Little Orpheus by Jim Fowler and Jessica Curry
“In my world General”, says our plucky yet unreliable hero Ivan Ivanovich, “Laika is alive and well and currently orbiting the world several miles below our feet.”
“A better world perhaps”, replies the terrifying yet kindly General, “Very well. I shall live in your world for a while longer.”
For me, that exchange sums Little Orpheus up. On one hand, it’s a technicolour homage to the optimism, adventure and mild peril of the Republic serials of the 1930s; on the other a love letter to the unique resilience, resourcefulness and humour of the Russian people. It’s a game about an unlikely hero overcoming incredible odds in an adventure that’s almost certainly too extraordinary to believe.
But it’s really a game about hope. It’s about dreaming your way out of trouble and the joy of telling stories; a game about the triumph of the imagination. We asked Jim & Jessica to come up with a soundtrack that captured the playfulness and exuberance of the story, and the wonder of adventure. They took Disney and Shostakovich, hurled them into a blender, threw in their own special ingredients, sprinkled them with idealism and magic, baked for a few months and produced this brilliant, beautiful musical journey to the centre of the earth.
“A cake, if you like”, as Ivan would no doubt say. “But an extraordinary cake, not like any other cake you have ever known. General, it was a musical cake, that rose and rose and burst with explosions of colour and taste and dreams and magic. A cake that invites you to demand the impossible...”
Comrades! To the Centre!
Dan Pinchbeck, Creative Director of The Chinese Room
Tracklist
| 1. | Comrades, to the Centre! | 0:40 |
| 2. | The Jungles of Plutonia | 3:34 |
| 3. | Toll's March | 2:26 |
| 4. | Comrade Privalov, Interiornaut! | 2:05 |
| 5. | Not Lost, but Stolen! | 0:40 |
| 6. | A Death-Defying Escape | 1:13 |
| 7. | Ivan and the Whale | 1:55 |
| 8. | Enslaving the Menkv | 5:16 |
| 9. | Beef Investigations in Zlatoust | 1:05 |
| 10. | Agartha and Other Wonders | 4:09 |
| 11. | The Shattering City | 0:59 |
| 12. | A Strangely Beautiful Place | 3:14 |
| 13. | And it Happened Like This | 3:52 |
| 14. | Escaping the Worm | 1:38 |
| 15. | The Icy Lands of Sannikov | 3:18 |
| 16. | A Race to Save the World | 1:12 |
| 17. | The Forgotten Waves | 2:37 |
| 18. | Stealing Eggs | 2:32 |
| 19. | The Prophecies of Lemuria | 5:09 |
| 20. | Mortal Peril and Other Adventures | 1:00 |
| 21. | Crossing the Metagalacticus | 2:06 |
| 22. | An Impoverished Childhood in Omsk | 1:44 |
| 23. | The World Clock | 2:34 |
| 24. | The Hunt for the Little Orpheus | 1:34 |
| 25. | Ivan Returns | 0:46 |
Credits
Music by Jim Fowler and Jessica Curry
Recorded & Mixed at AIR studios, London by Jake Jackson
Soundtrack mastered by John Webber at AIR Studios, London
Album artwork by Michele Nucera
Little Orpheus was developed by The Chinese Room, a Sumo Digital Studio
