HISTORY IN THE MAKING MAKING SCORING ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

Now in its thirteenth year, Ubisoft’s open-world action-adventure franchise continues to go from strength to strength. Renowned for its distinctive combination of historic fiction and sci-fi elements, recent entries have seen the award-winning series striving to reinvent its successful formula, with loftier narrative ambitions, more engaging character arcs and increasingly impressive world-building.

When striving for reinvention, it pays to look not just to the future but to the past – and there’s always been more to Assassin’s Creed games than their eclectic historical settings. Music has always played an integral role in bringing their extraordinary worlds to life. For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the franchise’s twelfth major entry, Ubisoft tapped the talents of two series stalwarts whose impact on its musical legacy has been unequivocal.

OLD FRIENDS

Returning for her fourth outing is US composer Sarah Schachner, who previously contributed additional music to 2013’s swashbuckling Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, set in the 18th-century Caribbean, and co-composed the soundtrack to 2014’s très bien Assassin’s Creed Unity, which took place during the French Revolution. She later took the reins of the score for 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins, set amid the sprawling, sandy townships of Ancient Egypt. Having travelled around the world and engaged with global instrumentation, Valhalla’s Nordic setting was a particularly appealing prospect.

“The coolest thing about composing for Assassin’s Creed is that you