Here’s a uniquely wonderful
experience I never imagined having: spending the last year commenting and kibitzing
as James Semple and his team of composers and live musicians created the 13th Age soundtrack!
James is in his last couple
weeks of work on the album, putting all the pieces together. I just finished
writing short liner notes for two dozen tracks. Simon Rogers and James will add
to the notes, dialogue-style. That’s perfect since to a small extent Simon and
I got to talk about tracks all year long as James created and revised . . . and
had new tracks spring on him out of nowhere!
Some of the music is meant to
be looped in particular moments of play. Other tracks capture the spirit of a
particular icon or location. It’s all excellent. As the album has come
together, I’ve been thinking about my mom, a talented singer and classical
music lover who died a few years ago. Her influence certainly helped me have
any opinion worth hearing as James’ music came together, and I have to thank
James and Marie-Anne Fischer and all James' other collaborators for the fact that this soundtrack would have
been the first product associated with my gaming career that my mom would have enjoyed!
I’m not being melancholy about this. I’m amused that work creating a fantasy
world finally led back around to a creative effort that would have amused the
woman who introduced me to the Lord of
the Rings and C.S. Lewis, but didn't have much use for fantasy after that.
These songs? These songs she would have loved.
The two pieces I’m linking to
now are the first and the last pieces composed, I believe. The 13th Age Theme is a rousing
start, with moments for reflection. Dreams of a Lost Age came out of nowhere at the very end, a lovely piece that may
have many different expressions in the various cultures and traditions of the
Empire.
I know that James and Simon are
working to get the soundtrack published as quickly as possible. I don’t think
we have a firm date yet.
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