Listen: the first thing you need to know about the music in the newest Rayman game is that itâs got some kickass virtuoso kazoo playing.
Yes, kazoo. Like, a plastic one. And it kicks a lot of ass.
That bit of whimsy comes courtesy of Christophe HĂ©ral, a musician/composer whoâs worked on Ubisoft games since 1999. Being a huge Beyond Good & Evil fan, I had a strong suspicion that Rayman Originsâ musical identity came from the same guy who created the sonic backdrop for Michel Ancelâs 2003 cult classic. One of the things thatâs made BG&E such a beloved game is a heartfelt soundtrack which punctuated every action thrill and dramatic turnaround in the sci-fi adventure perfectly.
HĂ©ral goes in a different direction here, with wacky taking precedence over poignant. Thereâs still some swells of emotion but they take a backseat to giggle-inducing flights of fancy. Nevertheless, the Frenchmanâs oeuvre remains consistent in its embrace of polyglot sonic recipes. In a game scored by HĂ©ral, youâll hear tiki lounge tropicalia, downshifted reggae funk or bamboo flute ballads. He pulls influences from cultures all over the world, making the games he works on feel more universal as a result. More impressively, HĂ©ral somehow manages not to overplay the outrĂ© elements that he seeds through the Rayman Origins soundtrack. So, the twang of a Jewâs harp, the moans of a digeridoo or the woody trill of a marimba never overstay their welcome and never feel like cheap turns of exotica.
For Rayman: Origins, HĂ©ralâs soundtrack channels the beautiful incongruity that powers Michel Ancelâs latest game. Rayman: Origins looks like it sprang to life from a sketchbookâwhich it kinda didâbut itâs powered by the cutting-edge UbiArt Framework engine. The music feels the same way: analog yet digital, primitive yet sophisticated.
âThe Lum Kingâ
This track takes high-pitched chipmunk voicesâbelonging to the Lum fairies players collect throughout the gameâthat should, by all rights, be incredibly annoying. However, HĂ©ralâs stellar arrangement lets you can hear that the cuteness generated by Lum squeakiness isnât supposed be the point. Welcomed by a peppy ukelele-and-horns interplay, the voices peak and get tremulous in a ragged harmony, which undercuts any software tweaks used to create their unnatural pitch. As the whole affair twining in and out of the percussion backbeat, the listener knows exactly what kind of fun Rayman: Origins has in store for him or her.
âDesert of Dijiridoos â Shooting Me Softlyâ
The trick HĂ©ral achieves with this kazoo-centric track is making you take it seriously. You laugh at it at first, but thenâas the drama of the rest of the ensemble masses around itâyouâre like, âMan, that kazooâs going through some shit!â And said kazoo travels all up and down the plastic instrumentâs register, even as the chromatics of the music behind it changes color several times. Our intrepid kazoo fights while loop-de-looping around Russian Volga boatmen-style chants, Spanish bullfight olĂ©s and Gregorian monk intonation. And thatâs just on the vocal side. By the end of the track, you realize it: You are Rayman. The kazoo is Rayman. Therefore, you, too, are the kazoo.
âThe Tricky Treasureâ
As with the sly kazoo misdirection in âShooting Me Softly,â the first measures of this cutâs down-home banjo-&-fiddle pairing seem to invite guffaws. But, then the cinematic bursts that punched open the song return and itâs another âwhoa, serious businessâ moment. The country western tandem snuggles up with those movie-house symphonics and in just under a minute, you get to feeling like Raymanâs become a cowboy hero.
âSea of Serendipity ~ The Lumsâ Dreamâ
All of the tracks for Originsâ Sea of Serendipity levels are great. For the most part, they feature underwater Lum scat vocals. Those get coupled with a gibberish-that-sorta-sounds-like-and-might-be-mixed-with-real-language technique that HĂ©ral used on BG&Eâs âPropagandaâ track. The fusion creates pure, infectious joy and the themes for this chunk of the game swing jazzily or urgently drive you forward. But then you get to âThe Lumsâ Dream,â where those high-pitched voices arenât funny at all. With minor synth atmospherics behind the vocalists, the Lums get out front in ethereal and haunting fashion. Itâs the kind of musical experience that stays with you even when youâre not in front of a console.
As of this writing, there doesnât appear to be an official release of Christophe HĂ©ralâs Rayman: Origins soundtrack. But a little bit of digging will deliver the tunes from the limbless wonderâs newest adventure in no time.
âThe Best Game Music of 2011â is a multi-part series highlighting the best video game soundtracks of the year.
