Project: Brawl Stars

Client: Supercell

We Did: Music Composition • Music Production

To celebrate the new Brawl Stars game character “Draco”, Dynamedion teamed up with Metalverse/Musical Bits to create a heavy metal in-game soundtrack called “Draco’s Flames”.

Draco, the new game character in the multiplayer mobile game Brawl Stars with over 1 billion downloads, is the game’s first legendary Brawler to wield a guitar and with Draco’s love for heavy metal, extreme sports and “Dungeons & Dragons”, the in-game soundtrack “Draco’s Flames” is the perfect musical accompaniment. The song was written by Dynamedion’s Armin Haas and was then fully produced with help of Musical Bits’ AI driven composing and production tools.

Draco’s Song

“Game music has its own unique value, that strongly links the players emotions to the gaming experience. So, creating an original song for Draco as an ingame character was really exciting. In the past 25 years, we have created quite a few virtual bands for games, but always analog to digital. This time, we had the exceptional chance to get to a new level of immersion, by creating AI powered instrumentalists, playing their instruments like a musician would in real life, while being completely virtual.”

“Musical Bits’ Production Assistance Tools have been used to generate Drumbeats, Rhythm Guitars and Choirs based on the composition of Dynamedion Composer Armin Haas. Given the song structure, the chords and the fully produced medieval instruments, Drums, Guitars and Choirs have been generated automatically out of AI models that have been trained, annotated and developed by musicians of the Musical Bits team over the last 2 years. The lead vocals have been recorded and produced “old-school” by a real singer singing with his real voice.
Drako was interpreted as a young metalhead, enthuthiastic about metal in general and his own guitar in particular. There is not too much dynamics in this stay of metal, it is just about fast and faster, loud and louder and high and higher, and we tried to push composition, melodies, vocals and production in this very positive “over-the-top”-attitude that is the definition of powerful heavy metal. Draco is pure power metal! Together with the heroic, 100% human made lead vocals, Draco’s Flames is a great example of how technical tools can help to bring a great human composition to full production readiness  – Have no Fear, Draco will be near!”

“For me as a composer, it is vital that the creative part of a composition stays human, even if the result is designed to appear in a 100% digital computer game. Draco’s Flames reveals its own very special energy with the interaction of men and machine and the result is fantastic.”

Project: Last Train Home

Client: Ashborne Games

We Did: Music Composition • Orchestra Recordings

Dynamedion and Ashborne Games have recently wrapped up their successful collaboration on the latest hit game, Last Train Home. Released recently on November 28^th on Steam, it’s an exciting and tense game that needs a soundtrack that is up to the task. The public reception of the game’s music, stamped with accolades and admiration, stands testament to their creative accomplishment.

Last Train Home is a real-time strategy game with management elements developed by Brno-based company, Ashborne Games, channeling an authentic wartime narrative. The soundtrack, an essential part of the gaming experience, enriches the storyline with its atmospherics of raw emotion, fighting spirit, and melancholia. Capitalizing on inspiration from Czech classical music and Russian traditional instruments, it embodies the historical essence of the game.

The game tells a tale not told much in Western history books. During the Great War, not all Czechoslovaks fought for Austria. Disillusioned with the Habsburg crown, many tried to dodge compulsory service or did what today we’d call “quiet quit”, as you can read about in The Good Soldier Švejk by the Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek. Many though, would follow Hašek’s own perilous path and make their way to the East to fight in the Czechoslovak Legion.

The official game trailer

After the Great War, Russia collapsed into a mess of revolution and civil war, and the Czechoslovak Legion had to make their way safely home. In Last Train Home, you play as a Czechoslovak Legionnaire, guiding your troops across Siberia on an armored train in a quest to make it back to Central Europe the long way around.

As an effective project, the Last Train Home soundtrack was born from the active collaboration between our composers and Ashborne Games skilled team. From Dynamedion, Simon Wiebe, Armin Haas, Nico Patricio, Henning Nugel, Chris Wirtz, and Matthias Wolf all made their contributions, working closely with Jiří Křupala at Ashborne.

“It was a real partnership in my opinion,” Jiří said about working with our composers. “With Simon, we exchanged a lot of calls about the intentions of the soundtrack. I would tell him and the composers what feelings I have about the part and what feelings I would like to have instead, and I let them provide the best solution.”

Capturing the rugged environment of Siberia – where much of the game takes place – meant shaping a soundtrack that could echo those harsh landscapes. “The keywords defining that atmosphere we were looking for,” Jiří told us, “were authentic, raw, cold, dirty, and melancholic. The story is set right after the Great War ended in a military setting, so I wanted to reflect that in the music and in the sound design.”

The music was to create a sensitive blend aligned with the war-torn backdrop. Jiří wanted the core of the music to come from Czech classical influences, and there would have to be some kind of recognizable motif that would call back to Central Europe.

“Of course, it was the Vltava-theme from Smetana’s symphonic work Má Vlast, which in turn means ‘My Fatherland’,” Henning said. “Just perfect for a game where the soldiers try to get back to their home country. Basically, everyone knows this melody and it’s easily recognizable.”

The explanation trailer

Henning wrote the main theme and sprinkled the Vltava-theme in between the main melody lines here and there. “While the main theme is featured throughout the entire score, the Vltava-theme also pops up from time to time as a feeling of longing for home.”

Jiří  adds: “Imagine trying to get home which was just several hundreds of kilometers away from you, but you had to go the other way, literally across the whole globe. That must have been insane! And so in our soundtrack, I wanted players to feel this longing for home, this solitude and struggle for survival in Siberia.”

The game is structured into two main parts: Train Management and Strategy Missions, and the music had to reflect that gameplay. It was essential to compose exciting battle music and dramatic background music that could be used both in exploration missions and those focusing on conflict. There was also music for specific scenarios that needed their own feel, along with an extra track for the final mission in Vladivostok.

