The team working on the music for 343 Industries' upcoming Halo 4 have confirmed that they are moving on from the series' iconic themes and Gregorian chants. They insist, however, that they have nothing but the highest regard for Bungie composer Marty O'Donnell's work.
With the series out of Bungie's hands, and development passed to 343 Industries, it's clear that Halo 4 will be something of a departure from the established series template. That's certainly the case for its soundtrack; Neil Davidge, a former member of Bristol-based trip-hop outfit Massive Attack, is composing the game's music.
Both he and Matt Dunkley believe it is time for the series to move on - meaning O'Donnell's iconic compositions are being left behind. Dunkley, an orchestrator and arranger whose CV features the likes of Inception, Batman: The Dark Knight and Iron Man, tells us that Microsoft and 343 made a conscious decision to move on, but insists that should not be interepreted as disrespect or distate for the Bungie composer's work.
"We respect absolutely what [O'Donnell] did, and obviously these iconic themes are very close to gamers' hearts," he tells us. "So we all listened to what he'd done, and I think you'll always be on a hiding to nothing if you're trying to pastiche that. Instead, we wanted to take that to another level.
"Hopefully the Halo fans will see that we're being respectful," he says, "but we've also taken it somewhere else, and maybe onto a higher plane. If you're always trying to reference back, you're not creating new things."
Davidge only began working with Massive Attack in 1996, and as such wasn't involved in their laid-back, melodic early work. Instead, his first full-length project with the group was their third album, Mezzanine, which steered their sound in a markedly darker direction. He's worked in film, too, scoring Clash Of The Titans for Warner Bros - but what can he bring to Halo? During a visit to his Bristol studio, he tells us of his love of the series, and the recognition that taking on O'Donnell's work head-on would be a mistake.
"Personally, I've loved those games and I've spent a lot of time with them, and gone through each several times," he says. "I enjoy them. They can't be bettered, as far as I'm concerned. I didn't sign on to this to improve on what Bungie and Marty have done, but just to take it somewhere else.
"It's a new journey, it's a new story, it's a new arc, and so I feel like my job is not to revolutionise or reinvent but to continue the evolution, and I have a slightly different voice to those guys.
"I have fresh energy to bring to a project like this. And everybody at 343 has the same intense passion that I have to continue the story. The passion of the people that are involved in this project makes you want to do your very best. And then go beyond that."
Announced at E3 last June, Halo 4 will be released for Xbox 360 before the year is out. There's a preview of the game in our latest issue, E240, which is on sale today; look out for more from Davidge and Dunkley in a future issue.
Comments
12I'll reserve judgement until I hear some of their 'attempt's at "advancing" the series.
I have to say part of what [i]makes[i] Halo 'Halo' is that music. Will be a shame if it is discarded. But then they did use a more sinister sounding version of the main theme in that E3 trailer so hopefully it will be used in some capacity.
I hope they don't make it all techno-metal-drawl like in hundreds of other games, I enjoyed the effect of the full orchestra. Shame Marty is no longer involved.
Could be worse. They could use dubstep....
Ah, that would be pretty extremely bad.
Here's a link to "The Making Of"
Oh no it isn't.
I hope the music is dubstep.
So how about we ignore whatever you come up with and just play the previous soundtracks over the game then?
Seriously, just make a new version of the Opening Suite, or if you're too whiny to do that, you can do the rest of the game, and 343 can just re-use one from another game as the main theme.
New game, new music. Sounds fair. I loved the original's music, but time to move on.
Dunkley worked on Inception. Oh dear. I thought Inception's soundtrack ruined the film. Too much and too loud.
But occasionally you come across a real record, the story of a real lawman of the Old West, cheap west side story tickets one of those rugged typescript who was chase outlaws and tiresome to remain the silence.