Composing music for a film is a beautiful and inspiring job that can greatly help to add to the story what is hidden behind the visual content. With a game the process of composing is slightly different, not in evoking atmosphere but in a certain understanding of the structure of the musical units, and since the game has long since ceased to be a linear multi-medium this needs to be taken into account.
For Bohemia Interactive, where the game Arma Reforger was created, I did some work in the preparation of musical material for several titles, such as Ylands, for which Varhan Orchestrovich Bauer did the music, their annual concert at the Municipal House, or I helped my faithful friend Jan Vašina, who took care of the newer form and orchestration of songs from past game titles.
Since my approach and musical thinking seemed to be optimal for the upcoming title, the “guys from Bohemka” (Jan Dušek & Tomáš Bayer) decided to put their trust in my musical feeling and try to create something that would represent the upcoming title as best as possible.
First we worked on a few drafts of the main theme, as for me proper musical and conceptual continuity is of great importance and has an important power in maintaining the whole essence of the project. There was always a sense of why we were doing this in the first place. Arma Reforger is set in the late 1980s and takes place on the island of Everon (which is essentially a Bohemian island, both visually and in terms of feeling) where factions of Americans and Russians are competing. According to the requirements I had to outline all these nuances into the main theme, which was reworked several times, but in the end I succeeded.
There is not that much music in this game, as for surprise fights the player must not be distracted by any other sounds, even silent ones. So the music is always planted where it fits to evoke a certain atmosphere.
Many people from the music world collaborated on this beautiful project, I will mention Jan Vašina, who created and adapted themes from old game titles into amazing orchestral pieces. Also, Alexander Smutný with the whole Soundsgate team, who did the coordination and recording work. To my awesome fellow sound engineer Vít Král with the whole team from Smečky Studio, who I thank for an amazing and relaxing recording session, and equally thanks to my friend and colleague David Hysek for mixing and mastering. You can download and listen to our great work from this page. I’m sure you’ll be able to tune in to the soundtrack on Spotify soon. 🙂
Also worth mentioning is other music that was recorded together with Reforger and these are the re-orchestrated tracks Vigor, Adventure (Ylads) and Farewell…