Intrada Soundtrack Forum

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No matter where you go, there you are....Wait a minute! That's how it always works out.

Now a new book about Eric Chahi has been released, I finally have the answers to all of my questions. The book spends 2 pages to explain all the production of the score for Heart of Darkness, with a full picture of Bruce Broughton conducting the score.

Eric Chahi started the (very long) production of Heart of Darkness in 1992, following his Another World/Out of this World hit game. He wanted to have the first orchestral score in the history of video games and so he logically wanted to hire a film composer to score his game. He had been really impressed by the music of Young Sherlock Holmes and more recently by Rescuers Down Under (1990) and contacted the agent of Bruce Broughton in 1994 (once he had rough animated sequences ready to be scored). Bruce agreed to come in Paris to see the animated sequences and discuss with Eric. He was impressed by the game and got very interested in this atypical project and much inspired to write all the wonderful themes and cues needed. The recording sessions took place in London in january 1995 with the Sinfonia of London. Eric Chahi recalls that seeing the orchestra giving life to the score of his game has been one of the most memorable moments in his life. He was blown away seeing Bruce conducting the orchestra live.

So the score was recorded in 1995 (we finally now that for sure, the "1990" in Bruce Broughton's notes in the CD booklet was a typing mistake), the game was eventually released in 1998 and Intrada happily came 1 year later (thank god they did that!) to release the score on CD.

It took 6 years to make this game, it took me 6 years since my initial post (and 15 years since the release of the CD) to get my answer !

It's interesting that between 1995 and 1998 a number of games (though most of them in Japan) recorded with an orchestra as well. I do wonder what the actual first game to feature a live orchestra was. Quite possibly Sakura Wars from late 1996 (though only about 15 minutes, rest is more normal game synth with some songs as well), but given that there were CD games as early as 1989 (or something like that) I wouldn't be surprised if in fact HoD was not the first, just the first in the US.
It's certainly far from the first to use recorded instruments -- there's a good number of rock based game music from before hand (including Quake in 1996 by one Trent Reznor as well as stuff like the song in King's Quest VI from 1992). Not to mention 1997's The Last Express, which has a solo violin (I believe the rest is synth save Franck's Violin Sonata) which as also released by Intrada, albeit in 2000.

I guess Heart of Darkness remains the world first fully orchestral video game score ever recorded (january 1995), but I've heard some japanese games featured orchestral scores right after that, though I don't know their music. And in the USA/Europe, I only know The Lost World by Michael Giacchino which featured a (smaller) orchestra (and synth) before HoD was released, in 1997. So HoD still is the first fully orchestral western video game score, the next being Medal of Honor (Michael Giacchino again) in 1999. I would be happy to know more about the orchestral scores for japanese games from that period.

I happened to read this interesting Garry Schyman's interview about video game music :

Garry Schyman: I happened to score Voyeur in 1994 because a friend became an executive at Philips Interactive and asked me to score the project. It seemed interesting and I had a small orchestra to record the music. As it turns out it, was one of the very first video games to employ an orchestra for a game.

http://squareenixmusic.com/features/int ... yman.shtml

So it seems Garry Schyman did record an orchestral score for a CD game a few months earlier than Bruce Broughton, but with a smaller orchestra. The game "Voyeur" was released in 1993 (Garry probably got the year wrong), so maybe you have your answer Terra.