MoTR wins official fansite Crystal award: Best interview (2016)

As part of the Official Fansite Program, Music of Tomb Raider has had the privilege of conducting interviews with important figures in the Tomb Raider music sphere since establishment in 2011. Last year we had a hap-hazard encounter with Ashley Revell, music editor on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and brother to composer Graeme Revell, crossing paths at Auckland International Airport.

The community voted and awarded fellow fan site Tomb Raider Source for their interview with Nicobass : Remake de Tomb Raider II, while developer Crystal Dynamics hand-picked MoTR's article for the same award of Best Interview: "an exceptional interview conducted by a member of the Official Fansite Program focused on the Tomb Raider franchise which required extensive research and critical thinking to achieve."

"An interesting and exclusive interview with Ashley Revell – the music editor on Lara’ Croft’s first Hollywood outing – and brother to composer Graeme Revell. Music of Tomb Raider caught up with Ashely in person in Auckland, and the in-depth nature of the interview is sure to appeal to fellow music and cinema fans." - Crystal Dynamics

Thank you to Crystal Dynamics, the community and our readers. The full interview can be read here.

Unaffiliated with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, McCree talks Tomb Raider Suite album Kickstarter & possible world tour

Following his initial afterwords, Daryl Baxter debriefs with Nathan McCree some days later, post-debut of The Tomb Raider Suite as the Tomb Raider- Live In Concert event in London, December 18th, 2016. On the concert itself and the possibility of a world tour, McCree had this to say:

"I personally, made a financial loss on the concert, but with the three standing ovations and all the positive feedback, it was worth it [...] it’s hard to see a world tour not occur." - McCree

The Tomb Raider Suite project was always envisioned as the concert, an album and a documentary film titled Tomb Raider: Remastered. The Tomb Raider Suite album was to see the first three Tomb Raider soundtracks re-recorded with an orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, with the resulting material to be released commercially. In regards to approaching this next step, the composer mentioned the following:

"I’ve got the licence from Square Enix to exploit the original soundtrack from the games as I see fit. Now that I’ve used the music for an event, I have that licence for seven years. So now it’s the album. At the moment I am focusing on The Tomb Raider Suite, but I’m also considering releasing the original synthesised versions as they are in the actual game.

The plan for the album is likely to be a Kickstarter. We hope to announce it in February, launch in March for one month, and if all works out we release the album in July." - McCree

When asked if returning to the video game franchise to compose, McCree stated "...we have spoken of there being a possibility of me scoring the fourth game. It could not only attract new fans, but old fans who still haven’t played the new games, but with my music". This may be indicative that developer Crystal Dynamics has already hired a composer for the next franchise instalment, an upcoming sequel to 2013's reboot follow-up, Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), rumoured to be called "Shadow of the Tomb Raider".

Read the full interview with Daryl Baxter here. Rumours of Nathan McCree's potential involvement with the next Tomb Raider (2018) film, directed by Roar Urthaug and starring Alicia Vikander, were not addressed.

Rarity: PSP tomb trial tracks from Tomb Raider: Legend

The PlayStation Portable release of 2006's Tomb Raider: Legend featured an exclusive "Tomb Trial" mode unique to the platform. The Croft Manor and Bolivia variants of this also exhibited musical accompaniment not included in any other version of the game. The soundtrack to Legend is composed by BAFTA-winner Troels Brun Folmann and these tracks have been sought-after rarities for a decade.

Via internal investigation with contributors for over two years, MoTR was unsuccessful at reverse engineering the two tracks for inclusion in our community developed discography. The next best thing are the two recordings made from the game published below this week, thanks to Treeble: