10th Anniversary of Connelly's Angel of Darkness score- rarity "Paris Intro" added to Abbey Road Recordings

The 18th of July marks the 10th Anniversary of the day that composer Peter Connelly had the pleasure of recording his music to 2003's Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness with the London Symphony Orchestra, this day in 2002. Connelly's website Universal Design offers a statement from the composer:

"Although it only feels like yesterday, it was 10 years TODAY (18.07.2002) that the soundtrack to Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was performed by the highly acclaimed London Symphony Orchestra and recorded in the beautiful sounding Studio 1 at Abbey Road Studios, London (UK). It was mixed the following day (19.07.2002) by Pete Cobbin (credited as mix engineer on Prometheus, The Kings Speech, Bridget Jones, Lord of the Rings) who was also responsible for the actual recording.

As a celebration for this 10 year anniversary, I will upload all of the original music mixes, as supplied by Abbey Road, in .wav format to my soundcloud page later today." - PC

Additionally, the album Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - Original Abbey Road Mixes (2002), updated in high quality WAV format, now includes a 32nd track ; the rare "Paris Intro".



About "Paris Intro": Never before heard in its isolated form, the version of this cue that appears during the opening cinematic for the game is layered with another mock-up/synthesizer version, as Connelly deemed the LSO version weak and uninspiring by itself - a "rushed" piece. It was for this reason that it was not included in the initial release of Abbey Road Mixes.

Follow Peter's activity at any of the following places:

Peter Connelly

Audio Lead: Ubisoft / Ivory Tower

Director: Universal Sound Design Ltd (Facebook)

LinkedIn | Twitter | SoundCloud

A musically notational look at The Last Revelation's "Gods"

Co-author Tudor Tulok has commenced a purely musically-driven investigation into the constructions of the Tomb Raider scores across various media. An ongoing project, any subsequent articles will be labelled with [Musical Notation Series].

While no sheet music to any Tomb Raider soundtrack is readily available, Tulok has done his best to reproduce the composed material as authentically as possible; representing the aurally perceived themes as written score notation.

Below is our first example, from 1999's Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, "Gods", composed by Peter Connelly.

[opaque version]

Similar analysis has been completed on pieces from Alan Silvestri's Cradle of Life and Connelly's Angel of Darkness (both released in 2003), hopefully due to follow in other installments. Tudor provides further detail regarding The Last Revelation:

"The excerpt is not a direct quote of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation music, but directly imitative. We call it reproduction. The sample is in D flat Major." -TT

Additionally, an accompanying audio sample is provided below via Tudor Tulok's SoundCloud, where he urges you visit if you would like to leave him a message.

"We encourage you to experiment with Tomb Raider music. We also opened a group on soundcloud (called Tomb Raider Cloud) where you can drop your ideas to all of us; old fans of TR and TR music. We would be delighted to know how people actually hear Lara after 16 years since her first appearance." - TT

Material by Tudor Tulok. Reciprocated by H4RR7H.

Crystal Dynamics showcases Tomb Raider: "Final Days" #1,accompanied by new music from unannounced composer

The Final Hours of Tomb Raider - Episode 1: An Icon Reborn

Today developer Crystal Dynamics announced that Tomb Raider (2013) will be the next AAA game to be featured in Geoff Keighley’s “Final Hours” documentary series. The first episode stars Zack Levi and the recently announced voice talent for Lara Croft, British-born actress Camilla Luddington.

The developer diary is accompanied by familiar as well as unheard tunes from the game's composer, whose name is currently under embargo. The full press release follows the jump: