About a year ago, composer John Kaefer guest lectured a class that I was taking at the University of Rochester. Afterwards, he presented us three clips from media he had scored as an option for us to re-score for an assignment. The most intriguing was a haunting six-minute clip from ONLY, a post-apocalyptic drama starring Freida Pinto and Leslie Odom Jr.

The clip, which featured two events in the story taking place simultaneously (from two different points, chronologically), called for a hybrid of electronic and acoustic musical sounds, blending together to create a cue that had to be as beautiful and nostalgic as it was intense and tragic.

A year later, it came time for me to complete a recording session, per the requirements for my degree at the Eastman School of Music. After choosing to record a live ensemble for this cue, I decided to use my allotted time to record nine string players ten times, gradually dismissing players after each take, in order to produce a sound more expected from a symphonic orchestra. From there, flute, piano, and eight brass parts (all of which I played on trombone) were recorded and then put together with a small number of digital samples (two synthesizers, a gran cassa, and a sub bass).

I could not have had a better set of players, nor could I have had a better tech team, to help me bring this together. Out of everything that I have recorded thus far at Eastman, this ranks among my favorites.

Waterfall

After the Fall

From the soundtrack to Giant Squid's debut game ABZU, available here:

austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/abz


ABZU

ABZU: Delphinus delphis

Main theme to Pocketwatch Games' TOOTH AND TAIL, coming soon

Featuring awesome drunk vocals by Tripod! (@TripodActual)

Album will be available eventually here: 
https://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/tooth-and-tail-2

http://www.toothandtailgame.com

Cover art by Jerome Jacinto

TOOTH AND TAIL

TOOTH AND TAIL: The Food of Beasts

Excerpts from the original score to JOURNEY, released March 13, 2012 on PlayStation3, developed by thatgamecompany and produced by Sony Santa Monica Studios. 

All music composed, orchestrated and produced by Austin Wintory.

Featured soloists:
Tina Guo: Cello
Amy Tatum: Flute / Bass Flute
Charissa Barger: Harp
Rodney Wirtz: Viola
Noah Gladstone: Serpent
Sara Andon: Flute

Orchestral performances by the Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra
Orchestra conducted by Oleg Kontradenko
Orchestra contracted by Laurent Koppitz

Vocals ("I was born for this") performed by Lisbeth Scott
Text compiled by Jeremy Howard Beck

Details on the official soundtrack release coming soon! 

JOURNEY: Apotheosis

Main theme to PODE, a beautiful Norwegian game from Henchman & Goon, built around co-op puzzle solving and exploration.

Featuring Rachel Nesvig and Paul Cartwright on Hardanger fiddle, Tina Guo on cello, Kristin Naigus on various recorders and Tom Strahle on guitars/mandolin.

More info and soundtrack available here:
https://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/pode

http://www.podegame.com

Pode

PODE: Falling Upward

Dear Mother
I. 보고싶은 어머니께 (dear mother)
II. 아픔 (pain)
III. 정 - 아리랑 (Jeong - Arirang)

Dear Mother is a suite of three simple songs intended as a gift for my birth mother. The first movement is a kind of imaginary lullaby. The week after I received my first letter from my birth mother, I reflected on what it meant to me to connect with her after all these years, and this is the music that came to mind.
The centerpiece of this suite is the second movement, titled 아픔 (ah-puhm), the Korean word for pain. This pain can be likened to a uniquely Korean word, Han. Han is thought to be a cultural object, ingrained in the psyche of all Koreans. To borrow from Soojung Jo, Korean adoptee and author of “Ghost of Sangju: a memoir of reconciliation”, han can be thought of as:
“an intrinsic Korean emotion of sorrow, grief, oppression, isolation, loneliness, and resentment of suffering which leads to forgiveness and deep love... There is no literal translation [for han]. It’s a state of mind. Of soul, really... A sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet, there’s still hope.”
There is a pain unique to Korean adoptees and their mothers. A pain of knowing something has been lost but never knowing what that thing is. A pain that must be forgotten if one is to survive. After love, this pain is the first bond that the adopted children of the generations lost can form with their birth mothers, should they be lucky enough to reconnect.

"I had to keep the guilt of having to choose your adoption and the thought of never being able to meet you buried in my heart.”

The third movement, Jeong - Arirang is my own personal setting of Arirang, a traditional Korean melody. Arirang is known as the unofficial national anthem of all of Korea, and there are an estimated 60 different regional variations of Arirang. Jeong is another word unique to Korean, and can be thought of as a deep love and compassion that all Koreans feel towards one another. I remember hearing Arirang as a child and feeling some distant resonance with it. It felt foreign to me, but somehow it also felt familiar. Arirang was the first connection I felt with my Korean heritage, so I decided this setting should be for cello, the instrument that my mother plays. Omma, perhaps you gave me music, so I give this to you.

Dear Mother - 보고싶은 어머니께

Songs from the Barstool was written in 2017 for percussionist Scott Charvet. Originally transcribed onto several bar napkins, Songs from the Barstool is a rhythmically-set amalgamation of one-sided conversations I participated while bartending through my master's degree.

There's an old adage that has been passed down from generations of bartenders. "People go to bars when they can't afford therapy." During my time as a bartender, I was astounded by how many people were willing to trust me with incredibly personal information just moments after I handed them a napkin and a Stella Artois. There is a specific type of bar-goer – not my usuals, not my friends, but strangers – who often tell me these personal stories. Between my interest in Cagean music philosophy and my general disinterest in these people’s lives, I often found myself listening to the internal rhythms of their speech, rather than the actual words about their marriage. I could always tell when I wasn't the first bartender to hear a customer's story or anecdote, because in these cases, the slightly-buzzed orator reaches moments of rhythmic regularity not present in their extemporaneous conversation. When I wasn't feeling the aforementioned apathy, I appreciated these stories for their slightly-masked, yet authentic personal expressions of universal human struggle, "rehearsed" or not. 

Songs from the Barstool imitates both regular and irregular rhythmic speech patterns (highlighted by the accompaniment of bar glasses, wood blocks, bongos, and a triangle) in a fictional retelling of a common bar-side venting session. This story was written to contain generic themes and characters. Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

Songs from the Barstool

Main theme to Giant Squids' upcoming THE PATHLESS, featuring Morgan O'Shaughnessey (Nyckelharpa), the Alash Ensemble and many more! Stay tuned for more details to come!

http://www.thepathless.com/

The Pathless

THE PATHLESS: Pilgrimage

Main theme to Flavourworks' / Sony's interactive thriller ERICA.

Full album and credits:
https://austinwintory.bandcamp.com/album/erica

Erica

ERICA: Know Thyself

Composer (film/concert). Artistic Director of the MBEIQ Collective. They/them, agender enby.

Waterfall

Steven Alcon Wyrick

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