Ubisoft Music release Olivier Deriviere's original score for the game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry. Born a slave, Adéwalé found freedom as a pirate aboard the Jackdaw where he became Edward Kenway's second-in-command. Now, 15 years later, Adéwalé has become a trained Assassin who finds himself shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue without weapons or crew. He starts to meet locals in an effort to assemble a crew and steal a ship. The more he helps, however, the more he is drawn into the Maroon slave community. Forced to face his past, Adéwalé sets out to free the slaves and bring death to their captors...

Like his score for the console game Remember Me, Olivier Deriviere delivers something a little different. The results are, once again, mightily impressive. For his work on Remember Me he used digitally processing and manipulation with multiple layers and effects to create a futuristic - but entirely organic and acoustic - musical palette. This time around he uses the vocal talents of La Troupe Makandal to provide historical and traditional music from Haiti. The mix works incredibly well.

The album contains 24 tracks (1 hr, 09 min, 49 sec). The album is split into The Brussels Philharmonic and La Troupe Makandal tracks. The first 17 tracks (52 min) contains the orchestrated segments, with the odd vocal accompaniment by La Troupe Makandal. The final 7 tracks (17 min, 49 sec) sees La Troupe Makandal perform traditional songs from Haiti.

Personal highlights including the beautiful 'False Paradise'; 'Fight The Tyranny'; and 'High Seas'. While I enjoyed the traditional tracks, it was the orchestral segments that were of more interest to me. Overall, an engaging and beautiful score.

9

Darren Rea