Stunning. That is all I can say. This was truly special! You are so talented! And wow, the amount of music you got into this thing, crazy! Really good work here!
Cheers!
Play soundtrack
HVIT - Heave, Ho!'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Listenability | #1 | 4.350 | 4.350 |
| Composing Quality | #1 | 4.500 | 4.500 |
| Execution | #3 | 4.300 | 4.300 |
| Overall | #4 | 4.083 | 4.083 |
| Correlation to Theme | #6 | 3.950 | 3.950 |
| Innovation | #7 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall Uniqueness | #7 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
http://soundcloud.com/nova-607800663/sets/hvit?si=a95e48c80bf44ece947c3205710c55b9&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Description
Heave, HO!! Will you brave the snow, recover what was lost, regret it no mo?
Screenshot of DAW
in the project! :)
Comments
Great stuff like always! (also jealous of your work ethic, as always 😂)
re: EinelTheFox's comment, I'm a firm believer in not falling in to "tropes" in regards to cultures and trying to do your own take on them instead of just going "the theme is in russia, so here's some balalaika"😄.
That said, I think hearing your take on some more mellow/soft stuff would be cool to listen to on a jam, since you usually do pretty energetic/powerful stuff.
Stellar work!
Submitted
Long Road HomeI like that you did some singing!
Keep up the singing, you're getting better at it. There was a little bit of off key - it's harder to sing on key when you have headphones - this is a trial I went through (and still go through). I just do a lot of practice here and there, literally just singing intervals as quickly and accurately as I can, especially in the car when there's nothing else to do.
Great stuff though, I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Hvit
There's such a strong sense of drama and gravitas to my ears that sets a great tone for the rest of soundtrack. I can almost feel the weight of the quest about to begin.
Lengsel
Nice continuation from the tone of Hvit - the bass underneath the sparse arrangement creates an atmosphere that is sooo haunting and I think it does well at painting the picture of an empty, but still dangerous landscape.
Sakte
I can see this being a neat piece of music underneath some opening dialogue when you first enter the game. To me it actually fits the tone of the original folk tale quite nicely. My only critique here is that the section starting around 1:20 felt a little too bright for what this piece might be intended to represent, in my opinion. It's neat for a brief change in color, but I think the move back to that minor key sound was a little more fitting based on everything I've heard up to this point.
Kjærlighet Er Tapt
First off, that's a killer title. I really like the time signature used here - there's a dance-like quality to this that I think is very fitting for a lover's theme. Also it makes more sense to me that there was a slight tinge of dissonance in this to my ears. I had to check the translation of the title before I finished my comments on this piece 😅
Kolossen
I don't have a whole lot of notes for this one - the percussion was nicely orchestrated and the piece as a whole fits its function very well.
Nattravnen
Was definitely not expecting distorted guitar for this submission, but it was very nice change in tone as was the use of some interesting time signatures. I think I liked this one a little bit more than the land combat.
Kjaerlighet Erobrer
To me this was the most interesting piece of the bunch, because this was NOT the ending I was expecting from this soundtrack. While this piece is title "Love Conquers" (or something similar), it still has this dark quality to it that Kjærlighet Er Tapt also possessed. Perhaps this is contrary to what the title implies, I hear this being something of a boss fight. Like our protagonist's lover has changed somehow and is now hostile, or perhaps we were too late in saving them. I'm not sure if any of this was your intention, so please correct me if I'm wrong!
Overall I had such a blast listening to your soundtrack - there's such a wonderful, well-polished story being told here that I'm glad you shared with all of us. There is so much about this that I could talk about, so hopefully some of my comments make sense! Keep up the great work :)
Submitted
WindWardThis whole album is as crisp and refreshing as a 3AM ice-cold glass of water, holy mixing. I really don't have anything I can say, it's an incredible, comprehensive journey that may have given me a full beard and the sudden urge to pick up a sword.
Submitted
Foreign WindsThis sounded really clean and professional, well done!
I liked the singing/vocals in the last track, definitely made for a nice conclusion.
Submitted
Voyage Across AntarcticaThis whole project just floored me. I’m at a loss for words about the overall way it sounds.
Some melodies may sound a little too eastern-like for the context but it’s a minor, almost insignificant nitpick of mine.
Gigantic work!
Submitted
Icy Midnight SunExcellent work! Like your posts on the discord channel already promised. The sound is dens and grand with a lot of action. And every song has its own identity. The sheer amount of work and time that you must have mustered are astonishing. But it most definitely paid out. Also, great addition of vocals in the last song.
If I had to nitpick - and yes it is nitpicking in the highest order (which won't be part of my voting). I would have loved to hear more ambient noises and a less bombastic sound. For the song titles suggest a more Scandinavian feel and sound. At least in my experience the scandic sound is more raw, fragile and in that way very bittersweet. Look at Olafur Arnalds or even Arvo Pärt or just the paintings of Edvard Munch. Their art reflect the nature of their lands with a certain reverence.
But like I said, this is nitpicking in other worldly magnitude and your work deserves otherwise nothing but praise. But the scandic music and art is very dear to me, so I needed to rais my thought. Sorry if it sounded overly negative.
Submitted
For I've been wandering in circlesHeya Einel, thank you so much for your feedback! I appreciate the compliments but your feedback and critique was excellant and I'm so glad you spent the time to write it out!
To give you more of my thought process before I answer your critiques, I found myself pulling from composers that, to me, gave me a bombastic yet chilly quality to their compositions. I gravitated towards Jewish composers from the 1900s, such as Mahler (who likes to realllly pull his punches and let resolutions take a measure or two more), and Japanese composers like Taku Iwasaki for his arrangement of quick string stacattos and percussion. I wished to use this project to practice string orchestration, which is something I have not really done before and would consider myself a total beginner at.
However, after listening to a few tracks from the composers you supplied, I can see that I missed the mark when it came to creating an album that actually captures the nature of the trek for yourself - there's a mysticism and longing that isn't captured by the tracks I chose as reference, as "chilly" as their writing can be. Some of my references came a little closer to tracks like "Happiness Does Not Wait" but the way in which I wrote prevented me from writing more long-form, ambient tracks. I admit that I struggle to write music that sounds like that - I often revert to more energetic (postive energetic?) tracks as I'm more familiar with the qualities they need when writing.
In the future, should we have another jam that skirts nearer to this culture, I will try and do better with regard to the reference material by finding music made by those within the culture itself. Thanks again for leaving your comment!
I can see where you're going and appreciate the time to show how you approach this task. Please let me emphasize that my critique with the truthfulness of scandinavian music is quite blown out of proportion and wasn't anithing to be negative about or taken too serious. It was just something that nagged me a bit, since I feel quite connected the this culture and form of art.
Getting the context with Gustav Mahler. YEAH! He was pretty bombastic! Might even say he is the father of modern ScyFy music
[Edit] somehow i‘ve managed to mix up Gustav Mahler with Gustav Holst. Sorry for that. Might even take the time and give a listen to Mahler a bit more
Defenetly need to give your music a nother listen.
And surely we will see eachother in some other Jam. I will hope so and am eager to see what you coming up next. :)
Really loved this! You've got such a confident control over your medium and it really shows.
Been bookmarked to come back to for a second listen to come back to and really see what I can learn from it. Were the various sound effects made yourself or are they samples from somewhere?
Submitted
Lost in the SnowThis is amazing, I can imagine a triple A title with this music. something like horizon zero dawn, I aspire to have the skill you have Great Work :)
Submitted
Lost in the Snow
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