The music is an integral part to Call of the Sea, so we sat down for a chat with our wonderful composer Eduardo de la Iglesia and asked him to tell us more about it.
Tell us about the music for Call of the Sea?
The music of “Call of the Sea” is a love story. There are two melodies that evoke the two main characters of the story (Norah and Harry). About these two melodies (that repeat along the entire soundtrack) I want to say that they are the same melody. Norah´s theme was the first I composed, and about Harry´s theme, I thought “How can I make something similar, but connected with Norah´s melody? The answer to this question was the use of the musical technique: “Negative Melody”. This one consists of taking all the notes of one theme and, starting with the first same note, and composing in the opposite way. So if the second note of Norah's theme downs five semitones in Harry´s theme, with the negative melody, those five semitones go up. And so on. This is the way (I think) to connect with music the souls of Norah and Harry.
But the soundtrack of Call of the Sea not only has emotive themes. There are passages with adventure, darkness, suspense... with orchestra (string orchestra mainly) and beautiful solo instruments like the violin, cello, harp, flute, oboe and voice.
Highlight the songs “Te Reo O Te R´ai” and “Dear old pal of mine”. The first one was my first Tahitian song performed masterfully by my father Angel de la Iglesia and lyrics by Tatiana Delgado. And the second one is a piano version of the John McCormack homonymous theme performed by Cissy Jones and a yet to announced actor (who will soon be revealed), the same actors that voice Norah and Harry.
And of course, I need to talk of the inspiration… and what better inspiration to compose an entire soundtrack about love than being in love. All the tracks (except the darkest ones…well….maybe) have been inspired by my wife Esther, and of course the incredible history and art of the game.
What drew you to the game and made you want to work on it?
After working with Tatiana Delgado and Manuel Fernández-Truchaud in the VR game “Red Matter” (Vertical Robot) they asked me if I was interested in making the music and sound of a new adventure game inspired in the Lovecraft world, and of course, I answered “Yes!” with no doubt. Working with them in Red Matter was a pleasure, so I accepted with my eyes closed.
And of course, I was delighted to work with such a great team like Out of the Blue. They are very talented people with many years in the videogame industry. For me, that is more than enough.
What inspires you as a composer?
Well, it depends on the kind of music I need to compose, but in general, everything inspires me as a composer. All my life experiences influence me when composing, whether I'm listening to music, reading a book, walking by the street… When I wake up I'm humming all the time and sometimes I have a melody in my head that I need to record on my phone before I´ll forget it.
In video games, the story, concepts art, talking with designers...all that kind of interaction with creative people is an interesting source of inspiration.
Tell us about yourself and your work?
Since I was very young (10 or 11 years old) I had in my mind to be a music composer for video games, and look at me, I've been composing music for video games for more than 20 years. I started my videogames career in the Production department in “Commandos 2: Men of courage” for consoles (Pyro Studios). I didn't make any music or sound (except for the credits of the console version) but it gave me a great overview of how it works for a video game team. But my first opportunity with music and sound was with the game “The Lord of the Creatures” (Arvirago Gamecraft). Unfortunately, the game did not end due to poor management by the project manager but I learnt a lot about sound and music for games. That experience gave me the opportunity to meet people in the videogames industry that needed audio work at that moment and since then I’ve composed music and (or) designed the sound for games like “Red Matter” & “Daedalus” (Vertical Robot), “Gylt” (Tequila Works), “Young Justice Legacy” & “Kick Ass 2” (Freedom Factory), “The Respawnables”, “Respawnables Heroes” & “Afterpulse” (Digital Legends Entertainment), “Yesterday Origins” (Pendulo Studios), ...and around 45 more titles in companies like Pyro Studios, Stage Clear Studios, Bee Square, Xaloc Studios….etc.
You can know more about me in www.eduardodelaiglesia.com/wp and www.soundcloud.com/duba
Tell us about the track you are sharing today?
This theme is the essence of the soundtrack. Here you can feel the mood that you’re going to listen to in the entire “Call of the Sea” Soundtrack, with different ambiences like mystery, adventure, love…
You’ll listen to a beautiful motif that frequently appears throughout the entire soundtrack added to Norah and Harry´s theme to remind us of the love story that is behind the game “Call of the Sea”
You can listen to the Call of the Sea theme on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/duba/call-of-the-sea-main-theme