Celeste at the World Soundtrack Awards

The honors just keep coming! This time I had the pleasure not only of arranging Lena Raine’s iconic music from the indie game Celeste, but also had the pleasure of e-meeting her and collaborating a bit!

The brilliance of this music is apparent, but what was less apparent was how I was going to approach arranging this for live players, given its reliance on synth and the unique compositional opportunities that presents. She was adamant that she didn’t want a medley and instead wanted me to focus only on the main theme, featured in First Steps and Reach for the Summit.

So from there, I decided to really delve deep into orchestration for First Steps, giving pretty much everyone a chance to shine. Reach for the Summit required a more direct approach, because there are actually strings in that bit, and the chugging ostinato works just as well in a live context. You’ll note I added things like a wind machine and brass players blowing through their instruments during the transition, which was fun. A lot of orchestration and arranging inspirations went into this one, but the biggest I would say are the amazing piano arrangements by Trevor Alan Gomez.

And of course, I couldn’t end without using a Celesta. It is Celeste, after all. 😛 And to my everlasting joy, the performance was recorded! That’s below. Enjoy!