“That one in my opinion really raises the tension there,” Jiří said.

The Train Management portion of the game is narratively divided into three acts, which is reflected in the music, too. The plot develops and new songs are introduced thematically in response to events as you go through the parts.

As an example, the game’s opening theme, plays before you reach Moscow and for a short time after. This track though is replaced with a more somber version around halfway through the campaign. That gets swapped again at the end of the game with an even grittier and more dissonant version.

“All the music gets rougher as you progress through the campaign,” Jiří explains. “And not just the music, the visuals of the game and cinematics get colder too!”

The main Vltava-inspired theme suffuses the entire soundtrack, complementing the dark and melancholic symphony that marks the historic game setting. “The soundtrack is filled with rather dark and melancholic orchestral pieces befitting for a game in this historical setting,” said Henning.

“The challenge in writing this music was finding the sweet spot where the music has a bit of action, it’s tense but at the same time it’s not intrusive,” Nico, another of our composers, noted. “I remember Jiří telling us that these particular tracks needed to give the player a feeling that he’s walking on tiptoes 🙂 When I read that, I immediately understood what we were going for.

“The sound we were aiming for was very intimate and personal rather than the big, over-the-top orchestral sound,” our composer Chris adds.

Various parts were also performed by the composers themselves. “I have an old balalaika that I played,” Chris went on. “Just as a shimmering color that comes in and out of the orchestra. If you play close attention, you can even hear me singing here and there.”

Looking back on the achievement, Jiří is immensely proud of the work done on the soundtrack. They were so productive and inspired, that the early plan for a limited soundtrack ballooned. “My original plan was to have around half the total minutes we ended up with,” Jiří said. “Silly, inexperienced me. But the game needed it.”

It was a lot of work. From honing the vision to the seamless integration of the Vltava-theme, from collaborating with multiple talented composers to successfully maintaining a consistency of tone, Jiří had to coordinate every step and mix it seamlessly to create the perfect musical experience for the players.

But Jiří enjoyed coordinating with our team, as ours loved working with him and Ashborne. “Working with Ashborne was a blast!” Simon said. “Ashborne made my job as coordinator on the Dynamedion side as easy as possible providing insights into their passion and vision as to what the gameplay should feel like.”

As the culmination of tireless efforts, the Last Train Home soundtrack transcends being a mere backdrop to the game. It emerges as a narrative force in its own right, and has garnered commendation from players and critics alike. The soundtrack masterfully encapsulates the narrative’s essence, and its profound impact on the game and its reception is undeniably a testament to the successful vision, hard work, and collaboration between Jiří and our team.

The game and its music are more than just a leisurely pastime—they’re an experience, a dive into history, and an emotional odyssey. Now, it’s time to embark on that venture yourself. Get absorbed in the deeply curated world of Last Train Home. The game and soundtrack are both available for purchase on Steam. Let this symphony of survival enrich your senses today!

Project: Age of Empires IV

Client: Relic Entertainment, World’s Edge

We Did: Music Composition • Orchestra, Choir, Soloist Recordings

Our composers have struck the right chord once again, composing a melodious soundtrack that combines the specifics of each civilization’s traditional music with the overall soundtrack and sound design. Our long-standing partnership with Relic Entertainment and World’s Edge continues to be positively melodic, as we’ve worked closely with the Relic Audio team to develop the score for the Byzantine and Japanese civilizations that are featured in this latest expansion.

Christian Wirtz, Nicolo Patricio, Dominik Morgenroth, and Henning Nugel – our composer team tackling the task – drew their inspiration from traditional instruments and chants to craft authentic-sounding themes for each culture. The creative process was filled with Zen as they blended their different strengths and specialties to explore the new in-game cultures. From powerful taiko drumming to ethereal Byzantine chants, The Sultans Ascend soundtrack will transport players to truly diverse realms.

The expansion also features “re-imagined variants” of civilizations that are already in-game, which include new heroes, units, and strategies. Our team worked on the video music for the Abbasid Dynasty variant.

We’re proud to continue working on soundtracks with Relic Entertainment for the Age of Empires IV. We hope our melodies help to immerse players in the gameplay and further develop the atmosphere of playing each civilization. It’s been a privilege to work again alongside the Relic team – we look forward to more musical memories together!

For the music of the Ottomans and Malians, which are not part of The Sultans Ascend expansion, Dynamedion composers Christian Wirtz, Alexander Röder, Henning Nugel and Armin Haas set to the task.

Before even broaching the subject of their assigned civilizations, the composers had to get familiar with the game system and the various ways it handles the music. The choices that players make in the game have an impact on Age of Empires IV’s intricate layering and seamless transitions. At any point, the music may go from a relaxed exploratory state to a tense or aggressive one, or from light to heavy fighting. Variations exist for each age of the game as well, and they tend to get increasingly complex as the gameplay advances. When a player enters a new Age, for example, the tone shifts and elements are added in, and there are entrance and exit pieces as well as typical transition parts.

Henning and Chris started by dividing the workload up by the ages. “We developed the overall concept together though and really had much fun teaming up,” Henning said. “As the Byzantines had to sound distinctly different to other civs in the same geographical area, we both really dove into researching standout features of Byzantine music.”

Like with the other civilizations, it would start very simply and slowly develop to more complex themes. “It goes from the music of the common people to the grand religious music we think of as Byzantine,” Chris says.

The Byzantine period proved a little difficult to triangulate musically, since the only written records left concern liturgical music. They dived into the music of the Church, as well as folklore music that’s been handed down mostly by memory. “The secular music has been poorly documented,” Chris puts in, “and we had to do a lot of deep research to get a good understanding of what that might have sounded like.”

Together, based on these inputs, they brainstormed how worldly music could have sounded in Byzantium and came up with an interpretation they were able to work into the gameplay. The study led to finding the right instruments.

