In preparation for its release in May, developer Quantic Dream has shared new details of Detroit: Become Human‘s soundtrack. In a unique twist, the game’s score doesn’t have one composer but three: one for each of its main playable characters. Wanting to capture each character’s decidedly different backgrounds, personalities, and functions, the team opted to have each characters’ music differ tonally—and how better to make sure the tone is different than by simply assigning a different composer to each character?
“To stress Connor’s very cold and mechanical behavior, we chose a primarily electronic soundtrack. For Kara, we wanted a music that would be emotional and moving, underlining her quest for identity, love and empathy. For Markus, we needed a soundtrack that would be epic and represent the grand aspect of his journey,” wrote Guillaume de Fondaumiere. “We were very fortunate to find three very talented composers who accepted this highly unusual approach.”
The full soundtrack doesn’t release until the game does, but to illustrate this creative idea, the three main themes of each playable character have been posted to PlayStation’s Soundcloud for a free listen. The game’s main characters are three androids: Kara, Connor, and Markus.
“We first contacted Philip Sheppard, a composer and cellist who composed Kara’s soundtrack,” de Fondaumiere continued. “David was particularly moved by a track called Wind Storm and which featured very pulsating cellos. Philip is a cellist and has been composing soundtracks for film and television for many years.”
“We then contacted Nima Fakhrara who worked on the movie The Signal (dir. Will Eubank),” said de Fondaumiere. “We were particularly intrigued by the fact that Nima created custom instruments for his projects, something we thought could be very interesting for Detroit: Become Human and Connor’s very special characterization.”
“John Paesano’s epic orchestral compositions on Daredevil (Netflix) and The Maze Runner (Dir. Wes Ball) got us interested in his work,” concluded de Fondaumiere. “His approach felt like the perfect pairing with Markus.”
All together, Quantic Dream worked with the three composers to create what will hopefully be three distinct sounds that fit within the same world. Detroit: Become Human will release on May 25 (this year) for the PlayStation 4. You can check out a short video from Quantic Dream on their soundtrack’s creation below.