Description
The genres in this soundtrack are folk, orchestral and indie. The game is a 2D puzzle-based platformer that is heavily story focused, similar to games like Limbo and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I used REAPER to compose this soundtrack. The plotline of the story is essentially, Cedar (the main character) grew up in a village with his mother. His father went missing when he was very little, as he was a cartographer/hunter who documented the taiga for his village's benefit. Cedar, once he was old enough to read and understand his father's maps, believed his father to still be alive given evidence in the maps. He leaves home and journeys through the forest, and the rest of the story is described through the song descriptions. Home Sweet Home is a track that plays at the beginning of the game as the player views the main character's (Cedar's) town for the first time. Cedar lives on the edge of a taiga, in a warm cozy village composed of houses hollowed out into trees. For this track I used instruments from my own home of Louisiana's Zydeco music: accordion, violin, electric guitar, a drumset, as well as a piano and some assorted orchestral percussion, to create a feeling of being home. This introduces one of the two main leitmotifs present in the game, that being the "home" leitmotif. An Ode to Wishes is a track that plays when Cedar packs rations and gear along with his trusty slingshot to run away from home and embark on a journey through the taiga to find his father, who disappeared into the woods when Cedar was a little boy, never to return. His father was a hunter and cartographer who sought out resources for his village, and Cedar, now old enough to read, sifted through his father's old maps of the forest and believes him to still be alive, deep inside the taiga. As the player takes their first steps into the forest and solves their first few puzzles, this theme plays. It introduces a new leitmotif representing "adventure/departure", which is composed of piano, celesta, glockenspiel, horn, trumpet, and various other instruments along with a choir. The track plays as a lullaby and in a 3/4 march style with the "adventure/departure" leitmotif starting it off and the previous "home" leitmotif of Home Sweet Home playing last as it fades out with a choir, representing the main character's innocence (and loss of) as he departs from his home to far away places. It also represents Cedar's wish to see his father again as the "home" leitmotif sticks around, showing that Cedar unable to let go. Just Out of Reach is a track that plays at the end of the game. After a long journey through the taiga, Cedar encounters lost souls and spirits who lead him (unbeknownst to him) to his father's grave. Cedar, unable to accept his father's fate, pleads with the spirits and forces his way into the realm of the forest's afterlife to see his father again. Cedar spots the spirit of his father and runs to him, but spirit who rules over the forest's afterlife-- a massive, emaciated humanoid creature with the legs of a deer and the head of a wolf-- grabs his father and drags him away from Cedar. Cedar races through the realm of the dead, pushing aside lost souls to reach him as the player leaps over and around obstacles.. This track is composed of heavy percussion and dissonance, contrasting Cedar's peaceful forest entry in An Ode to Wishes. The "home" and "adventure/departure" leitmotifs play under the bombardment of dissonance and battery in the form of a glockenspiel and celesta, and at the end of the piece, horns and trumpets play the "home" leitmotif, representing furthermore Cedar's inability to accept the death of his father and let go.

Message from the artist:
This is my first OST jam, and I had loads of fun working on my music and listening to others' tracks and discussing music in general. I'm definitely excited to hopefully compose for future jams and meet even more people.

Theme:

How does it fit the theme?
This game fits the theme of "runaway" as the main character runs away from home to find his missing father in the taiga.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/adri-noth-681463472/sets/cedar