“There still exists in current folk music an instrument that was actually called the ‘Byzantine Lyra’ but now goes under the name of ‘Cretan Lyra’,” Henning shares. “It’s a knee fiddle with three strings played with a bow. It has a rather special sound as instead of pressing down on the strings it’s played with the fingernails touching the strings from the side.”

Henning was happy to find a Cretan Lyra for himself to start his experimentations. The sound later developed into the Pontian lyre that Chris played in the higher ages.

Building upon that, he wanted something with a distinct sound during a distinct time in history, and turned to the Aulos, a set of two flutes that are played at the same time by a single player. “There’s a lot of evidence these were played throughout classical Greece and though I didn’t find them mentioned there, I’m sure that they survived into the medieval Byzantine era in one way or another.”

It was with this sentiment in mind, that he set about and found Thomas Rezanka, an Austrian flute-builder, who specializes in building Auloi. Thomas custom-built a pair of plumwood Auloi and gave him a lot of research material on how they were used. “There are these beeswax pieces used to close different holes on each flute as there are far too many to cover them all with the fingers of one hand,” Henning explains. “By rolling the wax and covering certain holes, it is possible to create a lot of different scales in different keys. You can hear the aulos in the exploration music and in the front-end loop.”

Both Henning and Chris are expert instrumentalists themselves and filled in a lot with their own handiwork.

Henning and Chris had both a lot of great experiences setting up the vocals for other civilizations, so they were eager to add something even more authentic to the soundtrack than just instruments. They found a fantastic female choir called Chórεs in Athens, who specialized in reviving traditional songs. “For Age 1, I wanted a female soloist who would sing in a traditional way, just like perhaps a Byzantine village girl picking flowers and humming to herself. But she also had to be able to hold her own in a full-blown battle track.”

The musical director of Chórεs found someone up to the task: Alcmini Bassakarou. They recorded her at Lizardsound in Athens. “We were blown away by her exact and inspired performance,” Henning said. She can be heard on all Age 1 exploration and combat tracks as well as on the front-end loop.

“We were very fortunate to work with Chórεs, led by Marina Satti and Eleni Gianni,” Chris adds. “They were invaluable in bringing the vocal culture to life and also assisted with the Greek lyrics we had. The solo female vocal for Age 1 later development into a solo male singer in Age 2. Once we reach Age 3 this fantastic pagan style vocal duo sets in. I was so excited to finally hear it as I had this sound in mind from the very beginning and I am glad it works so well. In the most advanced Age we finally reach the full symphonic sound of a big orchestra and symphonic choir. And everybody is singing our Greek lyrics that we spent so much time on. Very special. ”

Transporting players to the Far East, the new Japanese civilization in The Sultan’s Ascend expansion also has a beautifully composed and culturally authentic soundtrack. Japan has an unbroken, rich and unique musical tradition that is deeply engrained in the culture, so it was important for our team to get it accurate. Dominik and Nico both worked on the music and spent much of their time studying and sharing ideas.

“I had to do quite a bit of research to understand the music from Japan,” Nico says. “I learned about the instruments and techniques they use to get their unique sound.”

“I listened to a lot of Japanese music to find the right colors and the typical tone and feeling,” Dominik adds. “I then experimented a lot with the Koto and the Pipa, trying to get typical Japanese sounds out of them as well as unique and progressive tones by bowing, scratching, or hitting the strings. Most of the instruments were new to me – I bought some and borrowed others – and it was a lot of fun experimenting with those instruments.”

“When thinking of Japanese music, the Koto immediately comes to mind,” Dominik shares. He featured the instrument prominently in his compositions, with a little trick as well. “I tuned the strings down a little for a darker sound in Age 1. For Age 2, we recorded a professional Koto  player to mark the progress of the civilization.”

Dominik also used the same downtuning technique with the Pipa, a kind of Chinese lute. “I played the Pipa to contrast its nasal and metallic sound with the Koto’s warmer and rounder sound. Almost all Japanese instruments originate from Chinese ones, especially for the earliest age, where many of the well-known Japanese instruments didn’t exist yet, so we found it a fitting instrumental color.”

Warhorns are a prominent aspect in any medieval-era war game, and that’s no less true about Age of Empires IV. At first Dominik had some difficulty finding a Japanese variant until he stumbled across the Horagai, a large sea-shell that “has a trumpet-like character. We found a player and recorded some Horagai-calls with him that add a lot to the tense combat-moments.”

Nico leaned heavily on the Shakuhachi, Koto, and Shamisen for the music of the later ages to capture the most authentic Japanese sound. “Once you hear a note played on these instruments,” he says, “you’re immediately transported to Japan. For Age 3, we decided to do na interpretation of the folk song ‘Kuroda Bushi’, which is famous there. Besides having the shakuhachi playing the melody, for this arrangement we used strings as well as percussion from the classical form of Japanese Kabuki theatre.”

He adds: “The shamisen was invented after the other traditional Japanese instruments that we used in the soundtrack, so we thought it was more appropriate to only use it for Age 4. That also helped make the music for Age 4 more distinguishable.” They had the shamisen player perform quickly and with a strong attack on the strings, adding a nice punch to the sound of the combat music on Age 4.

The instruments and music are always recorded live with the best and most versatile musicians our team can find – with virtually no limit regarding geography. This often makes for the most engaging part of the process for our composers, as they get to really hear their music come to life. In person, or livestreamed if needed.

“The most interesting part was working with the live musicians,” Nico said. “Because the tracks for Ages 3 and 4 had a lot of shakuhachi parts, I feel that the player we recorded added so much life to the music.”

Dominik sourced many of his recordings remotely. For the Shinobue flute sounds he employed a musician in Switzerland, and for the Kotos and Horagai he found someone in Japan that could work with him.

