Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.04.2018, Qupperneq 14

Viking Choir
Of War
Icelandic choir scores soundtrack
for legendary video game

Words: Phil Uwe Widiger Photo: GOLLI
Schola Cantorum, the chamber
choir of Reykjavík‘s prominent
Hallgrímskirkja, will be featured
on the soundtrack by Bear
McCreary for Sony‘s upcoming
video game “God Of War”, which
is set for release on April 20th. It is
the newest offspring of the award-
winning action-adventure series
of the same name. As Billboard
reports, the soundtrack features
an orchestra with 50 strings, 17
brass and six low woodwinds, in
addition to the Icelandic 22-singer
choir and another 48-singer choir
from Prague.
Linguistic advantage
It all started a year and a half
ago when L.A.-based film score
composer Veigar Margeirsson
recommended Schola Cantorum
to the “God of War” game-crew.
“The main reason why they asked
us to do this was because the lyrics
are in old Norse, which is very
close to the language of the Icelan-
dic Sagas,” explains choirmaster
Hörður Áskelsson. “Icelanders are
able to pronounce the words and
sounds. One of the members of the
choir, Björn Thorarensen, helped
them to translate the lyrics.”
Roaring basses
After a trial session, the music
producers decided to go with the
Icelandic choir all the way. The
actual recording sessions lasted
one day and required maximum
effort. “We had very little time to
prepare,” Hörður recounts. “We
got the scores very late, almost
the same day that we were record-
ing. We could not really rehearse
much before and Björn was partly
translating during the ongo-
ing recording sessions. Also, the
basses of the choir had to sing
very, very low. It was a completely
new experience. This was the first
recording where the technicians
were sitting live in the studio in
L.A. while we were recording the
music in the studio in Reykjavík,
side-reading the scores”.
In a Youtube video released by
PlayStation, lead music producer
Peter Scaturro explains that they
“recorded the Icelandic choir first
because we wanted to have the
authenticity of the pronunciation
of the lyrics”. Afterwards, another
choir in London, specialised in the
low bass notes, was recorded on
top of the “sonic blueprint” created
by Schola Cantorum.
A well-kept secret
After the recording sessions ended,
the choir was told to keep quiet
and did so for a whole year until
news finally broke in early April.
The God of War series is consid-
ered to be one of the best action
games for the PlayStation console
and has sold more than 21 million
copies worldwide. Seven games of
the franchise have already been
released across multiple plat-
forms. Composer Bear McCreary
is renowned for his scores for the
popular TV-series The Walking
Dead and Metalocalypse, amongst
others. “The composer himself
was with us during the record-
ing sessions. He was very pleased
working with Schola Cantorum.
If this game will be a success it
means that we will likely have to
sing more music when the game
needs more material,” Hörður
figures.
It seems that in the close future,
Iceland will not only be well-known
for puffins and smiting England
in the UEFA Euro 2016, but also
for scoring on a celebrated video
game. Keep it coming, Icelanders,
keep it coming.
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06 — 2018
Schola Cantorum, Hallgrímskirkja’s chamber choir
A choir practice, or a scene from the video game? YOU DECIDE.