Thursday, October 29, 2015

Original in-game song "I Shall Rise" by Karen O has digital release, accompanies Rise of the Tomb Raider launch trailer


Karen O (of indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs) has collaborated with Rise of the Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics to produce an original song for the game. As featured on Rolling Stone, the track "I Shall Rise" serves as the soundtrack to the Rise of the Tomb Raider launch trailer and is available to download today from all good digital music retailers including iTunes, Amazon & Google Play.

"Exploring Lara Croft’s relentless journey as she tests the limits of the human spirit, “I Shall Rise” is not only featured in the game, but is the soundtrack to both the launch trailer and the global TV campaign for Rise of the Tomb Raider. Inspired by Lara Croft’s journey through a hostile world as she searches for the secret of immortality, “I Shall Rise” captures the gravity and cinematic presentation of Rise of the Tomb Raider, and marks Karen O’s first original song for a video game." - Crystal Dynamics


"I Shall Rise" Official music video


“Karen truly captures Lara’s indomitable spirit and determination. The mood and atmosphere the song evokes is simply fantastic and compliments the game’s aspirational sense of adventure really well.” - Noah Hughes, Crystal Dynamics Creative Director

Although her first video game recording, O is no stranger to film soundtracks, having recorded the entire audio accompaniment to 2009's Where The Wild Things Are. She elaborates to Rolling Stone:

"They wanted drama and high-stakes and melodrama. That was very appealing to me because I love making music connected to a storyline. It was all stuff I loved like having the theme song to Lara Croft becoming an icon and the creation myth to the moment she becomes Lara... The emotional and very human story, of a young woman’s perseverance and journey in accepting her destiny as the Tomb Raider is inspiring on many levels, and I drew on those inspirations for this song. She’s such an iconic hero, the opportunity to compose this song and be part of Lara’s history is exciting.” - Karen O

There's still no word on an official Rise of the Tomb Raider soundtrack release, but as "I Shall Rise" was written and recorded explicitly for the title, the song is also set to feature within the game. While Tomb Raider: Underworld's launch trailer featured Lamb's "Gorecki" in 2008, such an internally licensed song (with a music video to boot) has not graced the Tomb Raider video game franchise since 2003's "Angel of Darkness" by Alex C. - the vinyl of which is still a rare collector's treasure to this day.

Enjoy the trailer and the official lyrics to "I Shall Rise" after the jump below!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Developer Crystal Dynamics elaborates on scoring dynamic combat with procedural music in Rise of the Tomb Raider


Following the departure of long-time Crystal Dynamics audio director Alex Wilmer (Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary, Underworld, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Temple of Osiris), colleague Jack Grillo takes the wheel after the latest franchise instalment Rise of the Tomb Raider goes gold. Grillo elaborates on the procedural music system Rise of the Tomb Raider boasts with the help of Philip Lamperski, audio director, via the official Tomb Raider Blog.

The game utilises a new middleware licensed by Intelligent Music Systems, LLC that analyses MIDI compositions and generates new music - thus dynamically providing a different soundtrack to each play-through within the audio engine. The team have also provided a video demonstrating this system in action, featuring Rise of the Tomb Raider game-play with an isolated music stream (percussion only):


Read the full developer blog after the jump below! Rise of the Tomb Raider launches November 10th, 2015, on Xbox One and Xbox 360. MoTR will publish an interview with composer Bobby Tahouri prior.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Lara Croft GO Music Week continues with Pixel Audio interview, live performance footage at PAX & more [Updated]

Pixel Audio performing Lara Croft GO live at PAX, Seattle - watch the music video now

Starting the week off, Crystal Dynamics announced the release of the Lara Croft GO Official Soundtrack for free via SoundCloud as part of "Lara Croft GO Music Week". Day 2 of the occasion marks an interview with the music outfit responsible, Pixel Audio. The team behind the "mesmerising" music consists of composers Ulric Corbeil Trudel, Eric Shaw and Mathieu Beaudet:

"We were inspired by the work of Nathan McCree (Tomb Raider I, II and III) in the early stage of production. His musical composition hints to something grandiose and mysterious, almost religious, with a feeling of loneliness, while remaining luminous. Our challenge was to keep these key elements while acknowledging that Lara Croft GO is a completely different game than the franchise. It’s a turn-based puzzle-adventure game. Even though it can become very intense at times, there are no action sequences per se. We decided to go for a softer and more ambient mood in general." - Pixel Audio

The Lara Croft GO Official Soundtrack will grace our Community Discography page once all of the tracks have been released (CD promises by Friday). Read the entire Q&A and see additional photographs from the Lara Croft GO recordings at the official Tomb Raider Tumblr, as well as after the jump below!

Lara Croft GO Music Week Recapitulative:

Monday, October 12, 2015

Lara Croft GO Official Soundtrack releasing for free by Friday


As with the Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris Original Soundtrack (2014), Crystal Dynamics is set to publish the Lara Croft GO soundtrack for free via the studio's SoundCloud. "Lara Croft GO Music Week" kicks off with track 1 - A Forgotten Path, as well as the Official Soundtrack album artwork:



The Lara Croft GO soundtrack is the work of Pixel Audio, the team of composers Ulric Corbeil Trudel, Eric Shaw and Mathieu Beaudet. Every day this week a new content will be released - and MoTR will update as it hits - stay tuned! Three preview tracks were previously made available via Square Enix Music.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Bobby Tahouri composing Rise of the Tomb Raider soundtrack


Redwood City studio Crystal Dynamics, helming the development of Rise of the Tomb Raider, today announce Bobby Tahouri as the composer for the next instalment of the Tomb Raider series (full press via Xbox Wire). Tahouri's credentials include Game of Thrones, Iron Man and Despicable Me 2.

“It’s been an honor working on such a storied franchise. Lara is someone who embodies an indomitable spirit, and crafting music to accompany her on her journey has been a fantastic experience.” - Bobby Tahouri, Rise of the Tomb Raider composer

Tahouri takes the reigns from established Tomb Raider (2013) reboot composer Jason Graves. Tahouri will utilise Graves' new thematic motif for the franchise - "Lara's Theme" will carry over to Rise of the Tomb Raider in order to maintain musical continuity. Rise will feature procedurally generated music during combat and stealth segments, "using a middleware system licensed by Intelligent Music Systems, LLC". Unlike prior Tomb Raiders, said construct is to "analyse" Tahouri's compositions on the fly, effectively composing new music and providing a dynamic soundtrack to each play-through.

“Music is incredibly important in video games to help create the right atmosphere, mood and tone, and this is especially true for Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is set to be Lara’s biggest and boldest adventure yet. We love the sound Bobby brings to the game, and we’re excited for fans to join Lara in this adventure when the game launches.” - Rich Briggs, Crystal Dynamics brand director

Crystal Dynamics have also released a preview of the "Official Soundtrack" to Rise - possibly indicating the release of a commercial soundtrack for only the second time in the history of the Tomb Raider franchise. Download the track via Crystal Dynamics' official SoundCloud or take a listen below!


Rise of the Tomb Raider launches November 10th or 13th (territory-dependent), 2015 on Xbox One. PC and Playstation 4 versions are to follow in 2016. Crystal Dynamics promises additional pre-release media from their in-house audio team, "expanding on the unique soundtrack implementation" in Rise.