Viva Brighton Issue #60 February 2018

GAME MUSIC
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Dear Esther
Jessica Curry, computer game composer
You’re putting on a live performance of
a video game, Dear Esther, with classical
orchestra, conductor, narrator and player.
Gaming and classical music sounds like a
Venn diagram with very little shaded area…
It’s been a really interesting crossover! It’s like
two worlds colliding in a really new way. We’ve
had a lot of diehard fans coming to the show
who’re absolutely obsessed with the game but
have never been to a classical concert hall, and
we’ve got classical fans who’ve never played a
game before. That really interests me, that collision
of such disparate worlds. I present a show
on Classic FM about game music, and that’s
been the same thing, these two different worlds
actually finding a lot in common.
Dear Esther sounds like a name inspired
by That’s Life, and the letters complaining
about shoddy goods sent to Esther
Rantzen… What? No! It’s from a song by
Faith No More. My husband, Dan Pinchbeck,
who wrote the game, loved the cadence and
the sound. He was doing a PhD on first person
shooter games, and rather than write about it,
he decided to actually make a game. I wrote
the music, and we put it up for sale in 2012,
and then just watched the sales figures rising
and rising and rising. Last year we put out a
5th-anniversary edition for consoles, because
until then it had only been out for PC and Mac,
and we had a really strong emotional response to
it. I was then in London talking about live film
events, and I met a chap from the Barbican who
programmes music events, and we’ve ended up
with it live onstage!
It’s not a typical game – exploring a Hebridean
Island, hearing a narrator’s letters to
his dead wife. No one gets their car nicked
or their genitals shot off… Before I started
working on Dear Esther, I didn’t think there was
anything for me: there was FIFA, Call Of Duty,
sporty or very aggressive, none of which much
interests me. But then I discovered the work of a
Belgian couple called Tale Of Tales. They make
very beautiful, ruminative, expressive games,
and I thought, hang on, there’s this whole world
of people doing something more experimental,
deeper, more profound. There’s some snobbery
in the classical world about game soundtracks,
but that tide’s turning, and I’m a really vocal
advocate for it. I’m involved in a Royal Albert
Hall concert later in the year that Sony Playstation
are putting on. The best orchestras and the
best concert halls are now getting involved, and
that’s great. I heard this beautiful classical music
coming out of my 14-year-old son’s bedroom
the other day, and I asked him what it was. I
knocked first! He said ‘I’m playing Destiny 2.’
That’s insane, that’s so beautiful! Andy Darling
Brighton Dome, Fri 2nd Feb, 8pm
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