Certain games have certain soundtracks that just kill it. Michael McCann's “Icarus” from Deus Ex: Human Revolution has become the new de facto standard for all futuristic sci-fi video media – or at least, used to make any sci-fi trailer seem that much more sci-fi. Jesper Kyd's “Ezio's Family” theme sends goosebumps down the arms of gamers, while Greg Edmonson's theme for Nathan Drake from Uncharted is considered gaming's rendition of Indiana Jones' fanfare.
Joining the likes of those illustrious names for well-known titles is Civilization IV's Christopher Tin, an accomplished composer who has worked across television, video games and movie media throughout his career.
Tin has recently released a new album called The Drop That Contained The Sea. In addition to this, he's also beginning work on the brand new Civilization Online.
The album recently dropped just this month to critical praise and is described in the press release as follows...
“The album features Tin’s expert use of song cycles, diverse musicians and choirs and different vocal languages and traditional. The 10 pieces each explore a different form of water. The album features over a dozen Grammy Award winning artists including The Sowesto Gospel Choir and Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares.”
If you enjoyed Tin's work on the song Baba Yetu, the Swahili song that was used in Civilization IV and also managed to get Christopher nominated at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. You know you've made it big when a mainstream award show decides to nominate a video game theme song in any category. As noted on Wikipedia (because why not?) the song actually walked away with a win in its category, skyrocketing Tin to whole new career heights, and set the stage for him to explore new ways to compose and engineer the auricular tapestry of sound known as music.
Tin managed to win two more Grammys in 2009 with the album “Calling All Dawns”, following his surprise debut of “Baba Yetu”. The album uses ethnic vocal sounds to help bring its instrumental storytelling to life, and marked itself as another notch of success on the belt of progress that Christopher Tin wears around his waist of music accomplishments.
The new album, The Drop That Contained The Sea, features 10 songs at various lengths, and continues to showcase Tin's talents as a composer – or at least, that's what the press release says. I haven't actually listened to it myself even though we were offered a free promotional disc. There just hasn't been enough time to sink into that particular endeavor.
Nevertheless, Tin's work on Civilization Online should be exciting news to anyone who enjoyed his work on the previous outing by Firaxis and 2K Games. The trailer has – in fact – already garnered quite the attention for its striking visuals and the focus on taking humanity above and beyond the realm of the offline sphere that has been the home for single-player adventures for so long.
If you're interested in Tin's new album, you can check it out by paying a visit to the official iTunes album store page. Alternatively, if you're more interested in what he has to provide in the upcoming Civilization game, feel free to hold on to your butt and give way to the waiting game as you count down the seasons to Civilization: Online's release, scheduled to arrive on PC just in time for the holiday season.
For even more information, feel free to pay a visit to Christopher Tin's official website.
[Update: previously it was stated that Christopher Tin had begun work on Civilization: Beyond Earth, but it's actually Civilization: Online.]
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