Interview with Alan Wake composer Petri Alanko

Gaming site G4 features an interesting interview with Alan Wake composer Petri Alanko. I recently had the chance to play Alan Wake and it’s easily one of the most impressive productions I’ve tried this year, both aurally, visually and story-wise.


If you haven’t tried it yet, be sure to take it for a spin! And for a lowdown on the score for this brilliant game, have a peek below:


The Feed: Tell us about what went into composing the score for Alan Wake. Were there inspirations or preconceived ideas you started from or did you let the muse of the game speak to you?


Alanko: Heh, sort of allowing the muse to recite, I’d say. It’s been natural for me to “dive into a picture”, to feel and to dissect things from it, analyzing the minor details in order to build a big picture. I always link a picture to a sound or a theme, melody, atmospheric background etc. I do believe everyone has some of that in them, in different amounts and flavors, there’s nothing extraordinary and it’s just a matter of practicing.


In the beginning we did have a discussion of possible styles, but the end result was a bit different. A lot of the score depended on the raw material, as I felt the long trees needed some scale of distance, length, air, space, and everything around the Bright Falls was more or less surrounded by mountains, bathing in sunlight. That’s an easy view to compose to.


Read the full interview over at G4.


Marius Masalar over at Tracksounds has posted a review of the Alan Wake soundtrack – and if you want to see the trailer for the game, have a look below:



Via Original Sound Version