This innovative approach allowed the duo to ‘play’ the physical materials of the levels and capture the sound of the substances vibrating to the tune of Guðnadóttir’s cello, or Slater’s rhythms. “Each one was tuned to pick up a specific kind of frequency or resonance coming out of various instruments” he says. Describing one of his favourite percussion sounds, Slater talks of building a custom instrument made up of four trays, each filled with materials from the game levels, and placed above massive bass drivers. Often this was achieved though surprisingly analog means.
Instead, the sounds of Battlefield 2042 are derived from the physical materials found in the game’s levels: earth, metal, glass, and sand, are warped, stretched, and transported into the musical realm. As Guðnadóttir puts it, “All the sounds are created by us from scratch, none of the recordings existed before we started working on this” Eschewing sample libraries, the duo instead opted to build an entirely new sound world from the ground up. Though conflict and warfare are bread and butter to the Battlefield series, what really captured the attention of the two composers was the equally destructive power of the weather systems which cause havoc throughout the game levels, turning the environment itself into an enemy.įor Guðnadóttir and Slater, it was the “dialogue between humans and nature” that provided the impetus for their recording approach. When discussing their appreciation for experimental music, Sam says “When we get together, we are always really excited by the idea that you can make sounds do things” adding that, “why would you look to the familiar places when you can look for unfamiliar places?”īattlefield 2042 takes place in a near-future world wracked by climate change, scarcity of resources, and political turmoil. It was there he got his start working as the principal musical sound designer and creative engineer for the late, great Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. Coming from a similar background playing in bands, Sam went on to study experimental composition at Leeds University before his professional career led him to Berlin, Germany. Nevertheless, the composer describes it as a “communal, fun and friendly and explorative situation, and that energy is by its nature very creative”.
“Sigur Ròs, Bjork, this whole scene of people, none of us ever thought that we would ever make a living with this stuff!” Guðnadóttir recalls with a laugh. She recalls the music scene in Iceland wasn’t exactly lucrative at that time.
That exploratory approach can be traced back to Guðnadóttir’s childhood, growing up in Iceland – a place so small that only one airline flew in and out of the country and the composer could count the number of amplifiers and gear that she had access to.Ĭlassically trained as a cellist, she quickly began playing with boundary pushing bands like Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stósveit Nix Noltes.
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