20 / wfmag.cc
A Symphony of ShadowsInterface
Undeterred, Kyd set about immersing
himself in orchestral music, which proved to
be a formative experience that would go on
to shape his composing process today. “I was
totally taken aback by the whole experience,
so that’s something that I added to my palette
of sounds and music styles,” he muses. “I really
appreciate IO Interactive for that. They really
helped me connect that interest that I now have
in orchestral
musicȐ I ended
up being able to
blend all of these
different music
styles together.
[But] just because I am now fascinated with
orchestral music, it doesn’t mean that I’m going
to stop writing electronic music. I don’t just
move on. I like to keep everything intact, moving
forward with all of the different things I do.ȋ
Kyd built on this experience with his work on
IO’s much-loved standalone title, 2003’s Freedom
Fighters. A collaboration with the +ungarian
Radio Choir, its score built on the groundworklike Cubase or Pro Tools. Back then, I found this
programme was so stifling my creativity that
I had to write all of my music outside of the
programme and then somehow try to fit it >back
in]. That was a big challenge.”
When it came to the sequel, Hitman 2: Silent
Assassin, Kyd faced a new hurdle: the prospect
of recording a video game soundtrack with a
full symphony orchestra – an idea proposed to
him by the CEO
of IO Interactive,
Janos Flösser.
“Janos was a
big orchestral
music fan, and
he had some connections with the Budapest
Symphony Orchestra and Choir, so he had this
idea to bring in a fully symphonic score for the
second one,” Kyd tells us. “I had never written
a symphonic score before, so this was just
another one of those crazy challenges that seem
to happen quite often in my career where I had
no idea how to do this, and I’m like, ȆAre you sure
you have the right guy?’”STAYING
POWER
“I like to think that the music,
when you listen to it outside of
the game, will help draw you
back. It’s one of those things
that’s perhaps not talked about
much, but I do feel that when I
listen to soundtracks, if I listen
to the score for First Blood by
Jerry Goldsmith, one of my
favourite scores, I’m like, ‘I want
to watch that movie again.’
And I don’t see how that can’t
happen with games, either...
When they come out with a
sequel, guess what? You don’t
need a reminder. It’s already in
your head.”
“WRITING A SCORE ABOUT MANHATTAN
BEING INVADED BY A FOREIGN POWER,
IT ALL CONNECTED IN MY HEAD”A Symphony of ShadowsInterface