I like to be on the cutting-edge of the forefront of the avant-garde of the zeitgeist, which is why I'm reviewing Obscure II, an album that has been freely available on the net for just two whole ...years. Sigh. I am the antithesis of trendiness.
Right, drag yourself away from the advert for moisturising handcream that is the album cover and take note: Obscure II is the soundtrack to the depiction of dark corridors, nasty creatures and artistic blood-spatter patterns that are to be found in the 2007 survival-horror computer game of the same name. You're now surmising that you're set fair for death metal, guttural vocals and maybe even a hairy frontman exploding a hot water bottle through sheer lungpower. Well, no. There's not even an exploding codpiece, because metal this ain't. Or rock.
The reason? Obscure II, otherwise known as Obscure: The Aftermath, is the work of Olivier Derivière, a Frenchman who has studied composition and orchestration at the Nice National Conservatoire, jazz and film scoring at Berklee College of Music, and who went on to spend a year working with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and some hick called John Williams. So expect to hear some decent orchestration. However, Monsieur D. also created the soundtrack for last year's Alone In The Dark, another (though much more popular) grim wade through ghouls and gore. So expect to hear some decent electronica. Indeed, the electronica elements (drums/guitar/synths) are meant to represent the "corruption" of the traditional instruments and vocals that form the meat of the composition.
I find that most cinema and game soundtracks sound necessarily disjointed given the piecemeal demands of the format. Ideas aren't given time to develop or suffer from compression due to the exigiencies of drama. Outcast II doesn't avoid that fate but it does contain some exquisite singing from the Childrens' choir of the Paris Opera (Latin text galore), forthright back-up from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and enough melodic depth to keep the listener happy. It's strange that I find cantatas, masses and requiems from the classical repertoire to be satisfying, even though they too are, by their very nature, programmatic, or to use the technical term, "bitty". Perhaps I'm just a fuddy-duddy. But I'll have to get used to it, for it seems that game and cinema soundtracks have now mostly replaced liturgical rituals as a source of employment for composers. For Kyrie and Dies Irae, read Training and Boss Fight.
Enough verbiage. There are no mp3s for me to link to (grrr), but Monsieur D. has kindly supplied a media player that will drive me to tears while I install it. You're at liberty to play whatever you like, but I'll recommend two tracks you could try first:
- Infested People - This is two minutes of the Boston Quartet (members of the Boston S.O.) going at it hammer and tongs. It starts off as if Shostakovich had written a 16th string quartet, goes along at a fair clip, morphs into some Philip Glass/John Adams at the 01:34 mark and ends far too quickly. I'd love to see the score released or, better still, the movement worked up into something more substantial. It's an entertaining piece of modern classical music. There's a sentence you don't see every day.
- Corruption with Rage and Melancholy - With such a terrible title, this had to be the opening track and main theme of Obscure II. It's a goodly stew of strings, ethereal vocals, electronic growls, and acoustic/electronic percussion. The voice and violin solo near the end is especially affecting. If you like this track, you should like the album.
Obscure II won the Milthon award for best soundtrack at the 2007 Paris Game Festival, and I can see why. I'd never have heard the album (which is not Creative Commons-licensed) if Olivier Derivière had not made it available to download for free, and now he has a new fan who is considering buying Alone In The Dark, all his subsequent compositions, and any Derivière-shaped soap figurines that might appear in time for Christmas.*
I apologise for cobbling together an album cover from Obscure II's game packaging but there were no suitable images to go with the zipped album file. By the way, remember that guff about composers turning away from religious formats in order to earn a living? Monsieur Derivière is currently composing an opera and a... mass. Honestly, I can't win.
Olivier Derivière - Obscure II soundtrack (zipped file only, scroll to third album on page)
Olivier Derivière - blog and flashy website
*This is, of course, in jest. I don't wash.
