During the pandemic, I had the honor of placing in the “Quarentets” arranging competition with the Videri String Quartet. That track is now available!
I learned about this contest only three days before the deadline, when one of the finalists, Christian Pacaud, contacted me to handle the music prep for his own entry. Thankfully, not only was I able to get his sorted and well-presented, but I also managed to crank this out in a matter of a day and a half!
I immediately knew I was going to do a Bloodborne track for several reasons. First and foremost, the game has a gloriously haunting soundtrack. It’s a veritable parade of blood-curdling boss tracks, each as unique as the accursed creatures they depict. In addition, every one of these tracks translate very well to string quartet due to the gothic horror aesthetic built into the scores very DNA.
Most of all, though, the game’s themes of contagion and isolation are at the forefront of the story in this fiendishly difficult continuation of the Dark Souls tradition. Everyone is literally in the middle of a lockdown in-universe while our protagonist is forced to brave the cursed, infected streets. The parallels were too delicious to pass up.
While the choice of OST was easy, the track choice was quite the opposite. Many of the barnstormers, I feared, were covered elsewhere in the competition (turns out these fears were not justified at all!) Therefore, I thought it would help my chances – and potential variety of the album – if I were to ensure the uniqueness of my selection. Witch of Hemwick was on that short list, and it ultimately won because I knew it would translate to a fun chart for the musicians. There was also room to get weird with it, which is something I have been trying to do more often to stretch my extended technique muscles.
Anyway, here it is! You can also purchase the Quarentets album on most major streaming platforms, including Spotify.