Description
The image theme made me think of medieval bestiaries (books of animals) with their weird mythical beasts and crazy drawings. So this game, The Book of Nature, is about a monk exploring a medieval-inspired world where ancient and mysterious creatures roam, recording his experiences in a bestiary.



1. Monastery

Usually my songs have very defined repetitive loops, but I tried to get away from that during this project. Some of the tracks are a bit rambly but I think that makes them sound more medieval? I'm pretty happy with the organ part on this one.

2. Field of the Tartar Lambs

Pretty happy with this track, sounds stereotypically medieval which works for the start of the adventure before things start getting weird. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary was a plant-animal hybrid medieval scholars thought created cotton, if you look up pictures of it it's pretty funny.

3. Beggar's Song

I thought the player could bump into a beggar playing some music during their travels. I don't think you could actually play this on any real instrument but it sounds alright.

4. Lady of the Lake

As soon as I decided I'd do something medieval-themed I thought I'd rewatch one of my favourite films, Excalibur, for inspiration. I really like the Lady of the Lake-related parts in the film, they walk the line between being beautiful and creepy to create a really interesting atmosphere. This track is my attempt at capturing that.

5. Woodwose Grove

A staple of medieval folklore was the primitive, forest-dwelling woodwose or wild man. I wanted to make a song that just sounds like a load of woodwoses banging and scraping instruments without much musical knowledge.

6. Windy Hill Chapel

I tried to do a Chrono Trigger-style song here because I really like that game's soundtrack. Not very period accurate but I don't care.

7. The Undead March

In my head I had an endless march of undead creatures moving across the landscape, hopefully this song conjures that image. It makes my right headphone speaker rattle a bit, which I think adds, so this track might not sound as good if you're not wearing my headphones.

8. City of the Blemmyes

The Blemmyes were apparently a real culture from around where Egypt and Sudan are today, but are often misrepresented in medieval art as headless humanoids with faces on their chests. The song was meant to represent being trapped in a strange, claustrophobic, foreign city.

9. The Ocean

I think the ocean would've been pretty scary back in the Middle Ages so I tried to get that across in this track. Near the middle I put in a woman singing in the background, maybe sirens or mermaids trying to lure you to your death?

10. Sea-Monk Encounter

Some bestiaries included a fish that resembled a monk. Since the player character is a monk I thought I could have a weird, trippy encounter where a sea-monk mirrors your appearance. This track uses the earlier song Monastery, reversed and messed around a bit.

11. Yale Isle

The yale was a mythical creature with two moveable horns. I thought an island inhabited by yales could be nice and tranquil, so I wrote this track. Probably my favourite one in this project!

12. At Last, A Unicorn!

The unicorn is the national animal of Scotland so this song is vaguely Scottish. You might be able to tell I improvised it.



(Cover art is public domain, from the Rijksmuseum website)

Message from the artist
I wasn't feeling great about this submission while I was making it, I still don't think it's my best work but hopefully you enjoy listening to it anyway :)

Theme

Picture theme

How does it fit the theme?
I'm pretty sure the picture theme is ancient Greek related but I thought I'd do something different but still along the same lines with medieval mythology.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/samdgoff/sets/the-book-of-nature?si=13da67297c1d47249f8fd50c9fb782fb&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Number of tracks
12

Genre

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY-NC)

Any non-commercial project