The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset
The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset
Weggeblasen
With Summerset, the second expansion takes us to the home of the High Elves. So far, we have only been able to visit them in the very first offshoot of the series, Arena, long before Jeremy Soule put his stamp on The Elder Scrolls with his well-known pieces.
When we build a new chapter, we put a lot of work into making the world sound really dynamic and alive. And we go to great lengths to make everything sound the way you think it should.
Composer Brad Derrick
This is how composer Brad Derrick describes the process in an interview with elderscrollsonline.com when a new part of the world of Tamriel is made playable with an expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online and it is up to him to provide the musical accompaniment for the whole thing. Consequently, the 14-track score sounds quite predictable. It's about the elves, so we tweak the vocals a bit, make it sound more spherical - surprise, surprise.
In the interview mentioned above, Derrick says that he added his own brass section for this album, which no longer accompanies the orchestra as a small accessory, but rather 'brightens up' the musical mood. This can also be heard directly in the main theme Even Paradise Has Shadows , which makes the Elder Scrolls-Theme (Nerevar Rising) seem less bombastic and more ethereal thanks to the brass section. The composer himself says:
Mechanically, this is not difficult, as the Elder Scrolls-theme is fundamentally simple. It's wonderfully malleable, so you can make it big and dramatic or soft and gentle. For me, it's like a Rubik's cube for music. I embed it in another piece of music and turn it back or from top to bottom. Real music nerds might recognize it, but even if you're not, you'll get it subconsciously.
Composer Brad Derrick on Even Paradise Has Shadows
While no, you don't have to be a music nerd to recognize the subtleties of the composition, it certainly helps to develop an interest in it. The score doesn't offer anything highly new or varied but, as is so often the case with expansions, merely represents another facet of the known.
Of course, it's not all just cheerful tree-hugging: with tracks such as From Abysses Below and Beyond and The Glory of Certainty much-needed drama is added to the cuddle course. And if you like it more rocking, you'll even find some electric guitar action in the cover Three Hearts Afire by Malukah and 2wei. Apart from that, however, the album is a little too lacking in accents for me. I'd rather recommend the soundtrack to SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars, whose Dun Mora strikes the same elven chord, but does so much more sensitively.