Henning did the bulk of the work for the new music needed for the Abbasid Dynasty Campaign. It was a pleasure for him to return to it, as he had done work on the “prime variant” as well (read more). Though he wrote a completely new score, he re-used some of the original vocal recordings he had done for the original. “Especially the beautiful and haunting vocal lines of our lovely original singers Clara Sorace, Hayat Selim and Gediz Çoroğlu.” He lent his own hand playing the oud, bouzouk, and flutes for some additional live elements.

As the story progresses through time featuring many of the most famous Abbasid Dynasty leaders and heroes, you can hear different musical motifs. “As the start I struggled a bit with the idea as there are not a few persons coming up in the videos and I thought it would be hard to establish recognizable themes for so many of them. So I came up with an overall Abbasid Dynasty motif of just a few notes which is played on the oud right at the start of the first video. I then took this motif and used it as a basis for all the little themes of the Abbasid Dynasty leaders in the other videos. I changed the notes around or used it in a different rhythm, but the basic feel of it stays.” When you listen, you can hear how all the narratives are tied together musically and make it all into a single, cohesive Abbasid Dynasty whole.

And of course, what would the Abbasid Dynasty be without their chief opponents, the Crusaders? Henning also wrote music for the invading Franks. “They are dangerous enemies and easily recognizable by a rather straight low strings and percussion rhythm with low brass playing a simple but threatening melody line.”

Henning felt really good about revisiting the Abbasid Dynasty. “I really love the artwork of the videos and Lauren Wood’s storytelling and overall campaign design. Big thanks also to Robyn Smale and Caitlin Yu.”

Our partnership with Relic once again delivered exceptional music for an Age of Empires expansion. The addition of the Byzantines and the Japanese civilization brings fresh excitement to the game, enhanced by the incredible compositions of Chris Wirtz, Nicolo Patricio, Dominik Morgenroth, and Henning Nugel. To fully immerse yourself in this captivating experience, don’t miss out on the opportunity to buy the game and hear the soundtrack. Join the adventure and let the music transport you to a world of strategic conquest and cultural exploration.

Check out Age of Empires IV and listen to how the music changes seamlessly, as though it were written for your gaming session alone. Learn more about the game here.

Buy Age of Empires IV today on Steam!

You can also get the soundtrack on Steam.

Project: Company of Heroes 3

Client: Relic Entertainment

We Did: Music Composition • Orchestra Recordings

Whether storming the beaches of Normandy, blasting block-by-block mayhem in Stalingrad, or parachuting for a secret mission outside Naples, the Company of Heroes franchise has always been a thrilling and immersive experience. In Company of Heroes 3 – just released on February 23 – players once again enter the heart-pumping action of war. The new installment takes players through the North African and Italian campaigns, offering tense and exciting single and multiplayer modes. A heroic and gallant soundtrack provided by Dynamedion accompanies every moment of the game, making for a truly unforgettable experience.

The Company of Heroes video game series is developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega. The first installment came out in 2006 set during the Normandy D-Day landings. It was such a huge hit that they decided to follow it up with a sequel focusing on the Eastern Front, keying in new elements like changeable weather and destructible environments. The latest addition, brings players back to the Western Front, though this time in North Africa and Italy, has just been released after much fanfare and anticipation.

The official game trailer

We were very excited to continue our cooperation with Relic Entertainment, having worked together with them on the epic project of Age of Empires IV. The project was a huge success and we had such a positive working experience that we continued our synergy with Company of Heroes 3. It started with the release trailers composed by Alex Pfeffer and Benny Oschmann. Benny went on to compose the theme, and for other trailers and the remaining soundtrack was joined by our team of composers Henning Nugel, Armin Haas, Alex Röder, Jochen Flach, and Matthias Wolf, with Tilman Sillescu taking the lead role. The orchestration was done by David Christiansen.

This was our first Company of Heroes game to tackle, which meant having to follow the footsteps of the composers of the past two games. Jeremy Soule composed the original game’s music, with Cris Velasco taking the lead of the second game. We were excited to pick up the third installment, following on such great pieces of work.

The style had to carry over from the previous works, while still creating something altogether new for the third game. “It’s always difficult to write a soundtrack for a sequel to a big brand,” Tilman said. “It’s important not to leave the style of the previous games, because Company of Heroes fans love this music and don’t want a blatant change. But the developers also wanted a new theme, new, fresh sounds and melodies that reflected the new setting.”

“As the game progresses,” Henning adds, “the gamer will have to make difficult choices. So the music has to be heroic, but also underline that being a commander forces tough decisions on you. It should feel confident, but not without emphasizing a serious potential for regret.”

Benny Oschmann was responsible for composing the main theme and received much praise from his coworkers for a job well done. “Benny wrote a beautiful theme and all of us referenced it here and there in our tracks,” Henning shared. “In my opinion,” Tilman added, “this would also do justice to a big Hollywood movie J.”

Benny tapped into compositions for classic war movies like John Williams score for Saving Private Ryan and Hans Zimmer’s work for The Pacific, as well as the first two games. “Aaron, the Audio Director, wanted the Main Theme to be very heroic, almost superhero-like, so there might be a little influence from the Marvel-movies as well.”

The main theme for Company of Heroes 3

The composition opens with an unaccompanied horn solo in which you can hear the clear John Williams influence. “The horn has such a beautiful and warm tone in that range and the player absolutely nailed it,” Benny said. The strings join the horn as it progresses, followed by a snare striking up a march, and the “superhero-like” horn theme blasts in.

Writing the in-game music was not too different than composing for Age of Empires, which also used an intelligent music engine. The music was to fit as naturally as possible into the gameplay, which required the music to be composed into individual building blocks, while still sounding thematically and technically consistent with the others. “The pieces are designed to be put together in any order depending on what is happening in the game,” explains Jochen.

Keeping the interactivity of the game in mind was the key to making the music engine and all the building blocks work appropriately. One had to keep in mind that the gamer might move or stay still, and the music couldn’t be too noticeably repetitive. “If the gamer stays in the same level or stage for many minutes, it is possible that the same music loops a few times,” Armin explains. “So you need to be aware that the music sounds versatile and not annoying after hearing it 2-3 times. The music needs to breathe, and the melody shouldn’t be very dominant, so that you don’t recognize any repetitions of it.”

