Music to tame the wyrms

Composed by the renowned John Debney, Lair boasts an orchestral score unlike any other.

Alongside epic aerial and ground battles, Lair delivers a soundtrack from Hollywood legend John Debney, the award-winning composer of scores for movies such as Sin City, The Passion of the Christ and End of Days.

Lair's score was recorded over three days at London's famous Abbey Road Studios by a full 80-piece orchestra, drawn from London Session and London Metropolitan Orchestras, and was backed by a selection of exotic instruments from around the globe to give the music a unique, otherworldly feel. Debney's reputation for using unusual vocals has been cemented by his inclusion of lyrics by Lisbeth Scott in a mixture of Latin, Sanskrit and ancient Armenian, which adds a truly magical element to this innovative and hugely creative project.

Commenting on the project, Debney said, "I was really struck by the desire of the Sony creative team to create music that was really very cinematic with a beginning, middle and end. The scale of the game also created the opportunity to go further than a typical film score, demanding the development of a number of themes - six or seven in this instance, built, for example, around the different characters. I would do this again without a doubt; it was a great and very different experience."

Debney's brief was to create a score unlike most other games in that it was to behave like a movie score, evolving over the entire game and unfolding musically along with the story. In the videogame format, where events unfold according to a player's actions, this was to prove tricky; demanding that Debney write music capable of accommodating to change at any point. The result is a unique composition and structure.