Sound Byte: Assassin's Creed: Revelations OST preview

The last time we highlighted the soundtrack for the Assassin's Creed series, we interviewed composer Jesper Kyd about his start in the industry and his involvement with Ubisoft's open-ended adventure title. In light of the impending release of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, we are giving you a sneak preview of the game's soundtrack courtesy of Ubisoft and the composer himself.

According to Kyd, he took the upcoming game's score in a new direction to match the setting of Constantinople. Because the city was a melting pot of different cultures and predominantly used Greek as its main spoken language, the game's soundtrack contains a lot of Greek influences and Middle Eastern elements. Kyd said that he added new musical ideas to reflect the story's continuation from its prequel, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

He was encouraged to not only bring back recurring themes from the original Assassin's Creed, but also bring back more of his electronic elements that brought him into the business in the first place. "The subtle electronic elements have always been important to the Assassin’s Creed scores since they amplify the idea that we are living inside the Animus, seeing everything through Desmond’s eyes."

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"To reflect the story's multicultural setting of 16th-century Constantinople--a melting pot of many different cultures where Greek was the main spoken language--I composed a hybrid music score drawing on Greek, Renaissance, and Middle Eastern instrumentation, while combining the melodic writing approach and acoustic/electronic styles I've developed for the series."

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"Since Revelations also features Altair from the first Assassin's Creed, I brought back some of his themes and rebooted these to fit with the music approach of Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. This track has a lot of live elements mixed with a mystical, meditation-type sound. The idea behind the first Assassin's Creed score was that in 1191, the assassins had fewer distractions and were 100 percent committed at all times to the Brotherhood. This kind of commitment was identified by a score that was inspired by meditation.

"When Altair becomes 'engaged' and starts his mission of tailing and assassinating his target, that's when his senses become 110 percent focused and his training and instinct kicks in. Having a meditative mood for this type of moment (instead of an epic cue) is just one of the many elements I have worked on to give the Assassin's Creed series its own kind of unique atmosphere and soundtrack."

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