Jochen added: “The engine took care of the ordering in real time, so that the music seems very vivid and connected to the game. That’s one of the biggest differences to music for movies. Movie soundtracks are always following the story, which is linear. Every time you’re watching the movie, it’s the same movie. That’s not the case with games.”

The soundtrack changes depending on what’s happening on the screen, adapting to the player’s gameplay. When a battle would start, for example, the music would take on a low character and slowly build up, increasing the tension and intensity, until it finally reached the last battle level. “For this, you have to coordinate the different parts of the music well so that they flow smoothly and imperceptibly into each other,” Tilman said.

Those big buildups for the battle scenes were filled with a lot more action and excitement. “Very old-school orchestral,” Armin describes them. “No synthesizers, no big percussion. It was just a battle track living from energetic string rhythms and exploding brass.”

It is no easy task to write a theme that both fits the setting and context of the game, while still being catchy enough to be remembered by the players. Throughout Benny’s work, along with the others, they had to incorporate typical instruments for both campaigns. The trick though, was to make it sound seamless and natural, while not sounding cliché. For Italy, they tried to use an accordion and mandolin, while for the North African campaign they used duduk and percussive elements to capture the setting. It was a challenge because it could feel too intentional, but the composers tuned in and overcame it. Benny said, thinking of the clearest moment you can hear the instrumentation, “At one spot in the Main Theme you can hear Italian Mandolin followed by a North African Flute, but the colors are very subtle.”

Our ever-ready orchestrator David Christiansen brought all the music to life. He orchestrated the works and went to Budapest for the recording process, working with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra. “David did another superb job with the orchestration and was a great help during the recordings,” remarked Henning. He went on about how great the orchestra was: “My track was fast in places and has lots of string runs. I really thought it wouldn’t be easy to play, but the string section delivered these parts on the second to third take. These players are unbelievably good.”

Just as when working on the Age of Empires soundtrack, working with Relic was an excellent experience for our composers. Aaron Janzen was the main contact from the beginning. “Aaron and I talked quite a few times via Skype about how to make the music and how to use it, passing small layouts back and forth and testing them in gameplay,” Tilman said. “He also came up with the idea of making individual elements from the background soundtrack available for gameplay – he created a huge pool of options in the game with our music, which is a great thing that we plan to do more often in the future, just because it works so well in the game!”

Company of Heroes 3 is now available on Steam and is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S later this year. For more information about all things Company of Heroes 3, please visit https://www.companyofheroes.com/.

Project: Age of Empires IV

Client: Relic Entertainment, World’s Edge

We Did: Music Composition • Orchestra, Choir, Soloist Recordings

The fourth entry in the beloved series, the long-awaited Age of Empires IV came to desktops everywhere in October 2021. It quickly received critical acclaim and won the Best Sim/Strategy Game at the Game Awards 2021. Dynamedion proudly provided much of the soundtrack for the initial release and was asked to continue cooperation for the latest DLC Anniversary Update in October 2022: the Ottomans and the Malians.

The original soundtrack has been lauded as one of the most engaging for real-time-strategy games. Leana Hafer of IGN wrote in her review, “…the music and sound design are great across the board. Traditional instruments and melodies evoking the spirit of each faction start out simple and build to something more epic as you advance through the ages.”

For the music of the Ottomans and Malians, Dynamedion composers Christian Wirtz, Alexander Röder, Henning Nugel and Armin Haas set to the task.

Lin Gardiner, Relic’s music lead for the project, did an immense amount of research to make the game sound authentic and historical. “Gardiner is a wonderfully studied musical person, her attention to detail is key here,” team composer Christian Wirtz says. “She knows how this should all work and the interactive system is as complex as it gets.” Before any composer begins their work on the project, Lin briefs them quite thoroughly on the unique sounds and instruments of the civ.

At the same time, the authenticity was balanced with a sense of gaming sound design. Christian discusses the sound they were trying to achieve: “We are incorporating the musical elements as authentically as we possibly can. Whilst at the same time they have to work in the greater game design picture of the Age of Empires IV gameplay. So we are including it in a similar way to what film music does by combining orchestral music with the traditional instruments and playing styles. The big symphony orchestra typically comes in when the player reaches the Third Age.”

The soundtrack uses a complex course of layering and adapting to the events that a player triggers. “The musical system is really unique,” says team composer Alexander Röder, who worked on the Ottoman music. “Having actually one song for every age, which constantly evolves, goes up and down, rises with the situation and falls with it is something very dynamic.”

“The music at any time can switch between different stages of exploration modes, a little bit of tension, combat, heavy combat, and all kinds of different combinations,” Christian said. “There are variations to everything. There’s intro and exit pieces and traditional transition pieces when a player reaches a new age where the tonality rises and tempo increases.”

The music maintains a level of adaptation for each age. But as the ages advance, there are also new complexities that are introduced. “You want to hear that there’s a progression in music in playing style,” Christian continues. “So yes, it gets more ‘enlightened’ and much bigger in scale and size.”

The unique system of layering was naturally continued for the new DLC. Though any new composer coming onto the team has their research to do, it makes for interesting work. “I got a little bit late into the Age of Empires IV game and there was certainly a learning curve to getting into this system,” Christian says. “It takes a moment to write something that feels good and can switch over to another layer and mood at any point in the gameplay.”

The soundtrack uses a complex course of layering and adapting to the events that a player triggers. “The musical system is really unique,” says team composer Alexander Röder, who worked on the Ottoman music. “Having actually one song for every age, which constantly evolves, goes up and down, rises with the situation and falls with it is something very dynamic.”

