Chicago, IL (January 23, 2013)-Composer Joel Corelitz of Waveplant Studios recently completed 60 minutes of original music for The Unfinished Swan, a new Sony PlayStation 3 game.
“People in music often talk about film and TV scores as either being traditional or non-traditional, with non-traditional frequently being characterized as at odds with a classic, melody-based score,” says Corelitz. “I wanted to create something that felt like a mix of both, a blending of organic instruments and ambient sound design that would feel fresh 10 years from now.”
The Unfinished Swan centers on a lonely 10-year-old orphan named Monroe who follows a swan that has stepped out of an unfinished painting and wandered off into a surreal, storybook-inspired kingdom.
For Corelitz, one of the key challenges centered on taking the game’s moody narrative and composing a score that didn’t sound too minor key. The goal, he says, was to use those emotions and build on them with music that also captures a sense of wonder at this strange world. His score features an array of plucked acoustic instruments, such as harps, marimbas and violins, layered onto a bed of ambient sound design and ethereal synth tones.
“As you play the game, the music is constantly evolving,” Corelitz says. “It’s never quite the same no matter how many times you play. The music is not just background noise, it’s part of the world, it’s part of how you feel, how the character feels. We didn’t want those things to be separate, we wanted it to be all one experience.”
The music, performed live by both a 25-piece orchestra and a simple string quartet, was recorded at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, TN. “Hearing my music performed by this orchestra in this studio was amazing,” says Corelitz. “The Unfinished Swan let me spread out creatively and flex musical muscles that haven’t used in awhile. It was an amazingly satisfying project to be a part of and I’m proud of what we accomplished.”
Waveplant
www.waveplantstudios.com
