Here's a beautifully melancholic video game soundtrack. With Child of Light (2014) nearing its 10th anniversary, we're taking a look at a key component in its brilliance.
The music was by Cœur de pirate (Béatrice Mireille Martin), the francophone Canadian composer from Montreal.
Her music adds a deeply melancholic edge to the game's RPG focus, with lots of brooding piano pieces and the like. We love it and we're here to celebrate it.
Melancholia and Poignancy Galore in the Child of Light Soundtrack
In Child of Light you take control of the young lady Aurora, wo sets off on a magical and poignant adventure.
The music is very evocative of the passage of time. As you play, taking in all incredible watercolour art style, you feel like you're in a dreamy landscape from Medieval times.
Nostalgia is be ever-present as a theme, too, most notably with the often repeating central theme music of the game.
What seemed to help the creative process here was Cœur de pirate's then recent birth to a daughter. Bearing in the mind how young Aurora is in the game and you've got a mother-daughter parallel going on there.
Of this, in 2016 the composer noted:
"Obviously what I do now, I always think about her, my daughter. I want to do a project that will empower her. It's either Coeur de Pirate or the stuff I do on the side — it has to mean something for her."
There's a strong fairy-tale theme to Child of Light, too. Kind of whimsical, but always leaning towards more adult themes. The game is no Disney cartoon time of it (in the studio's more family-friendly moments, we mean, not a Bambi way of it).
Aptly enough, seeing it's winter as we type this and it's bloody cold, there's a sense of wintery cold over all of the pieces.
Child of Light has its dramatic moments, usually during boss fights and the various turn-based battle sections. This made us realise the music has a sense of purpose.
Aurora is on her coming-of-age journey and overcoming the odds to become her true self. That kind of thing.
We must note, it's still quite uncommon to find female composers in the video game landscape. In our best indie game soundtracks guide, most of the inclusions are men.
This is simply as we've found most soundtracks on games to be by men.
That's improving a lot as time passes, but it's a shame to miss out on a more diverse range of talent. The gaming industry is very male driven (in part, of this was traditionally seen as a male pastime only).
A decade on from the Child of Light soundtrack stands out as a reason why to let more women have this opportunity.
Cœur de pirate was very young when she composed the music for Ubisoft Montreal, she's still only 34 now a decade later.
That makes it all the more impressive to have that creative power in your early 20s. And we're thankful, too, to have such music gracing Child of Light.
It's still a fantastic little game and the music is a big part of that.
A Little Bit About Cœur de pirate's Creative Processes
Cœur de pirate had worked as a singer-songwriter on pop songs up until 2014. But Ubisoft recognised her talent as a composer and brought her in.
She explained in a 2016 interview with Pop Matters:
"I was really there from the beginning; when they contacted me they only had blue boards, you know, and they were, like, we need four main theme songs for the four worlds, we need three declamations — because we need a battle theme, a boss theme, a walk theme – a different declamation for a different world. It was a lot of work, but I'm really glad I got do it, and it's very moving when you get to see your work on – especially in that video game."
Keeping in mind, though, this wasn't her project.
She was employed by Ubisoft Montreal to do the job, so had to follow what the developers were looking for. In another 2016 interview, this time for Love is Pop, she said:
"It was composing instrumental tracks. They would bring out certain guidelines that I needed to respect. In doing the music for a videogame, it's very particular. It's not like a movie or anything. It's abstract. It was in the beginning of the process of developing of the game. So, I didn't have anything to base myself on. Just mood boards. It was hard but I'm really glad I got to do it and I'm really happy that they got to see this side of me. Just not the singer, the person who actually knows how to write music."
You can tell the journalist (Michael McCarthy) for Love is Pop isn't a fan of gaming and has little knowledge, spelling video game as one word. Then asking her:
"Did you have any reservations about doing music for a videogame or are you a big videogame fan?"
Seriously, man, some basic research! Three instances of the wrong spelling.
It's quite common amongst non-gamers, we've noticed online, to have a snide attitude. To view gaming as inferior and not a proper hobby or not proper music. Maybe we're reading too much into it, but as video game music gains in popularity we hope it gets the respect it deserves.
And Cœur de pirate has played her part magnificently there.
She responded by saying it was "part of her background" and she's a fan of the RPG series Final Fantasy and the indie game Journey (2012).
Unfortunately, since 2014 she hasn't worked on any other video game soundtracks. Which seems like a waste of talent. We'd like to see a developer out there employ her again for a new project.
Not that she's had nothing to do.
Since this soundtrack she's worked on her solo albums, with two launching in 2021: Perséides and Impossible à aimer.
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