Sound Byte: Gravity Rush Music Showcase

Update: We have changed the titles of the track to match the literal translation of the original Japanese titles. We apologize for the confusion caused.

Composer Kohei Tanaka is a man of few words; he lets his music do all the talking. Affiliated with the music-production company Imagine, he's more well known for composing music for anime series and movies. His history of music making stems from arranging background music for the anime Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX back in 1982, up until his latest contribution for the Xbox 360 and PS3 with the RPG Resonance of Fate.

According to Tanaka, Gravity Rush's music was made using a mixture of acoustic orchestra, electric guitar and bass, drums, and saxophone. He also brought in a Synthesound board into the mix for experimenting. Rather than following a particular style found from pop-culture sources, he intricately mixed all kinds of genres to reflect and express the skewed, gravity-shifting perspective of Kat's world.

He does his best in making sure that the music he creates cannot be found anywhere else. Tanaka also believes in the future of the game industry; he said that he will definitely revisit the video game music path in the near future.

When asked which piece in the game he had the most fun doing, he couldn't answer the question; he said it was akin to choosing which child he loves the most. We figured that it would be best to preview a few tracks from the OST itself (which you can import now from various online importer stores).

For our first pick, we went with the theme for the second hub of the game, which captures the spirit of a French red-light district.

For "Ruins", the esoteric nature of the area Kat explores later in the game is reflected from the mixture of percussion, keys, and ambience on this track.

To cap off this feature, we picked the main battle theme of the game, which plays whenever Kat encounters an enemy. Tanaka's music effortlessly jumps from a French comic and tranquil motif to something akin to a battle charge from a blockbuster movie action scene.

Gravity Rush will be out for North American and European markets on June 12 and June 13, respectively.