Somehow more incredible than Ged’s ability to re-arrange these songs during a pandemic, is his story of how these pieces ended up in the game in the first place. Iain Ghlinn Cuaich, Am Braigh Uige, and Cha D’ Fhuair mi’n Cadal feature Eilidh Cormack on vocals, Ali Hutton on whistle, and Brian McAlpine on Harmonium. The three re-orchestrated tracks feature many Scottish influences like the clarsach, fiddle, and of course, Gaelic vocals. This self-funded project proved to be a love letter to Scottish traditional music. So I ended up just writing stuff around the vocals and trying to make the orchestration feel that it was kind of ebbing and flowing with the emotion of the vocal so it’s been a real eye-opener for me.” “It was quite a challenge to start with because there was no time signature, there was nothing to hang yourself on when you’re composing apart from the emotion that’s in the voices. However, when lockdown hit, Ged decided that he would revisit his work with the latest orchestration and sampling tools to bring the ancient Gaelic songs from The Bard’s Tale into the modern era. Simple Minds have released many hit singles, with “ Don’t You” topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA when it released in 1985. In recent years he’s joined the legendary Scottish band Simple Minds as their bass player. As one of the founders of Dundee’s Danny Wilson, he found chart success with ‘Mary’s Prayer in 1987, before entering the games industry as a composer, musician, and producer. Grimes has had a hugely successful career as a musician. So I started thinking, right, how would I orchestrate this just around the vocals.” Some of the stuff that appears in the game only really had the voice with no instrumentation behind it. “There was so much music that I produced for The Bard’s Tale. “I’d dabbled a wee bit in orchestration on some of the other work that I did for games”, he told us. Ged Grimes in his element – which he hopes to return to soon! Initially scoring Earthworm Jim 3D, he was later approached by InExile and was asked to help with their return to the Bard’s Tale series.Ī couple of years and lockdowns later, Ged has returned to his work on the game and given it an entirely new lease of life. Ged Grimes, best known for his work with bands Danny Wilson, and more recently Simple Minds, has been arranging video game soundtracks since the late 90s. ![]() When stumbling upon a town called Skara Brae, however, a haunting Gaelic tune would start to play.ĭespite being completely unknown to video game culture, ancient pieces of traditional Scottish music had a major impact upon the game thanks to a studio based on the other side of the planet, and the publisher’s wisdom in recruiting a Scotsman to arrange their game’s soundtrack. True to the series’ form, these heroes were guided through their journey by songs and melodies of elder days. The game saw its player lead a band of heroes through a mysterious celtic land. Back in 2018, InExile Entertainment released The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep.Īfter a 30 year hibernation, the dungeon crawling franchise had finally been given a revival.
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