Interview with Prince of Persia Composers Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood

The two names behind the musical voice of the PRINCE OF PERSIA game franchise come together to score the new, next-gen console version of the game which is set to hit store-shelves in just a few days. Both INON ZUR and STUART CHATWOOD share about their histories in the franchise, the unique challenges provided by this iteration of the game, and their process for working together.

Here is an excerpt:

CC: You two have both been a part of the Prince of Persia franchise for sometime. How have your earlier involvement and experiences with this world and characters influenced your writing for this project?

Inon Zur: It is very important to be immersed in the whole world of PRINCE OF PERSIA, to know the history and to evolve with it. It gives the music the same depth as the rest of the components of the game. We integrated some previous themes to connect the player with the previous games, and it helps evoke the feeling of “something new is emerging from something that we already know.”

Stuart Chatwood: The prep work I did prior to the first games played a great role with regards to my workflow and writing process on this title. When I was approached to score the first PRINCE OF PERSIA: SANDS OF TIME, I went about expanding my world music CD Library that I had been building up over the prior years. I am a big believer in information absorption on a subconscious level, so in addition to my CD collection, I often found my radio fixed to Radio Darvish on the Internet. When I worked on this title about 6 years ago, a big issue was the lack of good world music sample libraries, so I went about augmenting these with my own sampled instruments. From a character perspective, being around the Prince all these years has helped me with context, and how individual cues fit into the grand scheme of the franchise.

CC: Stuart, you've also worked on PRINCE OF PERSIA scores on other platforms (Nintendo DS and PSP) Do you try to bring over some of the more subtle ideas established in those games to this game?

Stuart Chatwood: Most of these games involve implementation of the original music form the console titles, so most often a bit rate reduced version of the original game soundtrack is repurposed for the handheld versions. In addition to this, midi translations of my cues are utilized.


Read the full interview here (includes 3 tracks from the original score!)

New Prince of Persia Game Score by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood

Composer Inon Zur's busy game schedule continues...Following close on the heals of the recent release of the high anticipated FALLOUT 3 (you can read our review of the 5 track Fallout 3 sampler here), INON ZUR teams up with composer STUART CHATWOOD for yet another much-salivated-over-title, PRINCE OF PERSIA. While no official soundtrack release has been announced, those who pre-order the limited-edition of game will receive the soundtrack! (By pre-ordering the regular edition, you will be auto-upgraded to the limited edition).

Below is the official presser:


MEDIA RELEASE
PRINCE OF PERSIA SOUNDTRACK COMPOSED
BY INON ZUR AND STUART CHATWOOD


Veteran Composers Create Emotionally Complex and Musically Diverse
Adaptive Music Score For Franchise Debut on Next-Generation Consoles

Los Angeles – October 30th, 2008 – Award winning composer Inon Zur (Prince of Persia The Two Thrones®, Prince of Persia Warrior Within®) and celebrated musician Stuart Chatwood (Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time, Prince of Persia Warrior Within®, Prince of Persia The Two Thrones®) have created a compelling and epic original score for Ubisoft’s new Prince of Persia video game. Developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, the game opens an entirely new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe in addition to introducing a fresh illustrative art style, evolved combat system, and open world structure. Prince of Persia is scheduled to release December 2, 2008.

The new Prince of Persia score features eastern ethnic instrumentation blended with a cinematic orchestral approach, combined with a different musical treatment for each of the game’s four lands. Lead composer Inon Zur contributes dramatic and majestic orchestral music performed by the Northwest Sinfonia and recorded with Arabic flutes and duduk. Zur’s compositions, which include the Main Theme, capture the complex emotional evolution of the characters as well as immersing players during gameplay and in select locations.

“Inon’s music underlines sumptuously the dramatic and the cinematic qualities of the story,” said Simon Landry, Music Supervisor for Prince of Persia. “Bringing together, in a video game perspective, tragedy, humor, violent confrontations, romance and moral dilemmas is a huge challenge but the new Prince of Persia soundtrack makes it happen, reaching new artistic heights and emotional depth.”

Stuart Chatwood, a member of the renowned Canadian rock band The Tea Party, brings his distinct rhythmic style and unique palette of world music instruments that draws upon the cultural sounds of Persia. In addition to augmenting world music library sounds and mixing his own recordings of multiple instruments from his travels worldwide, including Santoors, Sarods, Sitar, Zournas, and Tamboura, Chatwood performs ethnic instruments such as the Oud, Zourna and snake charmer flutes. The intricately layered music mechanism playing musical variations by both composers enhances the gameplay in such a way that is totally adaptive and embraces the gamer’s performance, as if the composers were scoring in real-time, following the player’s action.

“The musical challenge for the Prince of Persia soundtrack was to further push the interactivity, the diversity and the emotional complexity,” adds Landry. “The colossal achievement of Inon and Stuart’s work is to have composed such a powerful and impressive interactive musical odyssey. The complementary approach of these two skilled composers pushes musical boundaries and creates a fascinating and authentic world.”


About the Prince of Persia video game

Set in a land rooted in ancient Persian mythology, the Prince finds himself caught in an epic battle between the primal forces of light and darkness: the God of Light, Ormazd versus his brother Ahriman, the destructive God of Darkness. The Prince arrives just in time to witness the destruction of the legendary Tree of Life – an act which threatens to plunge the entire world into eternal darkness. Manifested in the form of the Corruption, a dark substance that physically contaminates the land and the skies, the Prince must partner with Elika, a deadly companion, to heal the world from the evil Corruption.