Assassin’s Creed Shadows Music Fan Theme - The Wind Between The Cherry Trees - Available Now!

Link to listen on Apple Music

Link to listen on Spotify

For a while now, we here at The Ones Who Came Before have been getting into the world of music, interviewing composers who have shaped the sound of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, covering iconic tracks, as well as writing our own original fan themes inspired by different instalments.

This tradition of course continues with the newly released AC Shadows, hence we are excited to announce our newest original track inspired by the new game - The Wind Between The Cherry Trees - written, arranged and produced by Gargudon from the TOWCB team!

This is an in depth look with the brains behind the track, at the process of how it came together, as well as some of the influences behind it. And of course, make sure to also check out the full track, available now wherever music is streamed!

Track breakdown & writing process

I had so much fun creating this new fan theme for the new instalment, at last heading to a fan favourite location over many years, 16th century Feudal Japan. Before I even started properly producing the track, I already had a very good idea of how I wanted it to sound, what elements I wanted to be at the forefront of it, and what ambiences and emotions I wanted to capture. The setting of the new game meant so many fun opportunities and possibilities for choice of sounds and instruments; I always knew I wanted emphasis on something very ambient and tranquil sounding, with lots of Japanese stringed and wind instruments.

The opening and final sections of the track, are meant to capture the peace and tranquillity of the vast forests of Japan that can be explored in the game, filled with massive waterfalls, blue skies, diverse wildlife, and like the title suggests of course, blooming pink cherry trees, or as they call it in the native tongue, sakura. I feel like the prominent koto, fused with the ambient plucks and pads, perfectly captures these sceneries, and can serve as the soundtrack to meditating and or practicing katana moves on the highest mountain.

In between these two sections though, is a perhaps slightly darker and more intense, yet also quite cinematic sounding interlude. I wanted this part to mainly centre around massive sounding percussion with big taiko drums, while also giving it an element of traditional African music, as an homage to Yasuke’s native background. My favourite part about this interlude section though, is easily the throat singing, a common ritual practiced throughout Southeast Asia. Recording those parts was also super fun and challenging in a good way, as it had me looking into different techniques, learning something new in the process. When I tracked them, my voice was also pretty rough, following a nasty round of sickness, which in the end may or may not have been an advantage, it then having a certain rawness to it.

Track influences

There was a number of different influences for the track, from things I’ve written myself earlier on, Jesper Kyd’s iconic AC soundtracks, to a couple of “normal” songs even and more. Two songs that were major influences, were actually these two by Nashville artists Alana Springsteen and Robyn Ottolini, “Look I like” and “House I Grew Up In”. First of which I also did a super fun remix of it once, reusing a lot of elements, sounds and melodies for this new track.

For songs labelled “Country”, both have a lot of sounds and ambiences you wouldn’t necessarily associate with the genre, having prominent sections with what sounds like a koto, or some other Eastern stringed instrument. Robyn’s song was a major influence for the first section, recreating certain sounds and vibes, and reusing the chord progression and koto melody. Alana’s (and my remix of) served as influence for the final section, also reusing the chord progression and a certain melody played on koto.

Additionally I once again used the melody from my AC Unity inspired fan theme “French Highlands”, it being played on flute during the middle interlude. If a new version of Ezio’s Family can be written for almost every game, so can I reuse my own written themes. Of course I also turned to the master Jesper, using some ambient samples reminiscent of his legendary AC2 soundtrack, samples of birds singing and a waterfall to create a very lively soundscape and some realism, and of course as mentioned, throat singing, where a major inspiration was the loading screen music from another massive Ubisoft game, Far Cry 4, also set in a similar culture and part of the world.

And that concludes this in-depth look at our newest original AC inspired musical fan theme! Once again, make sure to check out the full track, available wherever music is streamed, add it to your playlists, maybe even having it on in the background while exploring Japan! That and let us know what games you would like to see inspire future fan themes!