I am a huge fan of Sword and Sworcery and if you follow me on twitter, you’ll notice my occasional tweets saying “Logfella was totally floored at how awesome & crazy the fight with The Gold Trigon sounded from the description we gave him.#sworcery“ or some such silliness. Check that hashtag and you’ll see that I’m not alone.
One of the greatest parts about S:S&S EP is the music and sound design. Jim Guthrie is the man responsible for those elements – and even though I knew Superbrothers/CAPY were based in the GTA, it seems that Guthrie is a Guelph boy living here in Toronto too!
He writes this music that is so… ambient and at first seems very simple, but if you start to listen to the layering you’ll see how much work and thought he’s put into it all. Trumpet solos are to John Williams like echo/delaying high synth sounds are to Jim Guthrie. It’s really cool to see how he’s established his personal style and been so widely recognized for it. That’s something that I’m always striving for as a composer.
I think the thing that struck me the most was that it seemed to embody really key elements:
1. It sounded like an iphone game. No Skyrim orchestra here… it was 100% appropriate
2. The simple use of synth/organ sounds enhanced the side-scroller feeling (flashback to NES)
3. The music was always timed with the actions on screen. You can play most major fight scenes to the beat of the music. That’s great integration!
Just less than 2 weeks ago, Jim Guthrie nabbed “Best Original Score” at the Canadian Video Game Awards (April 21st, in Vancouver).
If you want to hear more, click here for the article I just read. Since S:S&S EP he’s written the soundtrack to “Indie Game: The Movie,” and it sounds like something I’m going to want to own on vinyl.
… So now I just have to try and figure out how to meet the guy!