Martyn Ware
composer & 3D immersive sound designer
Composer, musician (Human League + Heaven17) and producer whose work has featured on recordings totalling 50+ million sales worldwide. Arguably one of the world’s leading 3D audioscape designers through the Illustrious Company, founded in 2000. Clients include: BBC, The Royal Ballet, Kenzo, Science Museum, BAFTA, Museum of London, YSL, Dolby and British Library. Martyn has composed scores for many games and is a regular presenter of immersive soundscapes at the Venice Biennale and festivals worldwide.
Martyn Ware and Tom Belton composed this 30 minute smoky sonic soundscape for Mission 1545, illuminating an intoxicating era of glory and danger, fusing medieval themes and electronica with live play. Each track leans into the purpose and nature of the gate towers played through in the game, and based on real history. Martyn's son Gabriel composed alternative versions to a few, which are heard as you play the game.
immersive electronic sound design by Martyn Ware Heaven 17 experiential entertainment English history beautiful educational time travel video game soundscape
Track 1: LUDGATE PRIORY (2:39) Winter 1545. A curfew bell tolls in time to the haunting refrain of Salve Regina as night cloaks the city and the journey begins at Ludgate, the home of a mysterious order of Dominicans.
Track 2: RUNNING THEME (2:07)This gripping, intense percussive race of drum and harpsichord riding over bass riffs switches the tempo up to mark the beginning of the adventure. 2 versions.
Track 3: NEWGATE JAIL (2:33) The Jail opens with a futuristic twist to medieval jail clinks of chains and gravelly metal with new age synth arpeggios creating a building and moving cell blocks as it builds. 2 versions, one composed by Gabriel Ware.
Track 4: ALDERSGATE THEATRE (3:00) A magical interlude led by a vibraphone, reminiscent of the balalaika in Zhivago or a Russian ballet has you creep through exotic lands, stage sets and painted backdrops of the theatre modelled on Shakespeare's own Globe.
Track 5: CRIPPLEGATE HOSPITAL (2:05) The echoes of nurses pacing the stone paved church-hospital. Patients prayers chant through heavenly angelic harmonies.
Track 6: MOORGATE INN (1:36) Picture the soothing firelight, the warm glow and intimacy that only a teardrop-shaped lute can offer, at the Inn. This delicate plucked melody woven into sleepy dark tones of a cello is Tudor bliss in a nutshell.
Track 7: BISHOPSGATE BEDLAM (2:48) Climb onto the merry-go-round and let this Bedlam theme carry you round and round on a strange, fairground waltz written to conjure childhood memories in a dreamlike surreal.
Track 8: ALDGATE BREWERY (1:41) The harpsichord opens the Brewery, with a measured and climbing melody building a sense of anticipation till it slips a gear with the introduction of a snare with fills like a sleezy release into a 60’s Persuaders-style, rock anthem. 2 versions.
THE TOWER OF LONDON
Track 9: TOWER CHAPEL (1:41) Following the laid-back reprieve of the Brewery, the profundity of these ethereal choirs rein you back in to Kyrie Eleison - the ultimate prayer for mercy filled with longing and hope as the adventure turns a corner into the final challenges faced in the labyrinthine Tower of London.
Track 10: ROYAL MINT (1:50) This track blends the string-driven Brewery theme into a melancholy french horn version of the melody underpinned by an anvil stamping rhythm describing the coin presses at work.
Track 11: CROWN JEWELS (2:07) This restrained gem draws you into the chamber of jewels with staccato plucked strings and the mysterious tone of the vibraphone - captivating and mysterious, promising to build on and on, but will leave you wanting and enchanted.
Track 12: CRADLE TOWER (2:52) Opening with the satisfying crunch of footsteps in snow, this piece marks the finale in the adventure, sweeping all the themes - choral and percussive into a euphoric climax underpinned by an edgy bass, reminding you of the sweet melodies and drama that has gone before.
Extra Track 13: Tudor Theme (2:01) An eclectic twist on the pipe and drum Tudor theme but driven further with voice and harpsichord. Composed by Gabriel Ware.