XABI SAN MARTÍN, GRAMMY-WINNING COMPOSER AND KEYBOARDIST, COMPOSES THE SOUNDTRACK OF 1971 PROJECT HELIOS.
Xabi San Martín, keyboardist and composer of the Spanish band La Oreja de Van Gogh (Grammy winners, and with more than 8 million albums sold), has been in charge of composing the full soundtrack of 1971 Project Helios.
1971 Project Helios takes place in a frozen and hostile world. The music that accompanies the eight protagonists is, at all times, a reflection of their mood, the place they are in, and the enemies they must face. In Xabi’s own words:
“Unlike other games of this genre, the plot is not an excuse to get to the action but a fundamental part of the experience. The soundtrack, therefore, emotionally accompanies the player at each stage of the adventure. As for the graphic aspects, the game has a very strong personality, so tackling the music was a challenge. I had to be ambitious and not settle for anything conventional. I think the most difficult part was to find a sound palette that evoked the universe of the game: raw, bleak, yet still very emotional.
All levels and their locations are so different that even the recording techniques varied greatly from one to another. For example, the spatial treatment of music during a level settled in a tunnel gallery is radically different from one that, for example, takes place in catacombs.”
1971 Project Helios has three different factions that the player must face: the Scavengers, small independent villages with limited resources; the Wintersöhne, a great militarized society formed by the remnants of armies that once faced each other; and the Kaphirites, members of a religious cult formed after the Cataclysm, which rejects technology. When entering a combat, the music takes on a much more frantic appearance. Always maintaining the tension of the fight, the themes are associated with the enemies that the player must defeat. In this regard, Xabi comments:
“Each faction is a separate universe, and music should also reflect it during the combats. For the Wintersöhne, it was clear that it must sound like what Wagner would have composed if he had synthesizers. For the Kaphirites, I wanted to return to the medieval modal music. And for the Scavengers, I looked for something raw and metallic. I ended up recording knocks with kitchen pots!”
The only moments of calm for the eight characters are when, between missions, they can camp and rest. It’s in those moments when the music talks about them, not as combat units with a mission to accomplish, but as survivors of struggles, losses, suffering and fatigue every day.
“Acoustic guitars sometimes, abstract textures, old synthesizers… Antagonistic arrangements for the same central theme that appears in many ways, adapting to the mood of the protagonists”.
This way, Xabi’s impeccable work makes 1971 Project Helios soundtrack a part of vital importance when it comes to immersing ourselves in this universe, and makes us, as players, partakers of the story the game wants to tell.
