Overview

The enormously successful (at least in Germany) RTS series of Anno titles continued in 2009 with Anno 1404. The basic concept of the game remained the same as in previous titles – depart with your fleet of ships to new lands and colonise them by building new towns on these islands. The main change to the game mechanics came through the option to settle both Occident and Orient, which gave players the chance to control two different peoples, each with their own buildings, units, and requirements. Like its predecessors, the game was both a critical and financial success, and went on to garner five German Developer Awards in 2009, including Best German Game and Best Soundtrack.

For the latter, German sound production company Dynamedion was drafted again after its composers had conceived distinct soundworlds for Anno 1701 and Annoy 1701: The Sunken Dragon. The result was one of Dynamedion's most massive works to: the composing team around lead composer Tilman Sillescu ended up created more than three and a half hours of live orchestral music. To get their hands on this impressive amount of music though, soundtrack collectors had to put up with some annoyances. As with many Dynamedion productions, the score was released on the game's bonus DVD, albeit only about 100 minutes of it. Worse still: the tracks were all encoded as 160kbs mp3s, and carried only file names, but no tags. In other words: the compositions on the bonus DVD are ordered alphabetically, with no regards to thematic flow or other musical considerations. A good year later, in June 2010, Ubisoft released a 35 minute version of the Anno 1401 soundtrack on iTunes and Amazon that inexplicably retained the alphabetic playing order. This review refers to the 100 minute soundtrack found on the game's bonus DVD.

Body

After the pastoral sounds of Anno 1701 and the colourful orchestrations of Anno 1701: The Sunken Dragon, Dynamedion once more tweak the musical formula for an Anno Soundtrack. Firstly, as was to be expected, the composers react to the game's incorporation of Oriental peoples and fill the soundtrack with appropriately Arabian-sounding compositions, which make up about half of the soundtrack's running time. But Tilman Sillescu and his team of composers also change the tracks underscoring the European conquerors and settlers. These cues still feature lavish, late-romantic orchestral sounds, but now assign a much greater role to a full choir. After Anno 1701 made use of choral elements only in some battle tracks, vocal elements are now to be heard on almost all Occidental cues of Anno 1404.

The two different musical world are showcased and brought together on “when_cultures_meet” (as mentioned, the tracks on the Bonus DVD have file names, but no tags). The track opens with a memorable, solemn melody for mixed choir, recorded in a very spacious acoustic, which gives the music an indisputably churchly feeling. This melody turns out to be Anno 1401 first main theme – the second one is introduced after the music breaks into a rhythmically driven second section that highlights the score's Arabian, more frantic sounds. Driven forward by slightly bland Djembe rhythms, the second main theme is a more repetitive, insisting melodic idea, carried by the violins. While these two soundworlds usually remain separated throughout the score, some compositions bring Occident and Orient together in one cue again, for example “GE_magic_carpet_ride”, with its duduk lead against a bed of luxurious strings, and “victorious”, which intriguingly mixes orchestral bombast and an anthemic choir with djembes and a brief interlude for duduk.

The decision to give the choir a much greater role on the Occidental material was likely made to mirror the game's mediaeval setting. That being said, the resulting music is certainly imbued with a feeling of seriousness and gravitas, but hardly sounds authentically medieval. Brief cues like “the_pilgrim” and “monastry” come closest to adopt an authentic early 15^th century sound – no wonder, given that choral music of the time was usually performed in churches and monasteries. But most pieces, in their late-romantic harmonies and big orchestrations, clearly hark back to more contemporary scoring conventions. On the other hand, one may rightfully argue that if the composers had stuck to what little is know about music of the early 15^th century to increase historic authenticity, the resulting soundtrack would have likely alienated more listeners than it could have hoped to attract through such a move. Ultimately, the soundtrack's overall musical style will hardly irritate anybody – apart from those occasions when the score slips in a number of Baroque compositions that seem to have been imported straight from on Anno 1701 and Anno 1701: The Sunken Dragon. These would have fitted perfectly on those soundtracks, but as musical representations of the year 1404, “crowned_king” and “grandiose_magnificence” are inappropriate and jarring, since they're far more period specific than the generically romantic compositions that make up the bulk of the Occidental music on Anno 1404. At least, “kingdom_come” inspiredly combines two age old musical symbols of power: choral sounds and Baroque minuet rhythms, which here performed by the choir in a flawless performance.

