Amidst a desolate landscape of barely-stimulating apps made with boring train rides in mind, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (read my review here) stands as a testament to the potential for seriously expressive videogaming on Apple’s iOS platform. Unlike the fruit-slicing, bird-catapulting monotony of its peers, this Canadian indie collaboration is designed to hijack your senses, assembling visuals, audio and gameplay with synaesthetic cohesion.
At the helm of the game’s hypnotizing sound is singer-songwriter Jim Guthrie. A Juno award-winning indie rock hero who has had a hand in the rising of Canadian artists like Feist, Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett (née ‘Final Fantasy’), Guthrie isn’t normally a game composer by trade. But for S&SEP, his alternate take on the videogame soundtrack — which I still hesitate to call a “score” — offers what many examples of game music have been unwilling to dish out: Full-on audiovisual immersion via a collection of arresting interactive soundscapes. And if that wasn’t enough, his LP release for the game, S&SEP: The Ballad of the Space Babies, presents us with the other side of the coin: music from the game assembled into a collection of awe-inspiring standalone arrangements.
We chatted with Jim over email earlier this month to see what it’s like putting on the videogame composer hat for the first time, and what the future might hold as the worlds of pop music and videogame soundtracks collide.
