As one of the most respected indie game composers, Rich Vreeland aka Disasterpeace has made a name for himself with the soundtracks to Fez, Hyperlight Drifter, Solar ashand many more. And as it turns out, this work was partly inspired by Square Enix’s classic Chrono-Cross.
Here, as part of Polygon FM – our week-long look at the intersection of gaming and music – he talks about the inspiration behind Chrono-Crosshow he composed the song “Ford the River” and how we created the sound for Hyperlight Drifter(If you want to delve deeper into his work, Vreeland has also written extensively about his process on his personal site.)
Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to compose game music?
An example that comes to mind is the soundtrack of Chrono-Cross. My foray into game music was largely motivated by my rediscovery of the music of the games I played as a child.
There was something unique about Yasunori Mitsuda’s music – the way he combined contemporary influences with styles from all over the world… in this one game alone I hear Celtic sounds and melodies, folk influences, patterns that remind me of the minimalist Steve Reichand complex time signatures like you’d hear in fusion or prog rock. It’s a pretty rich spectrum of things, and I found the music extremely unique and memorable back when I first played the game, when I was 13 or 14. It still stands out, and has some of the most unusual and beautiful chord progressions you’ll ever hear in a game.
Have you composed a track that feels like the result of your many influences?
This track is called “Ford the River” and is one of three tracks I made for the Soundodger game series.
I wrote this song in 2022. I think I had just finished playing Albaa really beautiful game that was inspired to create something that has a relaxed, quirky and optimistic island feel. Another island game, mutation was also a touchstone for the sound of it, as was the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, who is probably my favorite artist in bossa nova. The doubling of the whistle and piano for the melody is something that was very inspired by Jobim, who likes to use piano for melody but then tends to double it with other instruments in unison or with effects.
The sound palette offers a lot of earthy and idiosyncratic sounds – a sort of combo of boom-bap drums, fretless bass, bossa nova elements like nylon guitar, piano, whistles, guiro, shakers and then a few idiosyncratic things here and there to fill it all out.
Let’s talk about Hyperlight Drifter — What did you think of the sound for the game? What instruments did you use?
The score for Hyperlight consists mostly of synth patches that I created from scratch.
I really tried to shape sounds that I felt fit the feel of the world – lots of warm, textured, warbling sounds with organic components, things like the swooping of a pigeon or the flapping sounds of a reptile. I really tried to mimic nature and broken technology with the sounds, as the game [has] this post-apocalyptic feeling of overgrowth.
