Classically trained multimedia composer Olivier Deriviere (Alone In The Dark, Of Orcs and Men) has crafted a unique, electronically manipulated live symphonic score for the action adventure video game Remember Me. Deriviere's dynamic emotional score is intricately woven throughout Remember Me's innovative 'memory remix' game play experience and immersive futurist story set in Neo Paris where personal memories are digitised, bought, sold and traded...

Remember Me is a 3rd person action adventure where players take on the role of Nilin, a former elite memory hunter with the ability to break into people's minds and steal or even alter their memories. The authorities, fearful of her knowledge and capabilities have arrested Nilin and wiped her memory clean. After her escape from prison, Nilin sets out on a mission to recover her identity, helped by her last and only friend. This search for her past leads to her being hunted by the very people that created this surveillance society. During the course of the story, Nilin will start remembering who she was and re-learning all the fighting moves that made her one of the world's leading memory hunters.

Olivier Deriviere's score for Remember Me features an orchestral score that has been digitally processed and manipulated with multiple layers and effects to create a futuristic - but entirely organic and acoustic - musical palette which reflects Nilin's memory loss and the reconstruction of her memories throughout the game.

When I first listened to this score I was momentarily worried that the MP3 files were corrupted. This happens on occasion and gives the skip, blips and electronic beeps that come into play on occasion throughout this score. In places it started to become annoying... I understood the clever thinking behind the sound, but was eager to listen to the Philharmonia Orchestra's music without the electronic interruption. But when I listened through it again a second and third time everything slotted into place and the digital corruption sound really complimented the orchestra.

It's not something to focus on too much though, as it is only evident on a number of tracks - one of which, 'Memory Reconstruction', is easily the best track on the album. It wonderfully overlays a conventional orchestral score with a subtle, more modern electronic feel.

'Still Human' and 'Neo Paris' are two more wonderful tracks and are probably the closest we get here to classical music.

The album contains 15 tracks and lasts for 49 min, 27 sec. This is well worth adding to your collection.

9

Darren Rea