Friends & Dragons Original Game Soundtrack

“Lyrically epic” – those were the two keywords for me to build the Friends & Dragons soundtrack around. The inspiration for the music is aptly, and simply: the dragons. For me dragons represent fierce beauty, lost legends and mystic power – they are “lyrically epic”.

The soundtrack is a combination of live instrument recordings (violinist, cellist, ethnic flutist, male + female vocalists, guitarist & myself playing the harp) and virtual sound library instruments. The lyrics are in self-made language I call draconic.

In many stories dragons are ambivalent, not clearly good or bad – they are not merely monsters that you want to slay. One also admires them, their divine-like appearance and their unpredictable, mystic way of being. I wanted to emphasize the lyrical beauty in the dragons rather than emphazise the glory of the battle with overly pompous or plainly heroic themes. There’s also a little bit of sadness in the beauty of the dragons – it’s something out of your reach. I think this is also audible in the soundtrack.

The music of Friends & Dragons is the ancient stories told and sung in the taverns, the legends and the myths that the heroes want to relate to – the deep, lyric and mystic undercurrent for the whole world of Friends & Dragons.

The battle tracks have a primitive and wild feeling to them, with Bulgarian-style female vocals and archaic harmonies, battle calls and lots of tribal percussion. The impressive female vocals in the soundtrack are sung by a Finnish traditional music multi-instrumentalist Maija Kauhanen.

The game visual also played a big part in inspiring me. I spend a lot of time playing the game before composing. Especially the fantastic looking heroes deserve a special music made with love!