In the end, he found that playing it a certain way produced a dark moody atmosphere, which led to the aulos becoming the core of the underworld Vaults of Tartaros dungeons peppered throughout the game world.Īnother challenge came with the Myths of the Eastern Realm expansion that followed, which transports players from the Golden Isle to a heavenly realm based on ancient Chinese mythology. “But I then reconfigured my thinking about it, because what might sound strange to me is completely normal to someone who’s grown up with it as part of that culture.” “The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘This sounds horrendous, I don’t know who on earth would want to hear this’,” he said. While the Ubisoft title still does incorporate an orchestral and synthetic score, the authentic flavours of the culture and history are apparent with Coker’s use of ancient Greek instruments like the lyre – Coker actually had two lyres commissioned for the project – as well as the aulos, a wind instrument he admits took time to adjust to. Taking these new and unique sounds has been key to what sets his music apart from a more traditional orchestral or synthetic score, which made him an apt choice for composing music for four different world mythology packs for Minecraft, and of course open-world RPG Immortals Fenyx Rising, which transports players into fantastical worlds based on ancient Greek as well as ancient Chinese mythology. “When you grow up in a Western country with a ‘traditional’ music system, you’re going to have these preconceived ideas of what music sounds like, so when you travel to a different part of the world and there’s different scales being used, different harmonies, and of course different instruments, there’s just so much out there that is incredibly interesting,” Coker explains. And it’s not dissimilar to the Japanese mentality of the group as the most important thing.”īesides using teaching as a way to force himself to overcome his shyness that would also serve him well for conducting orchestras, living in Japan also meant he was within easy reach of other Asian countries like China and Korea, which was when he also took an interest in the various ethnic instruments of the continent. “I play the game before I actually start writing the music because it helps me truly understand what the game is all about. “A lot of people like to think of the composer as sitting in their ivory tower but to get the best results you need to be able to work as part of a team and understand all of the other elements of a project,” he says.
It’s not the most likely course you would expect for someone who had no prior real interest in the country apart from watching Lost in Translation, but as Coker explained, as I had the chance to sit down with him over a Zoom call, it had everything to do with music. Strangely enough, his approach to creating music was instilled within him after a few years of living in Japan where he wasn’t composing but teaching English.
READ MORE: We catch up with Naoki Yoshida as he reflects on the development of ‘Final Fantasy XIV”s latest expansion.Since Gareth Coker’s breakout score for modern indie classic Ori and the Blind Forest and last year’s similarly acclaimed sequel, his unique ethereal soundscapes have propelled the composer into the realm of AAA blockbusters, including last year’s Immortals Fenyx Rising.
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