“The music at any time can switch between different stages of exploration modes, a little bit of tension, combat, heavy combat, and all kinds of different combinations,” Christian said. “There are variations to everything. There’s intro and exit pieces and traditional transition pieces when a player reaches a new age where the tonality rises and tempo increases.”

The music maintains a level of adaptation for each age. But as the ages advance, there are also new complexities that are introduced. “You want to hear that there’s a progression in music in playing style,” Christian continues. “So yes, it gets more ‘enlightened’ and much bigger in scale and size.”

The music is planned to have a very minimal, primitive sound in the early ages. As the ages advance, it becomes more and more complex and developed. For the First Age, “there is complete focus on just a few instruments,” Christian says. “When it comes to the Second Age, I introduced the santur, which is the Arabic version of the European hammered dulcimer. It has a wonderfully bright and almost bell-like sound. Also, the rhythms get much more playful in all the instruments. So as a listener you can feel the development.”

“The musical heritage of the Ottoman Empire is rich,” Christian tells us. “We are still able to listen to classical music played at the Ottoman Imperial Court, for example. It was really important to write for those traditional instruments and to find the right musicians and places to record those.”

“I tried to build nothing less than an empire, musically,” Alexander says. “It had to reflect the Ottoman culture, so I came up with a mixture of melodies in the Arabian scale, a lot of percussion and an orchestra, which more or less glues everything together and gives the music a touch of a more evolved culture for the Fourth Age.”

The music of the Ottoman Turks was heavily influenced by Arabic music, and so this too was an area of study for the soundtrack. “All Arabic music sort of focuses around the string tunings of the oud, so it was interesting to learn it and study and get to know the music and how the tonality works.”

“The instruments and arrangement are very important because Arabic music works a lot differently than the typical Western music system that has a harmonic accompaniment to the melodies and then has different melodies interacting with each other. Arabic music doesn’t typically work like that. It’s much more focused on one melody, which is much more complex in terms of rhythm.”

“We recorded lots of solo instruments,” Christian says. “I’ve never had as many recording sessions before as for this project. We recorded more than 15 sessions with qanun, duduk, pku, and kamancheh. The musicality of those musicians is incredible and really brought the music to life. Omar Kattan is another one of those fantastic musicians. He’s a percussionist with Syrian roots living in Spain. He is a sort of lexicon of Turkish rhythms. He gave a wonderful, authentic flavor to the music and also to the very minimal First Age. It works wonderfully when you have sort of combat music and very fast frame drums and double caster playing.”

“There was Ottoman style singing involved as well that we recorded in Iran. All put together by the wonderful Olajide Paris.”

The music was recorded in studios across the world, though primarily in Armenia and Iran. Our session lead, Olajide, lives in Yerevan and has access to a network of incredible musicians there. With the information given to him, he was able to “understand how the music was composed relative to the interactivity that was in mind for the game,” Olajide said. “There were things that were written out explicitly and there was a lot of room for improvisation. That was something I thought was quite cool, while there were certain specific melodies that were written out, the musicians were given a lot of room to improvise as well.”

Olajide has built up an expansive list of talented musicians to pull from during his time in the Caucasus, from Georgia and Armenia, to Iran. “When Christian came to me with a list of instruments for the project,” Olajide shared, “I looked at it and saw I’ve worked with all these musicians before in Armenia and in Iran, but since I live in Armenia, I’ll record them there. We had recently worked with a great duduk player for Ancient Duduk Phrases for Sonuscore, so that was a natural choice.”

“In Iran I have a collaborator, Parsa Shomali, whom I originally met in Tbilisi – he was a student at the Tbilisi Conservatory and came up through my internship program. Because he’s already worked with me in person, he has an idea of how I work and I trust him as a co-producer, since we don’t have the possibility of real-time monitoring of sessions in Iran. He took care of all the vocalists.”

The bulk of the Armenia sessions were done at the Composers’ House, a building that had once belonged to the old Soviet Composers’ Union of Armenia. “It’s got a cool room, this octagonal-circular live room that has good acoustics if you’re recording a small ensemble or if you’re recording a soloist.”

The Malians were a West-African empire ranging out from present-day Mali all the way to Senegal on the coast, the size of which only the Mongol Empire exceeded at that time. They’re the first African-based empire to be introduced into the Age of Empires IV game environment. Henning and Armin dealt with writing most of the music for the Malian Empire, working with Germany- and Paris-based musicians from Senegal, and some assistance from Christian in finding the musicians.

“The sound of Mali is drum-driven with lots of polyrhythms,” Henning says. A polyrhythm is when two or more rhythms are played simultaneously in time with each other. “There is often a set of djembes, a dununba, sangba, and kenkeni providing a solid rhythmic basis for vocal or instrumental performances.”

We tapped into the immense talent of Modou Seck for the percussion. “A wonderful musician and percussion player,” Christian calls him.

Malian music was often centered around the telling of family histories, a process led by an individual known as a griot. As such, the vocals and the rhythms which they sing over are what stand out the most.

“There were quite a few recordings of different vocalists and percussions for the Malian Civ,” Henning says. “Kandara Diabaté provided male vocals – he comes from a griot family in Senegal. Female vocals were sung by Fanta Mara Diabaté who came from Paris to our studios in Mainz.”

It was difficult finding the musicians for the Malian Empire since we were looking for something very rare: Singing in a typical Malian style. Christian tells us: “We were lucky to make contact with an expert of this musical scene, Modou Seck. He lives not too far from Mainz. He made the contact to those excellent singers you can hear on the score. They all know each other very well from performing together many times.”

“Those were some exciting sessions,” Christian continues. “One of the singers, Fanta, came from France to us for the recording session. She only speaks French, so that was interesting for us during the recording. But music is a universal language, so it all worked out wonderfully in the end.”

West Africa is a true well-spring of unique and amazing instruments. “The djeli n’goni is a very old, mostly four-stringed lute with a body made of calabash. It’s used by the griots to sing the history and tales of their tribe,” Henning says. “I used different tunings and various techniques for the different layers and Ages.

