I posted about this song a while ago, so maybe it’s time to do it again.
I don’t know anything about NieR or any of its variations or sequels, except for the hovering book (I’m not calling it a “grimoire” like the game does). Because of that, I can’t give a whole lot of context for the song with relation to the gameplay or cut scenes, which I normally like doing. One of the vocalist on the game’s soundtrack, Emi Evans, talked about the lyrics to this song:
The only song which has a totally made-up language is “Song of the Ancients” which was the very first song I wrote lyrics for and had been given no guidelines at all other than “imaginary language.” I think that, at this early stage, no one was quite sure how to go about creating these new languages, so they just left me to it to see what happened!
For this particular song, I listened to as many different languages as I could on YouTube and took a little inspiration from each one and jumbled them all together. I was happy with the result but really anxious as to how I would be able to go on and create several more different sounding languages.
The percussive instruments have an interesting pre-modern sound to them, which would fit given what I know of the game setting.
Listen below or load the mp3 of “Song of the Ancients (Fate)” in a new tab/window.
4 Comments
I like the drumming. It reminds me of the “Koan of Drums” from the Summoning of Spirits collection. And it’s a nice vocal duet, as well. The acoustic guitar section seemed almost out of place.
Interesting observation about the guitar. I’m not sure what would fit in place of that to be honest.
Well, the violins and whatever else was playing in the background was pretty good already.
I can see (hear) that happening.