Journey, by Austin Wintory

Journey by Austin Wintory, released 19 July 2013 1. Nascence 2. The Call 3. First Confluence 4. Second Confluence 5. Threshold 6. Third Confluence 7. The Road of Trials 8. Fourth Confluence 9. Temptations 10. Descent 11. Fifth Confluence 12. Atonement 13. Final Confluence 14. The Crossing 15. Reclamation 16. Nadir 17. Apotheosis 18. I Was Born For This Before I say anything about JOURNEY, I want to use these pages to call special attention to what, for me, is most noteworthy about the music: the brilliant musicians responsible for bringing it all to life. Amy Tatum (flute/bass flute); Charissa Barger (harp); Rodney Wirtz (viola); Noah Gladstone (serpent); Sara Andon (flute); Lisbeth Scott (vocals); Oleg Kontradenko and the Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra; and at the heart of it all, cellist Tina Guo. I often say that my music isn’t music until a musician has gotten their hands on it but never was that more true than with this score. Beyond my inexhaustible praise for the musicians, I am not sure that I’ll ever be able to properly articulate the impact JOURNEY has had on my life. The ambitions thatgamecompany had for this game were immense and extremely exciting. This was the sort of game I’d dreamt to be a part of my entire life, especially as an adult. And yet as ready as I felt, as it turned out, their dream to create a game which fostered a genuine connection between two disparate people required a tremendous amount of soul searching on my part, and all of my convictions about music and composing were called into question. For the longest time (out of a total three years spent working on it!), I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to rise to the occasion and deliver on a level remotely on par with what thatgamecompany was creating. And truthfully, I remain unsure, despite the deeply humbling and exhilarating response from players. But therein lies the lesson I feel I’ve learned from this experience. We all love to throw around clichés like “life is about the journey, not the destination,” but I don’t think I had ever truly internalized that until working on this game. I am most proud and excited about the process I underwent in contributing to JOURNEY, rather than the final product itself. It was the perfect culmination of everything in my life up until that point, and I believe the perfect prelude to whatever new mountain lies over the next hill.