Dixie Schollar ┃ Fictioneers
Contextual Material
My rescore includes many acoustic percussive effects that became a part of my personal sonic pallette through the folk duo 'Crywank'. While these effects can be heard across their discography, it is prominent in the track 'If I Were You I'd Be Throwing Up'; the sound is raw and intimate, but through this project I have recontextualised that feeling to be disconcerting through my wider sonic palette. Its use alongside the low vocal drones in particular puts the listener in a vulnerable position by contrasting the acoustic intimacy with a foreboding communal chant, suggesting a larger, more numerous threat.
The anthemic synth pieces in Chris Christodoulou's original soundtrack for Risk of Rain 2 are infamous for their inspiring grandeur, similarly to my project, this is also for a roguelike indie game with a low poly visual aesthetic. The final track of my project, 'Leshy', draws from the theme of the final level of Risk of Rain 2, '...con lentitud poderosa', by creating a similarly anthemic, bittersweet, theme over snappy drums. However, in the context of my work, this anthemic sound is a revel for a new glimpse of hope, rather than a consistent component present throughout the project. A break from the purely dark and dire sounds of the other themes.
'The Spriggan' by 'Scuzzlebutt' is a simple folk piece played on the banjo, named for a creature of folklore, largely depicted in media as some manner of dark fey. This is similar to the folkloric creature called a leshy, for which the game's main villain is named for. The spriggans theme is swung, uses stepwise motion, hammer-ons, and a repeating leitmotif. I used all of these compositional techniques, but not in the piece 'Leshy', that piece is about the player triumphing over Leshy, instead you can find what would be considered Leshy's leitmotif in the ambient track 'Deathcard Cabin', as Leshy is an ambient, ever present threat in the cabin.
Another aesthetically retro horror indie game, Omori's original soundtrack by 'Omocat', has been a very important font of inspiration, focus of analysis, and point of comparison. The track 'Arachnophobia' is a very dark piece of horror music, that's use of reverberated percussion as a textural layer contributed to my formulation of 'Deathcard Cabin'. Like much of the OST, bit crushing effects are used on instrument layers to compliment the retro visual style. Extrapolating this idea into my own compositions was a key body of the work that brought the ultimate sound world together.
Vocal chants are a key part of many traditional folk music cultures, and thusly are used prominently in my work on this project. In particular, my work responds to the smooth and haunting timbre found in the bridge of Danny Farrant and Paul Rawson's recording of the dark folk song 'In the Pines', from the compilation album 'Dark Country II'. It's inclusion continues the traditional practice, while taking this particular dark aesthetic interpretation beyond its niche use, and into the realm of video games and themes.
Inscryption Rescored
This project was a rescoring of the game Inscryption. In particular, the first act, 'Leshy's Cabin', which has a folk horror and low poly aesthetic. There are five tracks. 'Deathcard Cabin' is a ten minute ambient piece, then there are the four boss themes, 'The Prospector', 'The Angler', 'The Trapper', and 'Leshy'.
Project Description
I began the project by focusing in on the ambient side of things. To create ambient textures, I made some short looping progressions on low poly synths, reversed them, elongated them, and added multiple layers of reverb until it sounded 'smooth' again. I created three key layers that would be moved between at different levels, as well as adding some supplementary virtual instrument layers to create evolving textures. I then set about adding the folky guitar, by recording multiple takes of ten minute improvised material. The result was close to what I was looking for, but required a lot of detailed edits to make the evolution of the lead guitar was interesting and coherent while still being undeniably ambient in nature.
The process of creating the boss themes was quite different. In each case I began by creating some simple repeating bass lines that would be built upon using vertical composition techniques. This continued with layering guitar and banjo playing, and percussive effects. Alot of consideration was given to balancing the desired raw and acoustic sound of the instrument recordings versus the want for refined and professional sounding audio. A further conflict was created between my desire to create strong themes with simple motifs without each track becoming too repetitive. Later in production I revised some tracks to add additional sections to achieve an appropriate balance. Aswell as establishing a folk horror sound pallette, I also aimed to include sounds in the compositions that reflected something about the characters. I recorded dinging a knife against a jar to create a pickaxe sound for The Prospector, I rubbed knives together for The Trapper, I included a ship's bell in The Angler.
For the climactic confrontation with Leshy, I did somewhat divert from my original plans. Having revisited the boss themes and added low poly synth layers to reflect the low poly visuals of the game, I had expanded my soundworld. I decided that since Leshy is the game master of the Leshy's Cabin section of the game, that his theme should more predominantly represent the low poly aesthetic, taking it as a lead instead of folk instrumentation which would become supportive. I also created harmonic material for it that was less dark and gloomy than the previous encounters, to heighten the drama by infusing hope in this final confrontation. The resulting suite of songs are successful at being evocative, interesting, and having strong congruence with the visual material.
