MUSIC ALBUM

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AFC OST - EDIT: Bonus Tracks!

3 years ago - Edited 3 years ago1,217 words

This week's music album is the soundtrack for Alora Fane: Creation - yet another game I didn't finish - composed in 2013!



Album link: [LINK]

I'm really proud of this music! Though I suppose that's the case with most of it, which is why I'm doing these albums. At least some of you might remember playing this game though so the music might be nostalgic. I should do something else with AFC, some day.

The main section of the cover art was made with the AFC editor in like five minutes! First time I've touched it in ages. Interesting experience.

I was hoping to start running the Atonal Dreams alpha today, but when trying to get access keys to give out from Steam, I found that it apparently takes "1-2 days" for them to be approved, which I should have known from MARDEK and Memody but had entirely forgotten about. So that's frustrating, after psyching myself up for it! So if you've asked for a key, haven't got one yet, and are reading this, that's why! I'm hoping I might get approval by tomorrow, but I don't even know if they can be approved on weekends... ugh.

EDIT

Looking through my old files, I found quite a few unfinished scrapped pieces for this soundtrack, more than for any other, so I thought it'd be interesting to include some! I've put some on the album, while others are just linked to from this post.

Now on the album

All of these were unused and unrefined, but they're either complete enough - or interesting enough - to include in the album (so you can hear them there):

Village 3
This was meant as for imposing, unwelcoming settlements. Some really interesting textures; I don't know why I never included it. It's a bit unfinished, but wouldn't have taken much to clean up.

Silly
This is, as the name suggests, quite silly. Rather than just being clownish cartoon music though, it's 'silly' from a musical construction standpoint, with little jokes like singing in the wrong key or building up to some dissonant noise which is interrupted by a gunshot (something I also did with Miasmon's Musak track).

Path - Extended
The original Path is less than a minute long, so I tried extending it at some point... but never felt right about it because I was too familiar with the original, so this went unused. Would have been fine though!

Bliss 2
Since the original Bliss track was meant for a stoic, humourless Lawful Good paladin, or for sombre cathedrals etc, I attempted to capture the feeling of general pleasantness with this. I wasn't happy with it back then, but now I feel it's okay.

Romance (Unfinished)
I actually had this one stuck in my head last night, so there's something to it. Meant as a generic romantic theme, though at the time I doubted my ability to actually produce such a thing. Looking back years later thought, it could have worked. I like the play between hope and uncertainty.

Jig (Extended, Still Unfinished)
I love what little I wrote of this piece, and consider it such a shame I never finished it! I would now, but I feel I've changed too much as a composer to go back to years-old work. There's already a version of this on the album, but this is a slightly longer version... which is still unfinished.

Tragic Battle (Unfinished)
For those battles you don't really want to fight but have to! Another one where I feel it could have worked had I stuck with it (except for the completely contrasting bit at the end, which was just experimenting). I did eventually compose something that played the same role in Taming Dreams.

Mysterious Stranger (Sketch)
I had in mind characters like Zach from MARDEK, who you'd meet in a gloomy pub, brooding. I seem to remember it was almost a complete transcription of an improvisation with no changes or real cleanup.

Heroic (Sketch)
Similar to other themes I've composed, like Epic Quest from Cambrian Explosion, and the Saviours' theme from MARDEK (plus I think the Hero piano theme from the play at the end). Again, probably redundant if Courage already served this purpose.

Fragments

These ones were quickly scrapped and don't really belong in the album, but they're interesting to check out anyway. Gives some look into the composing process, and what gets thrown away.

∞ Adventurous ∞
Has a Zelda-ish feeling, vaguely; I think there are similarities to Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field theme. Probably scrapped because it was too similar to Courage in purpose and as such was redundant.

∞ Arcane ∞
Starts with a bizarre intro, but beyond that it paints an evocative enough mood. Rambles, though, rather than presenting a point then looping.

∞ Blues ∞
As it says on the tin. I hadn't composed in a blues style before or since, and didn't have the confidence to stick with it, clearly.

∞ Caoimhe 1 ∞
A potential theme for the totally-accessibly named (it's pronounced "KEE-vuh") character of a quest I now cringe about. Pretty enough, but I didn't feel it was worthwhile enough to continue. I often start with things like this but scrap them due to a feeling rather than anything I could put into words.

∞ Caoimhe 2 ∞
Another attempt, another failure. This one gets lost and rambles, and isn't very interesting in general (probably fitting for the character then!!!).

∞ Deserted ∞
Very spartan, but meant for places that were also that. Maybe it would have been useful for all kinds of abandoned places had I finished and included it.

∞ Destruction ∞
There's notably pieces for all the other elements that made it into the game, but I struggled with Destruction even though it's what most games focus on. Here are three back-to-back separate attempts, separated by brief gaps.

∞ Factory ∞
Starts painting an interesting enough picture, then quickly gives up. Maybe I doubted that something like this would even be relevant for the setting?

∞ Gate Ruins ∞
Meant for the Caoimhe quest, I think. Eerie, forbidding and foreboding; 5/4 time. Maybe I considered it too boring.

∞ Rogue ∞
Two (and a bit) separate - quite dissimilar - attempts to come up with something for sneaky rapscallions and such. Should have stuck with it! The first two bits could have been smoothed into A and B sections, maybe.

∞ Sawyer ∞
Several back-to-back attempts to refine a theme for this shifty character from the Caoimhe quest. Despite several tries, I couldn't get it to be interesting enough for me, though maybe listening to these back to back will give some sense of building familiarity so it won't actually sound too bad to you.