Gareth Coker has been gaming since he was three years old. The British composer, now 36, has his name attached to landmark video games such as Moon Studios’ Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps (both of which he was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award for Best Music), as well as 2020’s Immortals Fenyx Rising. He also won the Excellence In Score Award at 2021’s SXSW Gaming Awards for Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
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Speaking over a video call from his Los Angeles home on the game’s score and how it helps tell the story for the player, Coker starts with why his favourite parts to score were the boss fights.
“I guess they are like mini-climaxes,” he laughs. “In the case of Immortals, when I would send something to Ubisoft, they would respond, ‘we love it, but can you make it louder?’ ( laughs ) The game does not have too many epic boss fights, there is a lot of exploration and puzzle-solving. The standard combat is also not like the boss fight combat, so when you hear the boss fight music, it really stands out.”
Immortals Fenyx Rising is one of Ubisoft’s more quirky releases, following a winged demi-god Fenix who embarks on a journey to save her brother who has been turned to stone, and faces off with evil god Typhon.
Composer Gareth Coker during Ori and the Will of the Wisps scoring sessions at Air Studios London
Coker says Immortals Fenyx Rising is certainly one of the less serious games he has worked on since he came on board in April 2019, after Ori and the Will of the Wisps. He also believes in coming on board with a game quite early on to gain a rapport with the storyline.“It also gives you time to fail, which is helpful not just to me in finding what doesn’t work but also to the team working on the game itself.”
For the saga-like action-adventure game, Coker, a Royal Academy of Music alum, scored more than five hours worth of music, each piece within that identifiable by the region to which Fenix travels. “From Ori and the Will of the Wisps that is generally very dark in tone, to Immortals was refreshing. If you take out the light-hearted banter such as that between Zeus and Prometheus, it is still a fun game which informs how I write the music. When I do hear the voices, it does add to that.”
Speaking of voices, Coker experienced something with Immortals Fenyx Rising’s dialogue music that was also new in his career. “In each area, there were different suites of music that each had positive, neutral and negative layers. Based on the contour of the conversation, the music changes on the fly. I remember wondering how this would work, but the benefit of being on board early is, I was able to tweak the parameters to suit these needs,” he recalls.
Coker was surprised when the developers said there would even be music during dialogue which he initially considered almost “a dirty word,” and this was prominent during old school games. This custom-cut method for Immortals Fenyx Rising works especially well during positive cut-scenes, including one of the fan favourites where players meet Ares, god of war, for the first time — and he has been turned into a chicken. He laughs, “I thought ‘oh, it is time to make chicken music, whatever that is!’ It is almost like you are playing a Dreamworks game.”
For Greek sounds
Though it is rooted in Greek mythology, Coker points out the game does not take itself too seriously. “It is high contrast and high saturation. The animation is much more exaggerated, so the overall look of the game is not photo-realistic. If Immortals were so, the score would not work; it is too much and over the top.”
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It was integral that he get immersed into Greek sounds, he says. So he commissioned two lyres from a Greek luthier and had the fragile instruments shipped all the way to the United States.
“It was necessary. We did not want a hardcore authentic Greek soundtrack. The most ubiquitous ancient Greek instruments are the lyres — many different kinds which I commissioned because they each play a limited number of notes but they really have a unique sound.” Did Coker get to keep the lyres? In response, he spins in his seat and points towards the back of his studio space, “There it is!”
Coker got his hands on an aulos as well, an ancient reed woodwind instrument, for one of the musicians for the game. “It is horrendous and not hugely pleasant sounding,” he grins. “It does have a mysterious and frenetic sound to it.”
Coker used the same musical scales as the ancient Greeks. “I didn’t use them exclusively but rather the flavours of those scales,” he adds, pointing out he was still mindful of not going all-out authentic. “Otherwise the player’s brain is going to switch off as that music would not be accesible and this would not align with the tone of the story and look of the experience. I would describe it as ‘ancient Greek meets Fantasia’ and a soundtrack was born.”
CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3 – a game which Coker did not work on but admires – is an example. “The score has a lot of heavy Slavic influences, and it’s amazing. But it is blended with modern sensibilities to make it accessible,” he points out.
Player in mind?
Coker says as a composer, he wants the player to “spend as much time in the game as possible” and music is certainly part of that strategy. “One way I would describe Immortals Fenyx Rising is that it is inviting. It has that feel of ‘what’s around the corner?’. It does well with visual landmarks with this custom-built landscape and world that creates space for lots of exploration. I wish there was a book on how to do that – it would sell really well ( laughs ).”
- Another highly-awaited video game Coker is working on is Halo Infinite (Xbox Game Studios) due to release this year. He is also working on the anticipated Ark: The Animated Series that stars Vin Diesel, Gerard Butler, Michelle Yeoh, Malcolm McDowell, Elliot Page, Ragga Ragnars, David Tennant, Karl Urban, and Russell Crowe. The television series is due to come out in 2022. There is also Studio Wildcard’s coinciding game, Ark II, to which Coker lends his talents.
Do all video games composers come from a point of empathy for the player? Coker considers there to be two schools of game composers out there — one that is very hands-on with a game, and the other that is not. “Both work,” he insists. “The composers who aren’t, and this is key, usually work with amazing music supervisors and audio teams, taking that composer’s work and maybe rearranging it and putting it into the game. But the music will still be beautiful.”
Over the years, Coker has learned both of these methods but says he “likes to be hands-on with the game, which is more holistic. This is why I always like to come on board with a video game early on, as I get to talk more with the developers and get the synergy going. But ( laughs ) it is a ton of work.”
