How we built the music & sound effects library
John Bailey, 2026
Composing the score for the Hodr engine has been a standout collaborative experience for Curtis Stansfield and me. What began as a series of conversations about a 'fantasy' sonic palette evolved into a deeply layered soundtrack that blends boutique digital textures with the organic soul of live instrumentation.
Our goal was to create a soundscape that felt both expansive and grounded. To achieve this, we utilized a meticulously curated selection of synth plugins and hardware synthesizers, but the true "cinema" comes from our world class session players:
Cinematic Strings
To elevate our synthetic arrangements, we brought in legendary violinist Jonathan ‘Jono’ Hill. With a career spanning The Lord of the Rings films and countless major scores, Jono provided the layered, real string depth needed to make our arrangements feel massive and emotionally resonant.
Signature Woodwinds
Every exposed flute part was recorded by Andy Findon, a veteran of the Star Wars franchise whose work appears on hundreds of the world’s most famous film and television scores.
Vocal Textures
We achieved a rich, atmospheric vocal layer by doubling parts with mezzo soprano Laura Wright, known for her work on Songs of Praise and the Rugby World Cup, and my daughter Sadie, a musical theatre performer who recently starred in Annie as Annie for the Create Music Theatre company.
The production process was as technical as it was creative. While I handled the guitar tracks and the development of a custom foley library, Curtis, whose credits include The Script and Mika, took the lead on mastering to ensure the highest sonic fidelity.
Beyond Recording
Beyond the recording sessions, we spent weeks architecting how this music functions within the game. By splitting our compositions into specific "moods" and cross examining our work for uniformity. We have built a modular system that responds dynamically to the player's experience while maintaining a cohesive, high end identity throughout.
John, Jono, and Andy are also currently expanding this collaboration, working through extensive Baroque and National Anthem sessions for licensing, while I continue to work alongside Jono on projects like Alex James’ Britpop Classical tour and performances with tenor Russell Watson.