Aliens: Fireteam Elite Soundtrack is Truly Elite
Over the past few years, Austin Wintory has joined that rarified cadre of composers, constantly in demand because he consistently produces outstanding, effective music that enhances whatever game he’s working on. From scores for Journey to Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, from the Banner Saga trilogy to Erica and The Pathless, Wintory is a musical chameleon, creating music that simultaneously exudes sophistication, beauty and inventiveness while rarely sounding the same from project to project. Wintory’s latest score might be one of his most high-profile to date. For the past two years he has been writing music for Cold Iron Studios’ Aliens: Fireteam Elite, releasing on August 24.
I asked Wintory how he landed this prestigious gig. “An old friend of mine was working at Fox and called me up and said, essentially “hey, you’re an Aliens fan right? How’d you like to chat with the developers of a new game under that banner?” Pretty much a dream phone call! I was connected to Cold Iron Studios and pretty quickly thereafter was contracted to work on it.” Wintory said that he joined the project midway through development, “still early enough that I could really contribute.”
Fans of film music or science fiction probably understand that the soundtracks for Alien (music by Jerry Goldsmith) and Aliens (music by James Horner) are not only iconic pieces of music, but in many ways created a sonic palette for what science fiction horror sounds like. I asked Wintory how he negotiated either incorporating — or possibly avoiding — the well-known scores and sounds.
“As you might expect, the very first question was to what extent we wanted to invoke the Goldsmith / Horner precursor scores. The answer to that went immediately to the narrative and examining ways in which the story could hold the keys. And happily, it became clear that we could begin the game with an aesthetic deliberately consistent with the originals, and branch from that more and more the deeper into the game it goes.” Attentive gamers that can tear themselves away from the action will hear “a few gestures in particular (Goldsmith’s eerie high flute chords and echo -plexed col legno strings, along with Horner’s insistent martial snare drums), which proved invaluable in constantly making sure it felt like Aliens.”
Wintory is known for calling on a community of virtuoso studio musicians conversant in not just the standard orchestral instruments but more exotic, world instruments from the Middle East and Asia. The Aliens: Fireteam Elite score included such instruments as serpents (an instrument that went out of fashion in the early 19th century), the Armenian duduk, Tibetan bells, alphorns, xaphoons and baritone guitar, recorded by Wintory and further manipulated in his studio. “I tracked a lot of electronics myself throughout, including strange manipulations of myself speaking sequences of numbers, and trying things like creating feedback loops of the cue onto itself.”
There were some live orchestra sessions as well. “Towards the end, we did a small orchestral session (in part because of COVID and in part because I’d narrowed down the ensemble to a very precise palette with no need for anything else) in Nashville. Antiphonal cello pods, calling and responding across the room to each other, and then a beefy low brass ensemble. No mid or high-range strings of any kind!”
Many of Austin Wintory’s scores are full of melancholic, expressive melodies that resonate with the emotional arcs of the game’s characters. But Aliens: Fireteam Elite is unabashedly an action game, although there are moments of downtime between missions. “In general the ship interludes are pretty sparsely scored, often relying on no music at all. That said there are some pieces that explore variations on the main theme, and even some diagetic music! But on-mission, it’s the onslaught of mayhem, with interstitial tension and release to break things up.”
Wintory seems thrilled to have been part of this project, which allows him the opportunity to demonstrate another color in his growing palette of styles and approaches. “The whole thing was a blast to do and joy to bring to life. Even if that joy is drenched in acid-blood and sounds a bit like screaming and agony!” And when asked to sum up the score, he said “It’s basically raw carnage and muscle. Mayhem all the time!”
Check out COGconnected’s coverage of Aliens: Fireteam Elite and check back for a review of the game on August 24.