Returning to my Japan Times column for "Ghost of Tsushima"
Soundtrack to Ghost of Tsushima stands out for its seamless blend of musical influences
The Japan Times
Here in the middle of 2020, a terrible year by nearly every measure, cultural authenticity is the name of the game. Pretending to be what you are not will get you canceled in a TikTok minute.
Fortunately for Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and developer Sucker Punch Productions, they have just released the year’s most celebrated transcultural video game, Ghost of Tsushima. The last major title created exclusively for Sony’s PS4 console platform and already a money-spinning international hit, Ghost of Tsushima earned its online street credentials through painstaking research and collaboration.
The game’s stunning visual depiction of feudal Japan under Mongol invasion in the year 1274 is rendered so convincingly that it has won praise from industry critics both here (Weekly Famitsu gave it a coveted perfect score) and abroad, as well as near-unanimous thumbs-ups from gamers on social media. The estate of the late director Akira Kurosawa, a seminal master of samurai epics, granted naming rights for a special “Kurosawa mode” of gameplay in grainy ’50s-style black-and-white.
But what casual players may find most impressive is the game’s culture-meshing soundtrack.
Two composers, England’s Ilan Eshkeri and Japan’s Shigeru Umebayashi, blend Western orchestral ensembles with artists of traditional Japanese instruments — the biwa (lute), shakuhachi (bamboo flute), stringed koto and shamisen, and taiko drums. Japanese-Scottish singer Clare Uchima adds soaring Japanese vocals and hushed line readings, while Radik Tyulyush, a musician from the Republic of Tuva, performs traditional Tuvan throat-singing chants.
The process of writing, recording and implementing the music took over two years and spanned three cities: Tokyo, Los Angeles and London.
Recording session at AIR Studios, London
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