The quiet adventure in the warm depths of Abzû game scored by Austin Wintory

American composer Austin Wintory made history after becoming the creator of the first-ever Grammy-nominated videogame score in 2012. For his relatively short career that began in the early 2000s, he managed to compose soundtracks for about 30 games and more than 40 films which paved his way to several major awards including BAFTA.

In order to immerse the audience into the warm depths of the Abzû adventure game, Austin Wintory chose expressive harp arpeggios which are often used by classical composers to evoke a vivid image of the sun's rays piercing the clear water column—which in itself is similar to the vibrating harp strings.

Looking for an authentic mood for his music, the composer spent a lot of time playing the game and gradually diving deeper and deeper into the Abzû reality which was in Giant Squid Studios development for about three years. Finally, the peaceful soundtrack received a symphonic arrangement with the string parts echoing the woodwind section to create a wave-like pulse of the underwater world.

Listen to Delphinus Delphis by the Nashville Scoring Orchestra, London Voices and Abzu Harp Ensemble:

In search of a more subdued sound, Wintory decided to use an oboe for which he had luckily discovered the solo performer by accidentally hearing a fantastic oboe cover of one of his past soundtracks on YouTube. Another color in the wide range of timbres used by Wintory is a choir featured in both mixings: with the orchestra and unaccompanied choral pieces.

Listen to Then Were Created The Gods In The Midst Of Heaven performed by London Voices:

It should be noted that the soundtrack for Abzû combines all the necessary attributes of modern classical music, making it independently enjoyable outside of the game experience.

The full Abzû album is available on Bandcamp.

Check out Delphinus Delphis on Soundcloud.