“The sokou is a one-string fiddle also made of calabash and played with a very short bow. It’s quite piercing and I used some lower tunings to make the sound a bit less biting here and there. For a feel of progression, I ‘invented’ a kind of sokou-ensemble by adding a down-tuned octave violin with each string representing a different sokou.”

The West African sound was not just strings and percussion though. In the soundtrack, we also used fula flutes. “They are a specialty of the Fulani people,” Henning explains. The Fulani are a pastoral people who range across West Africa. “They are basically transverse flutes but with only three finger holes. So for a complete diatonic set of notes, there’s a lot of overblowing going on. This also triggers a bunch of overtones which give these flutes their absolutely special sound. I got two flutes with different tunings to cover the tonalities of the First and Second Ages.”

Henning also used the kudu horn for the aggressive war horns in the heavy combat sequences. “It’s impressive how loud this one gets,” he says, referring to the one he used for recording.

Creating that perfect balance of authenticity and cinematic sound is something our composers have really dedicated to doing for the Age of Empires IV soundtrack. Cooperating with the excellent Lin Gardiner at Relic and all the amazing musicians across the world has been an incredible experience for everyone, and we really look forward to more in the civilizations to come!

Check out Age of Empires IV and listen to how the music changes seamlessly, as though it were written for your gaming session alone. Learn more about the game here.

Buy Age of Empires IV today on Steam!

You can also get the soundtrack on Steam.

Project: Age of Empires IV

Client: Relic Entertainment, World’s Edge

We Did: Music Composition • Orchestra, Choir, Soloist Recordings

Age of Empires IV was released to roaring success. The game remains on Steam’s Top Sellers list months after its release. Fans and reviewers alike have lauded the graphics, asymmetrical gameplay, and most importantly for us, the music. Scrolling through Steam reviews mentions of the soundtrack can be read repeatedly, and reviewers as well have taken note of it, saying things like “the soundtrack… mixes beautifully from the menu music and evolves through the ages” (PC Gamer), and “musically speaking, AoE IV is up to series standards” (Tom’s Guide).

It has certainly been exciting for the Dynamedion team to be part of such a stellar project that has been years in the making. The music is dynamic, based on the civilization and Age the player is currently. Great care went into this, with loopable cues to ensure that whenever a battle sequence began, or themes changed based on each Age, the music would  flow seamlessly and sound like all part of a single composition. For each track, composers had to write four different layers (Explore, Tension, Combat, Rare) including a variety of segments, intros, exits, and transitions between the four Ages.

Henning Nugel was one of Dynamedion’s staff composers who worked on the score. Henning is from Dortmund, Germany and has written a great deal of scores on behalf of Dynamedion, including the Settlers series, Total War – Thrones of Britannia, Marvel Super War, Smite – Heroes of the Wild and Dark Crystal – Age of Resistance. Henning is not just a composer but also an instrumentalist, playing keys, guitar, fiddle, and a variety of instruments from around the world, and is an expert on medieval and folk styles.

For the soundtrack, Henning was tasked with conquering the music for the Rus and Abbasid Dynasty civilizations. He wrote over 180 minutes of music and played on 25 different instruments himself. Here he discusses his experience working on a soundtrack that called for someone with his exact background. All photos were provided by Henning or the respective artists.

There have certainly been quite a few projects where I mingled folkloristic medieval stylistics with orchestral music (Settlers Series, Valhalla Hills, Thrones of Britannia to name a few). But Age of Empires IV is definitely the biggest project I have worked on, ever! The game audio system is so incredibly sophisticated and complex; I have never encountered anything like it during my whole 20 years of working in the game audio world. It’s like one gigantic constantly changing soundtrack that fits everything that happens on screen. As composers – and I think I can speak for all of us – we really put our heart blood into creating music that could hold up to this vision of a game.

One of the tricky things with medieval music is that wherever you turn to in Europe there’s basically the same kind of instruments. You got your lutes, some kind of fiddle, recorders, etc., but you really have to dig deep to find instruments that clearly distinguishes one civ from another. When I started with the Rus we already had the music of the French, the English and the Holy Roman Empire and Relic’s Music Lead Lin Gardiner was adamant that I find a way to set the Rus apart from all the other factions.

Very early on it was clear to me that we needed a basso profundo choir for the Rus. These super-low male choirs are as characteristic for Russian classical music as the balalaika is for Russian folk tunes. So I contacted George Strezov who is a kind of Bulgarian wunderkind being a composer, conductor, sample library developer, owner of an orchestra and choir agency but most of all just a down-to-earth, super-nice guy.

I asked George about Russian choir music and a few moments later I received from him a bunch of YouTube links with a broad variety of examples. I also used his sample library, Wotan, which features the voices of a basso profundo choir from Sofia. It sounded so good that we actually hired George to conduct this very choir at the live recording sessions. For the Dark Age there’s only one singer of the choir doing very low “Mmh”-lines and through the Ages the choir gets fuller and sings more intricate phrases.

While the low choir got me closer, I had to look for further inspiration to achieve the sound of the Rus civ. Of course, a balalaika was a must. I also got a wonderful mandolin-like instrument, a domra and set up my trusty Irish bouzouki with a different tuning and created something like an ancient balalaika for the first two Ages.

One of the key concepts was to have instruments evolve through the different Ages. In Castle Age the ancient balalaika is substituted with the regular versions of the balalaika and domra. From Siberia I received two Russian recorders called svirels in different keys and also a kalyuka which is a Russian overtone flute. I also used a wooden traverse flute.

Regarding bowed strings instruments I opted for some low solo fiddles that I strung with octave strings through the first two Ages. They are accompanied by higher solo violins with more intricate lines in Castle Age with a hint of a small orchestra strings section in the background.

In the Imperial Age we have the full-blown cinematic orchestra and choir recorded in Budapest and Sofia respectively. There’s also some lovely solo horn passages while the folkloristic instruments play only a subdued role.

Russian music has a tendency toward the melancholic so I tried to work this more sombre spirit into my music as well. All of this helped a lot to make the Rus sound distinctly different from the other European civs.

I really enjoyed my trip into the musical history of the Rus. Though I used instruments that were partly existent at that time, I also invented a lot of playing techniques and phrasings to fill out the score in a cinematic way. It’s not really about accuracy but more about authenticity, the feel of things. In the end this is more or less my interpretation of Russian music and how it makes me feel.

Creating music for the Abbasid Dynasty required a deep dive into Arabian music and instruments. To make it distinguishable and notably different from the Delhi Sultanates this needed a new palette of instruments which would give us a typical Arabian feel. I got lucky at the Orientmusikhaus in Berlin where the proprietor Metin Ürgen let me check out all the instruments and told me about their usage in Arabian folklore music. After about five hours testing and checking I left the shop with an oud, a bouzuq, and two handfuls of woodwinds.

The oud is perhaps one of the oldest Arabian instruments and quite likely the grandfather of the classical guitar. It has no frets and comes with 11 strings tuned in pairs except the low bass string. It features most prominently in Age II but also sparsely in the Dark Ages. At times I bowed the low bass string with an old cello bow to get a nice dark raspy bass drone for the Explore and Tension layers that comes and goes. The oud is replaced by a classical guitar in Age 4 for a feel of development.

The bouzuq is also an Arabian plucked string instrument and perhaps the predecessor of the modern-day bouzouki. The regular bouzuq only has two pairs of strings but Metin retrofitted mine with a third pair of strings to give me more choices for different sounds. It has frets attuned to the Arabic scales (the Maqams) so it can play microtones (e.g. a note between E and F). I used these microtones here and there for the typical Arabic feel and you can hear the instrument a lot in the Dark and Feudal Ages. I also bowed this instrument with a cello bow for the gritty sound in Dark Ages Tension. For the Castle Age I used a modern version of the bouzuq, a bouzouki with a different tuning. It has a more refined and fuller sound but no microtones. I also used a lot of different picks (regular, but also metal, wood, felt).

Playing string lines in octaves is a very common feature in today’s Arabic music. For the Castle Age, I used a regular violin – which had belonged to my grandfather who was a great player himself – but tuned G D g d for the typical Arabian violin tuning. My custom-made octave viola features as a counterpart an octave lower. By tuning it differently this one can get down to cello tuning and create a really gritty dark sound. This combination was perfect for the Castle Age where we are at a more advanced stage but still not at the highest form of development of this civ. The Imperial Age on the other hand features mainly orchestral ensembles. The octave viola can also be heard in its darkest and lowest form throughout the Feudal Age layers as a kind of precursor to the Castle Age strings.

There’s a lot of woodwinds used through all the ages. There are the high and low kaval flutes in the Dark Age and Feudal Age. The Mizmar a double reed instrument I got from Egypt in Dark Age and its counterpart the Zurna in Feudal Age. Really loud and piercing instruments that were great for the Tension and Combat layers. Years ago, I bought a Duduk and in Metin’s shop I got a low Mey as a kind of lower counterpart. Though they are also double reed instruments they sound a bit like wailing clarinets. So in this context I also used a strange nameless flute I got some time ago that is played with a single reed and also has this kind of clarinet tone. Ney flutes are used in the Dark and Feudal Age for additional breathy grit. In the Dark Age there’s also a bass recorder – a huge instrument. You can get these really cool ethnic flavours out of this instrument when you don’t play it like a regular recorder. The Imperial Age features my trusty wooden traverse flute for a little more refined sound. But we still have the occasional duduk here and there.

As Arabic music is predominantly vocal, I was extremely happy that we found four lovely solo vocalists – one for each age: Renowned singer Memed Capan, with his 80-year-old voice had just the right timbre perfect for the Dark Age; for the Feudal Age there is Gediz Çoroğlu, a fantastic singer from Istanbul, who performed gorgeous Arabic phrases in his unique singing style; London-based singer and composer Hayat Selim, born in Cairo with Arabic music and singing part of her DNA, a godsend for this project as she was the perfect match for the castle; then finally Clara Sorace for the Imperial Age, the most advanced Age – her vocals are heard in countless trailer music albums and most recently Jasper Kyd’s Assassin’s Creed score – her technique is absolutely stunning and she really made the most cinematic sounding Age come to life.

There’s no traditional brass in Arabic music. For continuity between the civs and also for making it all more cinematic I used orchestral brass in the later Ages. Brass and strings were recorded live in Budapest. Especially the string players had a lot of fun playing the rather fast and agile Arabic lines I had written for the Imperial Age.

The Abbasid Dynasty civ forced me (again) to dive into for me personally totally unchartered musical territory. Of course, this score is and cannot be anything else than my own interpretation of what Arabic music feels and means to me. But I definitely learned a lot and my studio backwall got some more lovely  instruments to showcase.

Of course, all of this would not have been able without the help of many people. I’m deeply indebted and thankful to Relic Entertainment and especially Music Lead Lin Gardiner and World’s Edge studio, as well as the whole Dynamedion team, including my brothers-in-arms Tilman Sillescu, Armin Haas, Alex Röder and also our ProTools specialist Christian Wirtz and the never-tiring orchestra wrangler and live artist handler Marcell Kelemen. I’d also like to thank the rock in a sea of raging notes, our Orchestrator David Christiansen, the lovely vocal artists that made my Abbasid Dynasty music come to life: Clara Sorace, Hayat Selim, Gediz Çoroğlu and Memed Capan, George Strezov and his fantastic basso profundo Sofia Session Choir that really made all the difference for my Rus music, and our Budapest orchestra musicians and conductor Peter Pejtsik.

Thanks a lot for taking the time with me and, of course, “Wololo!”

Buy Age of Empires today on Steam!