In any case, while the orchestral palette is still the same as on Anno 1701, that soundtrack's idyllic imagery is now replaced by impressions of grandeur and occasionally overwhelming scale. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than on “monumental_cathedral”. Its towering sounds alternatively set a male choir against brass fanfares and a female choir against sustained organ chords and later opposite ostinato violins and woodwind figures, which are subtly mixed under the already thick textures to drive the piece forward. A truly awe-inspiring composition, “monumental_cathedral” is the best example of the impressive results that the score's choir-heavy approach can yield. Even when the score leaves out the choral elements and approaches the bucolic soundscapes Anno 1701 relied on, like on “our_daily_bread”, the mood is still graver, courtesy of more string-focused orchestrations and less chirpy woodwinds. Nevertheless, “our_daily_bread” remains an absolute delight, with its perfect shifting from solo instrument to solo instrument against a rich orchestral backdrop.

Another set of compositions that predictably benefit from the forceful sounds of a full choir are the battle tracks. As with the other Anno albums, there's not a lot of action music to be found here, but once the orchestra and choir gear up for battle, the listener's sound system will get a good workout. “battle_hymn” and “thousand_feet_march” are both less varied and more rhythmically focused than previous Anno action tracks, but the utterly powerful sounds of the full choir effortlessly keep these compositions floating. After Anno 1701's downright bewildering sound mix, which relegated the choir to a mere textural addition, Anno 1404's vastly superior choral recording is bound to leave an impression on the listener. The same even goes for shorter crisis tracks such as “dawn_of_war” and “disaster_at_hand”, even though their running time doesn't allow for much development. Nice orchestrational touches like the separation of male and female choirs on “thousand_feet_march” and the slow choir melody set against agitated string and timpani rhythms on “ravage” add to the excitement Anno 1404's battle tracks create.

Thankfully though, the composers don't employ the choir only for illustrations of power and urgency, but put the vocal elements at hand to more varied use. On “moneycounters”, the choir accompanies light string figures and a rhythmically pronounced melody. This musical mix presages similar compositions on Dynamedion's Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, although “moneycounters”, despite a nice transition to majestic brass fanfares at the halfway mark, remains more monotonous than the cues on that Settlers soundtrack. On “ora_et_labora”, the choir, together with a descending, swelling two-note violin figure, adds a melancholy edge to the upbeat, light orchestral material. This juxtaposition of atmospheres intelligently contrasts the typically busy 'working bee' music so prominently found on the Settlers soundtracks with a reminder how hard 15^th century working life actually was. And “our_daily_bread_VAR” provides another highlight by recasting the originally lavish composition as a sparse, serene cue that combines acoustic guitar textures with wordless choir vocals and a fragile flute solo.

But although the choral elements are generally deployed with skill, sometimes they clog up a track's textures and generate an obnoxiously bombastic sound. Ironically enough, this flaw is unmasked by the soundtrack itself. Several compositions on the album are reprised in differently arranged, usually smaller-scale versions – and usually, these incarnations of the compositions are more winning than the originals. “salt_of_earth” and “the_outpost”, with their driving string ostinati and simple choral melodies, doubled by the brass, are a tad too reminiscent of Gladiator and other Remote Control scores and stretch their predictable, derivative musical material too thin. But “salt_of_earth_VAR”, freed of the thick cover of wordless choral vocals, allows the different elements of the composition to actually register and play off each other for a much more effective close to the track. And “the_outpost_VAR” is made vastly more interesting than the original version by replacing the choir with a single female alto voice, and the singer delivers a stunning performance full of controlled, but still touching passion.

While the Arabian elements are mostly kept at bay from the European sounds (and vice versa), they don't disrupt the album flow once they emerge. Better composed than the rather hackneyed ethnic material on Anno 1701, the Oriental compositions on Anno 1404 add a broad canvas of colours to the soundtrack. Generally, these pieces are just as richly orchestrated as their Western pendants, but they're usually scored for smaller ensembles, which contrasts nicely with the heavier Occidental cues. Instead of focusing on the long, lyrical melody lines of the late-romantic orchestral pieces, the melodic material on the Arabian tracks is more fragmented and consists of shorter, often repetitive phrases. This characteristic underscores the rhythmic focus of these compositions, and as per se for Dynamedion soundtracks when percussive instruments are highlighted, these are layered in rich and intriguing rhythms.

Particularly the album's first few ethnic cues possess an infectious, dervish-like quality. “caravan” and “festival_orient” are perfect scene setters for their respective location, despite running for just about half a minute. “festival_orient” even manages to incorporate an exotic female solo lead and generally packs an astonishing amount of flavour and ideas into its limited running time. “GE_our_honoured_guests” and “GE_our_honored_guests_VAR” continue in the same vein: catchy hand percussion rhythms, melodies carried by either ethnic woodwinds or the saz (a plucked Turkish string instrument), and a string section that performs those generically Oriental-sounding chord progressions. The smaller ensembles prove to be the perfect outlet for these agitated compositions, and elements such as the opening flute lead on “GE_our_honored_guests_VAR” again demonstrate the amazing album recording and mixing. The flute is given just the right amount of delay to depict an arid, but alluring location, and the whole ensemble never suffers from that “empty concert hall” sound that sometimes plagued ethnic compositions on other Dynamedion soundtracks .

