Back in early 2013, Jeremy Soule, composer of the scores to Guild Wars 2 and Skyrim ran a Kickststarter campaign for The Northerner. The campaign details stated that Symphony No. 1, “The Northerner” (Opus 1) will mark Jeremy’s first foray into the grand traditions of classical music. This symphonic work is planned to feature live players and singers in addition to the innovative technologies for which Jeremy has become known.
The project was successfully funded and had an expected delivery date of September 2013. Contributors eagerly awaited for the promised results and received nothing until December 20, 2017. The composer shared the liner notes for this release on the project’s Official Facebook page and I have reproduced a portion of them below:
As a composer and performer, The Northerner Diaries are my virtual orchestra and choir sketches as I work towards the completion of my Symphony No. 1. The recordings represent wild and unfiltered ideas created in the same vein as concept art you might see from an artist prior to the commencement of an oil painting. At this stage, I have not paid any attention to structural and compositional forms as abstraction from “GINNUNG” or the “MIGHTY VOID” is never a predictable process. And while the musical instruments and vocal sounds are computer generated, I performed each instrument and vocal using specialized software, digital keyboards and control interfaces. This process required me to play each element individually, one by one, while I recorded into a multi-track digital audio workstation.
Jeremy Soule, Composer
The Northerner Diaries is a 12 track album that runs just under 54 minutes. We don’t know when the Symphony No.1 will be ready, but we’re happy to listen to this until it makes itd eventual debut. Look for it this Friday across digital platforms, including iTunes.
The composer also took to Facebook during E3 this year when Bethesda announced the Elder Scrolls VI to say “While I appreciate all the questions about TES VI, I can’t comment about the game. I can only confirm that I didn’t produce the music heard in the teaser that was released today.” We can’t confirm yet that the composer is involved in the music for the upcoming game, but we hope so!
Have you listened to The Northerner Diaries? What did you think of these symphonic sketches?
