Odds are if the new Destiny video game isn't very fun to play, it will at least sound great.
That's because while your character fights off alien life forms and develops combat tactics in a post-apocalyptic setting, the whole experience will be scored by Paul McCartney.
Sir Paul—who recently received an impressive honor—began work on the music for Destiny in 2010, according to the New York Times. A 70-minute preview of the score was shown during beta testing in July, and McCartney has also developed the game's theme song.
All of the music was orchestrated at Abbey Road by a 120-piece ensemble. To sweeten the Beatles vibe, the group was directed by Giles Martin, son of former Fab Four producer George.
The whole collaboration began four years ago when Marty O'Donnell—former house composer for Bungie, a video game company that produced Halo—suggested that McCartney might be interested in writing music sequences for the new game. The Times noted that McCartney had already written "four full-length orchestral scores and several shorter classical pieces" since 1990.
Last summer, O'Donnell told gaming publication Edge that he, McCartney and Mike Salvatori had written and recorded music for Destiny, as well as curated a 50-minute orchestral suite.
"Paul's one of these guys who just never seems to want to stop developing and moving, so we had a great meeting and started collaborating," O'Donnell said. "And for two years we traded music back-and-forth, met at several studios. We did this session at Abbey Road. I'm really looking forward to getting that out for people to hear because it has... it's the 50-minute suite that tells its own story that's within the story of the Destiny universe."
Apparently McCartney also went old school during one session.
"He brought out his old tape-loop machine—he said the last time he used it was on Sgt. Pepper," O'Donnell said. "So he sent me an entire session where he was playing around with all these tape-loops. We were just thrilled. That [was] the same machine that was on Revolver."
Macca's theme song—produced by Mark Stent—will be released before the game's Sept. 9 due date, according to Consequence of Sound.
Get a taste of the game and music here:
