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Darksiders II

The Music of Darksiders II

Darksiders II composer Jesper Kyd's credits make for impressive reading.

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Not only is the Dane (now based in California) responsible for crafting the soundscape of both Assassin's Creed and its sequel, but he's also accredited with making the distinct and versatile soundtracks of the Hitman and Borderlands games.

With his latest work gracing the just released Darksiders II - and being compiled into a two-disc album that's available to buy from retailers, we asked him to discuss his personal highlights from the score, and the thinking behind the conception for each. You'll find a link to each piece of music alongside the text - so bolt on the headphones.

"The Makers Theme"

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The Makers are one of the oldest races in the Darksiders universe and they built many of the realms you visit in the game. With this race, being as old as creation itself, there was something eternal about them that I wanted to capture. The music for The Makers realm is Celtic-inspired so I recorded everything from Irish vocals, dobro guitars, bag pipes and other elements. The score is full of live performances. I am accustomed to mixing different styles of music and I always like to mix live performances with electronics.

"Into Eternity"

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Melissa Kaplan sang on my scores for the Assassin's Creed series. She also performs vocals on "Aphelion" from my trailer music album Ultimatum, and most recently this Celtic-inspired track "Into Eternity" from Darksiders II. When writing female vocal parts, I often write the parts for Melissa since I am very familiar with her peformance and vocal range.

"City of the Dead"

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I was asked to really push the creativity, so every track was an exercise in abstract darkness; I combined lots of different ways of creating the dark atmosphere in Darksiders II. The reoccurring technique is that I'm using a lot of analog equipment and analog synths. I really worked on making the tracks organic-sounding; there's a lot of dynamics and analog flow that I worked on with the mixing, EQ and compression.

"Demon Realm"

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This is my first truly analog-based score, meaning not only is almost everything processed through analog equipment but I also wrote the music with analog gear. So I used a lot of analog synths and vintage electronics such as organs, spring reverbs, tape echo devices, analog delays mixed with other techniques. I'm a big fan of discovering vintage ways of creating new sounds. There is a sonic richness to that vintage world which is completely lost in a lot of today's music.

"The Corruption"

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"The Corruption" is an arrangement of several themes including the Guardian fight. The electric guitar arrangement symbolizes the "corruption spreading" and it then becomes mixed with the more heroic Makers theme.

You can check out other clips from Darksiders II, as well as the rest of Kyd's work, at his official site. The Darksiders II: Original Soundtrack is available now from retailers.

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