Description
“Destination: Treasure Island” Original Game Soundtrack
Limited edition of 500 copies.
Label: KMRCD 010
Game Release Date: 2006
Album Date: 2008
Tracks: 16
Time: 49″40
Destination: Treasure Island is an adventure game developed by Kheops Studio and published by Nobilis. Riding on the wave of pirate-themed movies and video games, this particular adventure was inspired by one of the oldest classics of the genre: Robert Louis Stevenson’s popular novel Treasure Island. Everyone is familiar with the adventures of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkings, but this game isn’t about what happened on the island – instead, it focuses on the aftermath!
The game picks up four years after the events of the novel. Jim Hawkings is now a young man, who tries to live his life the right way and forget about his past with pirates. But one day he finds a surprise message in the window – the note is carried by Captain Flint, the talkative parrot of Long John Silver. According to the message, Silver had hidden some marvelous treasure on his new hideout called Emerald Island, but Jim must hurry to get it: the pirates duped by Silver are also on his trail: they want to get their share of the gold and kill their former captain….
The music for Destination: Treasure Island was written by Olivier Deriviere, a French game and movie composer best known for his work on the Obscure and Alone in the Dark series. He studied composition and orchestration at the National Conservatoire in Nice Conservatoire under Jean Louis Luzignant. In 1999, he produced the experimental solo album Harry’s Day and started to write arrangements of film scores for a percussion quartet. He subsequently won a scholarship to study jazz and film scoring at the Berklee College of Music. Since completing the program, Olivier has been one of the busiest French game composers with a couple of movies on his résumé.
While the Obscure and Alone in the Dark scores are great examples of creating suspenseful, low-key scores that send chills down your spine, Destination: Treasure Island is the complete opposite. It’s a full-blooded adventure score that could easily fit into an updated Errol Flynn movie. The music is characterized by whimsical adventure cues in the mold of John Williams’ Hook, but there’s also some suspense reserved for the Emerald Island where Long John Silver is planning to spend his retirement. Funny quotations of well-known rhymes (including a reference to “Hush, Little Baby”) make sure that this album is going to be a jolly listening experience with or without a keg of rum.