Over longer stretches of time, the Oriental compositions' focus on rhythm and texture brings with it the danger of monotony. Mostly though, this threat is averted by tweaks made to the music's basic formula, just like with the choir-based material. “GE_the_orient_sun” and “golden_shores” trade in earlier compositions' bustle for slower tempi and plodding rhythms to depict these vast, foreign locations, while still retaining the colourful woodwind and saz leads. “golden_shores” even throws in some chromatic solo violin chords for good measure. Similarly paced, but exuding a more mystical atmosphere, “glittering_waters” exploits the ethnic instruments' exotic qualities to the fullest to provide a pervading sense of beguiling mysteriousness. The percussion instruments take a backseat to intoxicating textures and to a haunting flute solo, backed by ominous string chord progressions. “glittering_waters_VAR” convincingly tweaks the original material and gives it a more forlorn, drier quality through its echoing woodwind chords. And “oriental_mysteries” and “vast_and_quiet” do their names justice through the perfectly realised inclusion of vocal elements: enticing female solo wails that never slip into cliché on “oriental_mysteries”, and a faint, floating choir on “vast_and_quiet”. The latter track demonstrates the composers' admirable attention to detail: the choir is mixed far enough in the background to be only a subtle part of the track's texture, but the voices are still present enough to attract the listener's attention and greatly increase the cue's impression of a vast, enigmatic space.

As with the Occidental pieces, the composers vary their instrumental palette sufficiently to keep things interesting, but there's still the occasional slip up in quality. Some compositions, like “sands_of_dreams”, rely too much on those Lawrence of Arabia-style string chord progressions that are certainly adequately scenic, but by now they sound rather clichéd. “monumental_mosque” tries to evoke religious grandeur through the musical means of the smaller, Oriental ensemble and fares quite well, due also to the inclusion of sufi vocals. But the long-winded melodic idea for the strings is a failed attempt to adapt the trademark Arabian sound to this kind of free-flowing, lyrical melody line, and the track ends up being too slight to carry the its own running time.

These two distinct soundworlds are brought together better than one might think through the random album sequencing. It certainly pays off to have a constant change between Occidental and Oriental material, and both soundscapes rarely clash with each other. Instead, the continuous change of tone colours keeps the listening experience fresh and particularly benefits the slower, more ambient Arabian cues, which would sound a bit dull if programmed in one big block. Still, the album's flow is far from ideal. A lot of the soundtrack's short cues are grouped in the album's first third, and although they maintain a high compositional standard, these pieces fragment the listening experience considerably. And while Occidental and Oriental music styles go along quite well with each other, there are other disruptions. As mentioned above, the Baroque-style compositions are a puzzling inclusion on a soundtrack for a game set in 1404. And then there's the more dissonant orchestral material on “infestation” and “the_black_death”, all with the replete eerie string and choir glissandi and constantly pounding timpani. In and of itself, these cues are competent, if hardly breathtaking. But the fact that they creep up on the listener right after a lively Baroque piece or an atmospheric, lush Arabian-styled composition is simply irritating. Lastly, there are “without_a_care_in_the_world” and “without_a_care_in_the_world_VAR” Only due to their file names, they are the album's closing tracks, but they fortunately provide a fulfilling sense of peace and closure with their flowing, optimistic melody lines. Indeed, they sound like the close to an epic adventure – albeit one that never really happened, because there was no musical arc, no build up to this climactic close. This unfortunate occurrence could have been avoided if any curation of the music on the album had taken place, instead of just dumping the tracks on the DVD.

Summary

Dynamedion's composers once more redefine the sound of the Anno universe, and the results are almost thoroughly convincing on this perfectly recorded score album. Tilman Sillescu and his team successfully tackled the massive challenge ahead of them and deliver a soundtrack that brings both Occident and Orient to life in vivid colours and rich orchestrations. Delivering the goods over an album running time of more than 100 minutes is always a challenge, but monotony is always held at bay through creative applications of the soundtrack's two basic instrumental formulas that represent medieval Europe and the sun-scorched Near and Middle East.

All these admirable qualities are slightly muted however through the less than ideal album presentation. Simply ordering the cues in alphabetic order doesn't generate the disastrous results one might fear, but the album's flow is still interrupted unpleasantly through an abundance of short tracks and some stylistically jarring cues that, despite their inherent musical qualities, should have been left off the album. But this lack of editorial control is a minor flaw, and Anno 1404 compositionally surpasses Anno 1701, without quite reaching the heights of Anno 1701: The Sunken Dragon, possessing an epic scope that is quite rare for an RTS game soundtrack.