We bear the same amounts of expectations towards an upcoming soundtrack and the game it illustrates. It’s shown clearly when a game like Death Stranding appears in media and we quickly begin to think how will the composers tackle the ideas of such a strange game and its director, how well will they fit in and how will they match the level of novelty and uniqueness of the source material.
A lot of film scores and game scores are still known for their sense of melody and harmony. Death Stranding isn’t. – Joel Corelitz for The Verge
Death Stranding was co-composed by Ludvig Forsell and Joel Corelitz, with the latter recently talking with Verge about the creative process. The interview touches on some interesting subjects and shows different approaches of both composers, with Forsell tackling synths for BTs and Corelitz experimenting a bit with more grounded, real sounds. Both of them experimented in ways to do fit in to the game, by tapping and playing random objects From Home Depot or torturing a piano, while also being inspired by the music from It Follows. The final effect is impressing.
To this madness is of course a method, as it makes known sounds feel strange and unfamilliar, while utilizing their raw sounding and effectively creating sense of dread. It’s worth noting that the experiments, which allowed for most of this kind of appeal (dubbed “unidentifiable” or “defying description”), took three days. What three days they must have been!
