Every year, we set a theme concept for the stories of champions for the entire year.
In 2022, the story happens in Alsahraa, an imaginary place located in western China, the desert/silkroad area.
This is a story about “sacrificing everything for awakening their hometown, for the people they deeply loved, with no fears.”
To describe this concept of the entire year, music has to tell the story.
We have invited Mr. Alexandre Desplat, who has the most exquisite emotion expression in his music, to compose this main theme based on the stories and backgrounds that we have introduced to him. This is an emotional and narrative piece that has been used as a guide and conclusion of 2022 music designs. It determines the overall emotional direction and instrumentation of all the music of 2022. We use this piece to show the players as a preface and brief of 2022 Alsahraa stories, and all the champion theme music follow this direction to tell the stories of each character in details.
This time we are very lucky to have Mr. Alexandre Desplat to compose the main theme of 2022 Year of Alsahraa. From the very beginning, when we saw the art design and the script, we thought of Mr. Desplat immediately. Some of the key design elements which we expected to have in this concept music were inspired by Desplat's previous works. In his music there is always the most exquisite emotion, the mystery and romance, the great determination, the hope and the love in the oppressive environment. These details will eventually be noticed by the players when they get to know the champions’ character design and related backstory.
Our collaboration with the composer began in November of 2021 and the recording took place in February of 2022 Musically, we wanted to take a longer view. Although each champion released this year has his/her own theme melody, their theme music will follow the overall instrumentation and mood of the main theme to ensure a relatively unified music series design throughout the year.
The design is still given based on orchestral music. In particular, Dizi, Duduk, Xiao, solo cello and piano (which to us is a signature of his music), were added to create a unique instrumentation and listening experience of Alsahraa together with the oriental melody and the unpredictable harmony direction. During our online communications, the composer has been very attentive. He was asking and taking notes of our ideas, and he was also very happy to share his music ideas with us.
With the continuous updates to the story and script of Alsahraa, we have been sharing the champion designs and the stories happened here with the composer, hoping to bring more background details of the Honor of Kings to the composer emotionally and visually. We hope to give the composer a lot of freedom. We hope that he can give full play to his unique understanding of Alsahraa after reading our story. We also hope that he can bring us different musical imagination from his level of music achievement.
We hope that this piece can carry players' fond memories of this year, and also hope that players can feel our sincerity for music. The key concept of our music design and communications with composers is that “music tells the story; composition comes from heart.” We hope that you will feel that and will like our music! :)
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Music Composed and Conducted by Alexandre Desplat
Music Designer & Supervisor: 张璟 Jing Zhang
Lead Audio: 黄原野 Corey Huang
Coordinator: 杜嫚妮 Melanie Du, 陈蓉婷 Channel Chen, 粟苗苗 Noel Suk
Presented by Tencent TiMi Audio Lab, TiMi L1 Studio
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Joel Iwataki
Pro Tools Operator: Vincent Cirilli
Dolby Atmos Mixing Engineer at Capitol Studios: Joel Iwataki
Dolby Atmos Assistant Mixing Engineer at Capitol Studios: Nick Rives
Mastered by Patricia Sullivan at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Stereo Version)
Mastered in Dolby Atmos by Michael Romanowski at Coast Mastering (Dolby Atmos Version)
Additional Orchestration: Jean-Pascal Beintus
Programming: Romain Allender
Executive Producer for Galilea Music: Xavier Forcioli
Orchestra
Recorded at Fox Newman Scoring Stage
Concert Master: Bruce Dukov
Orchestra: American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada
Orchestra Contractor: Peter Rotter
Lead Percussionists: Marvin B. Gordy and Wade Culbreath
Solo Cello: Cécilia Tsan
Solo Woodwinds: Pedro Eustache
Booth Monitor: Paul Lipson
Music Preparation: JoAnn Kane Music Service
COVID Compliance Officer: Valerie Riccardi
Artist Coordinator:
Formosa Interactive Team
Savina Ciaramella: Executive Producer for Formosa Interactive
Score Production: Allison Wright Clark, Elizabeth Paich, Justin Rosin
Special Thanks
Stacey Robinson at Fox Newman Scoring Stage
Paula Salvatore at Capitol Studios
Jessica Shields-Hamper at Insync Management
Evan and Giovanni at Coastal Connections Limousine Service
Kasimoff-Blüthner Piano Co.
Ani Zaghikian at The HOT Clinic
TiMi Audio Lab