If you're playing Red Dead Redemption 2, chances are you've fallen in love with its audio accompaniment. The musical soundtrack alone is a dynamic wave of emotion ranging from heart-pounding to serene to mischief to trepidation, all of whch can change on-the-fly, dynamically, based on what you're doing.
Rockstar has today revealed in-depth details around how they built this sonic swoon, which features a number of big names working exclusively on what is one of the best soundtracks ever created for games.
Here's what Rockstar officially revealed:
Red Dead Redemption 2 features an interactive, dynamic score composed by Woody Jackson. Rockstar fans will already be familiar with Woody’s work on the original Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Grand Theft Auto V with Tangerine Dream, The Alchemist and Oh No.
The score features additional production and arrangement by Jeff Silverman (Truth and Soul, Aloe Black), with additional musical score and orchestration provided by Colin Stetson (Bon Iver, Hereditary), David Ferguson (Johnny Cash’s engineer), David Ralicke (Beck, Sons of Anarchy), Gabe Witcher (Punch Brothers, True Detective), Luke O'Malley, Mario Batkovic (of Geoff Barrow’s Invada), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf, Iggy Pop, Bonnie Prince Billy), Rabih Beaini and Senyawa, as well as contributions from over 110 other musicians including Arca (frequent Bjork, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Kelela collaborator), Duane Eddy (Lee Hazlewood protégé), Jon Theodore (former drummer of Mars Volta and current Queens of the Stone Age drummer), Michael Shuman aka Mikey Shoes (Queens of the Stone Age, Mini Mansions) and more.
All of the vocal moments in Red Dead Redemption 2 are produced entirely by Grammy Award-winner Daniel Lanois, known for producing albums for Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson as well as collaborating with pioneering musician Brian Eno to produce several albums for U2 including the multi-platinum The Joshua Tree. In addition to Lanois' production, the soundtrack features additional vocal performances from a range of award-winning artists including D’Angelo, Willie Nelson, Nas, Rhiannon Giddens, Josh Homme, plus an additional track written, produced and performed by David Ferguson. All songs for both the score and soundtrack were created exclusively for Red Dead Redemption 2.
Stay tuned for more information including on the forthcoming Red Dead Redemption 2 official soundtrack release.
In our own Red Dead Redemption 2 review we wrote of the soundtrack that "This is no longer
Ennio Morricone-
esque, this is now pure Red Dead Redemption -- a symphony of banjos, violins, harmonicas, guitars, drums and more not trying to emulate the
Spaghetti Western. A soundtrack that dynamically works to fill the player with mood and purpose, to relay a sense of romanticised proprietary..."
Rockstar has also promised that more details will be revealed at a later date regarding a standalone release for the game's soundtrack, and I honestly can't wait.