Tom Salta - the original band of the 60s of The Man Behind Deathloop

In addition to being an elegant and innovative shooting game, Arkane s Deathloop is a tribute to the 1960s campy spy thrillers. This retro atmosphere is largely the amazing and eclectic musical partition of the composer Tom Salta. Salta is a great mathematician, sometimes composer, producer and recording artist with hundreds of filing credits, television, video games and pop music on his curriculum vitae. Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions about his score for Deathloop.

As with most video game partitions, the composer joins the team at some point after development. When [Arkane Audio Director] Michel Tremble approached me to score Deathloop, he had already created a very complete music folder (50 pages!), Not only describing the game in detail, but also with a very clear meaning of the Aesthetics of the end of the 60s he wanted to communicate with music. Once I took the time to digest everything, I then started my own research on the music of this time and came back with some additional references and approaches to discuss. Buckle of the MUSIC ADNO is based on a very colorful and varied tapestry of instruments, tones and colors inspired by my personal goal of the end of the 1960s and the early 70s. I used instruments Like Rhodes, the Wurtlitzer, the Hammond B3, the Clavinet, the Mellotron, the electric harpsichord, the battery kits of the 60s, the vintage synths, bass, guitars, ropes, brass, etc. And I have often treated these sounds so as to make them even more unique using the effects of that time. Unlike some recent partitions, there is a lot of live performance mixed with the original band.

I brought several live musicians to play on a good part of the score. In general, I composed and arranged all the music first, then I decided where the live players would be the most effective. All the guitar you hear on the partition is about 50% real and 50% imitation guitars on the keys. Part of the music features the legendary jazz musician, Philippe sistes. I have known him since the mid-90s and he played with some of the greatest artists of all time. It was too tempting not to present it in various places where he stands out, especially when they were jazz influences. It is a monster and has played several real instruments, including vibraphones, rhodes, mini-moog and some fun virtual brass games for Charlie music.

Salta is known for its sheet music for action games like Halo and Ghost Recon, but as for any talented composer, these games reflect only one aspect of his musical personality. I made tons of action-oriented games, but I must admit that I often prefer to create slow, dreamy, mysterious and tense music. This is the kind of music that really creates the backdrop of the experience, creating the atmosphere. No matter what partition I do, my first priority is to establish a global musical aesthetic with a unique personality ... a little like defining which is in the group . Once I have this foundation, I can go anywhere with. High energy, weak or anywhere between the two.

Part of the pleasure - at least for me - to listen to the music of Salta for Deathloop is to play the game to locate influences , and the composer says they were numerous. I was influenced by a wide range of music from the end of the 1960s and the early 70s. All, artists like Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and groups like Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, The doors and yes, also the partitions of the first films of James Bond and a certain music of the series Caped Crusader of the 1960s.

There is more than an hour of original partition in Deathloop, but the players will notice that there is also a lot of diegetic music in the game, a music that does not emphasize the action but which is heard in things like the Discs or on the radio. Much of it looks like music from the 1960s, but everything is original. All the diegetic music of the game was mainly composed by Ross Tregenza. I know there is a lot of diegetic music used in the game for various things like stereo systems, radios, interactive arcade play stations, jukebox, speakers, concert, parties and even on NPCs. The audio director s vision was that the partition has its own style to contrast with the diegetic music used to illustrate the atmosphere of the party. The effect has really worked well.

Each film partition or video games is the result of the vision of the composer working in tandem with that of developers, and each project presents both opportunities and challenges. For death loop, one of the problems to be solved was to create a unit from disparate musical elements that producers had in mind. A lot of time and effort has been devoted to trying to create a unified musical identity for the score. As you mentioned, many styles come into play in the partition of Deathloop, so finding a way to bring them all in a cohesive way was definitely a challenge.

Another big challenge was to create the main theme, which was the first thing I was working in January 2020 while exploring the musical approaches for the score. Michel originally imagined something very mysterious, almost like Lost meeting Mysterious Island which, on the surface, has a lot of sense based on Deathloop setting. Michel approved the theme, and everyone was happy. But after spending a few months on the game, I had a better idea of ​​the personality of the game and I felt that this mysterious theme did not capture quite the lively personality of the game. So, without saying it in Michel I composed a new main theme and sent it to him by explaining why I thought it could work better as the theme. He loved her a lot, but was naturally cautious in quick decision-making. After all, he was already approved and familiar. We had some conversations and a few weeks later, Michel made its final decision and agreed that it would be a better the main theme to use. Naturally, I was delighted and this new theme became the basis of a large part of the score. I think it was an incredible gesture on the part of Michel, and I grant him a lot of credit for his open-mindedness.

Although sometimes sound gaming sounds are published when the game is available, there is often a little waiting. Although I was hoping for a complete OST exit immediately, many pieces are digitally available in luxury edition. But stay at listening because I know that Bethesda expects nice stuff about the original band.

Check out Cogconnected s review on Deathloop here.