Make it, Raine
The second I saw the debut trailer for Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, I knew I was in 100%. The game itself looked incredibly interesting to me, but it was the music that sealed the deal. I loved what I heard, and when it was revealed that composer Lena Raine (Celeste, Chicory) was involved, the game shot towards the top of my most-wanted list.
Lena’s work has landed her numerous accolades over the years, and it seems like the tunes in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie will do just the same. The gang at Eurogamer was quite impressed with what they heard in their hands-on time with Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, which led to them asking Lena about her work on the project. It turns out Lena made a special rule for herself when composing on this game, and it’s one you should keep an ear out for when playing.
As soon as I began writing for Harmony, I knew I wanted to take it in the direction of analogue and digital sounds. Lots of synthesizers, lots of processing, lots of saturation. With a few exceptions, I wanted to limit how many ‘real’ instruments I was using, to be able to fully craft the aesthetic of the world.
I’m a big fan of musical metaphor and so I immediately set up the ground rule for myself that physical instruments weren’t allowed in Reverie. Only synthesizers and sounds that evoked real instruments. Because both Reverie and Brittle exist in lockstep, it was important that they both feel related, but distinct. You can even hear this happen in the second animated cutscene, where Polly enters Reverie. There’s a big swell in the orchestral strings and then I literally take that sound and digitize it, transform it into the synth pad that then takes over the score for the exposition of Reverie.
Comments (0)