From Radiohead To Icelandic Music: Nicolas Bredin & Ronan Coiffec On The Under The Waves Soundtrack [EXCLUSIVE]

04.12.2023 - 14:57 / screenrant.com

, which offers players an underwater narrative adventure, will soon have a physical release of both the title itself and a special vinyl soundtrack. Released earlier this year, the game comes from developer Parallel Studios and publisher Quantic Dream, the latter of which is known for titles like and. Set in the 1970s, follows Stan, a professional diver who takes an isolated underwater job following the loss of a loved one.

Since its release, has received critical praise for its storytelling and immersive ambiance that it achieves through both its visuals and soundtrack. The game's music comes from composer Nicolas Bredin, who drew inspiration from a myriad of sources ranging from Icelandic music to post-rock bands like Radiohead. The new vinyl release has been made in collaboration with Kid Katana records, and will showcase the title's environmentalism themes as well as its soundtrack, being produced via a process called BioVinyl, a sustainable alternative to traditional records.

interviewed composer Nicolas Bredin and Ronan Coiffec, the CEO and game director at Parallel Studios, to discuss crafting the game's unique ambiance, their musical influences, and their favorite pieces of music in .

First, I would just love to talk a little bit about how the creative process starts for the soundtrack for a game like this. Did you always know how you wanted it to sound or was there a lot of evolution there?

Nicolas Bredin: I think it's a great question because I think that because we co-founded with Ronan, Parallel Studio, when we start a new project, we really start by thinking about everything, included audio and music, so it start very early in the process. And I think that we had a reflection together with Ronan that progress according what we imagined for the game.

So we start to speak with a global vision and to give an idea at the very early step of the development of Under the Waves. The mood was really a strong, very easy, and I changed the music direction to have something more lightly because we thought, with Ronan, that we must have something not too depressive for the visual for the music. So the music progressed with the idea that we want to illustrate with the game, with the story, not something too depressive.

Ronan Coiffec: Yeah, I said that at the beginning of the game, we really decided to create a strong sound direction, music direction, but we have also decided to create rock band music added to the game. So we really start with that idea to have two contrastive kinds of music.

Nicolas Bredin: Yeah, it's exactly that. The idea, despite what I talk about, about the evolution of the mood of the music, was to combine music that could be listened like an album. Because an album narrates the