Being a hobby musician, I approached Terroir's soundtrack quite seriously - almost as seriously as the game's visual direction and game design. The main source of inspiration for composing the soundtrack came from the concept of "terroir" itself. Winemakers know to respect the awesome power of the weather and the seasons. The cycle of the seasons has, since the dawn of civilization, dictated when we plant, when we harvest, and, on a more somber note, whether we feast or starve.
So, like Vivaldi before us, we looked to the four seasons of the winemaking regions as the core concept of Terroir's soundtrack. We composed four different pieces, each one inspired by an individual season, with its own unique mood and feel.
One of the earliest pieces we came up with would turn out to be "Autumn". Here's an early recording of the base melody from last year (this video is actually a reminder video - instead of a voice recorder, I record videos of my compositions so I don't forget how to play them).
As we moved on to developing Terroir in the summer of last year, we put the music to one side. Then, early this year, we teamed up with Singapore-based clarinet ensemble CLARQuinet, made up of musicians that have performed with some of the most illustrious and renowned orchestras and groups in the country. CLARQuinet not only perform the music on Terroir's soundtrack - they also composed virtually everything. I did have some early, unfinished and crude pieces like the one above, but it was CLARQuinet's Ralph Lim and Jerry Tan that finished composing and arranging them into full pieces. This is more their work than mine.
We were at Sonic Studios near Singapore's downtown last week, and I managed to take some behind-the-scenes footage of the guys recording "Autumn" and "Spring". Here's a sneak peek into the recording process, as well as a snippet of "Autumn", which starts after a minute and a half or so into the video. You'll notice the massive evolution from its early inception in the video above, to the rough mix below.
I think I may have been more of a nuisance than anything during the whole recording session. All in all, the soundtrack is sounding great, and it's really adding to Terroir's lovely ambiance.
Do check out CLARQuinet's official Facebook page if you wanna know more about these dashing, talented artists.
About the game: we're glad to announce that after a few weeks of heavy dev, Jenny has finished the game's Save/Load functionality. We've also wrapped up some localization (including Simplified Chinese and Portuguese, and we're well on the way with Italian and French), and have also finished almost all the game's animations. Expect a Beta a week or so before we release on Steam Early Access (most likely on the second week of May).
Thanks for keeping tabs on us. You'll hear from us again soon!
MARK
