anything with ‘star’ in the title really. It’s a time-tested marriage that pushes both elements to their zenith.
Kerley admits: “You’ve really hit the nail on the head with those classic titles! I’ve always loved the combination of orchestral music and science fiction. And there’s even a pinch of Goldsmith’s Alien and Horner’s Aliens thrown in for good measure.
A dash of the Star Trek film soundtracks here (especially those by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner) a splash of John Williams’ Star Wars there.
It’s especially fun for a sci-fi movie fan to pick out some of the influences on Kerley’s score. and, ultimately, to enhance the story without that burden of genre expectation.” “While many who played the original game back in the ‘90s might consider it as the very definition of cyberpunk, the backdrop to Beyond a Steel Sky is essentially ‘post-cyberpunk.’ I was able to focus on capturing the tone of each location, conversation, cinematic, etc. With the concept behind the Steel Sky games being so original in itself, there wasn’t any pressure for things to sound a certain way stylistically, which is liberating for a composer. So much so that they don’t hold much musical meaning for me. “The descriptors ‘cyberpunk’ and ‘science fiction’ get thrown around a lot. The music was being used to such great effect within an interactive environment, and it turned me on to the potential of game music.”Įven with the cyberpunk legacy looming large, Kerley was unflustered. “Those scores inevitably leaned towards orchestral palettes, and they also boasted the compositional depth and rigour of the classical and film music I was hearing. Whilst video games were part of Kerley’s upbringing, it wasn’t until he played a few MMORPGs (including Guild Wars ) that he began to notice the music. It was through PitStop that the sequel to a certain ‘90s point’n’click title fell into Kerley’s lap. “Sitting in the control room at AIR Studios, London and listening to Nicholas conduct the hundred-strong session orchestra cemented my ambition to write and orchestrate music professionally.”Ĭoncurrently, he was also working at audio services outfit PitStop Productions, cutting his teeth on a range of projects including PSVR game The Persistence.
Thanks to that opportunity, Kerley’s eyes were opened to the speed, workflow and quality that was expected during a big budget movie production. By his final year, he found himself working as a score programmer and orchestration assistant on Andy Serkis’ Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, working under legendary orchestrator and conductor Nicholas Dodd (who went on to conduct a large chunk of the Beyond a Steel Sky score. I was also trying to get my fingers around the trickiest piano, sax, and synth passages I could find - from both classical music and prog metal!ĭuring university, Kerley realised that composing for media (film, TV, video games, etc.) was the best option, career-wise. “I distinctly remember neglecting almost all of my school work, choosing instead to spend countless hours fiddling with sample libraries and plugins. I began learning the saxophone as soon as my hands were big enough and proceeded on to the piano and music production. Music has always been part of Kerley’s life: “I can’t remember a time where I didn’t want to be a musician. Stream and buy digitally the soundtrack to Beyond a Steel Sky : Spotify | All links: /BeyondaSteel We caught up with the young composer Alistair Kerley, who was responsible for the game’s majestic orchestral soundtrack. The long awaited sequel Beyond a Steel Sky launched in 2020 on Steam and Apple Arcade with art direction by Dave Gibbons, legendary comic book artist behind Watchmen. At the time of writing, CD Projekt’s behemoth video game Cyberpunk 2077 is on the very near horizon. The major genres include ‘post-apocalyptic’ (with or without zombies) monsters, vampires and werewolves Tolkein- and Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy various flavours of science fiction and, since the late ‘70s, dystopian visions of where our society is headed, known as ‘cyberpunk’.Ībsorbing and charming, Revolution Software’s 1994 point’n’click classic Beneath A Steel Sky earned its place in the cyberpunk canon alongside works including the Judge Dredd and Akira comics/manga novels Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (and the latter’s film adaption, Blade Runner ) and tabletop games Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun. In the 2020s, audiences have become all too familiar with the broad categories of fictional settings. Laced With Wax interviews Alistair Kerley - the UK musician tasked with scoring the follow-up to cyberpunk point’n’click classic Beneath a Steel Sky.