What you get are 4 tracks, encoded at 320kbps. The overall sound quality is excellent, entirely devoid of the noise artifacts that are often heard in the mp3 format. At about $1.25 per track, the price is slightly higher than the average iTunes or Rhapsody transaction, but I feel the independent nature of the product, as well as it's somewhat limited commercial niche, justifies a slightly higher price. Each track is quite short, the longest being just a bit over 3 minutes in length. The entire recording is 8 minutes and 24 seconds, which is really the worst thing I have to say about the package.
The compositions are mature and fairly complex, and they easily match the quality of theme work heard in primetime network television shows. In fact, two of the tracks are designed to act as "theme songs" to set the mood at the start of a game. The instrumentation is primarily digital, but consists mainly of high quality VSTs and very convincing virtual instruments. The strings and wind instruments all sound organic and very lifelike, displaying just how far digital sampling has come from that Casio with the barking dog sound you got for christmas when you were a kid.
Here's a breakdown of the tracks:
Trail of Cthulhu Theme- Pulp Version is the opening track, and it's also my favorite of the group. A sort of crashing wave effect backs a brief piano phrase, quickly leading into a swell of creaky strings which in turn give way to a terse violin melody, only to again be swallowed by the oceanic sound that opened the track. The whole piece has a wonderful quality of movement that immediately evokes a sense of mysterious, cinematic adventure.
Ruminations, the second track, is a more brooding, almost melancholy affair. Several themes intertwine to create an atmosphere of exploration and investigation. The time signature changes in the last third, punctuating the individual themes and adding a sense of urgency to the piece before it dissolves into an eerie, menacing soundscape.
Anagnorisis begins with more effect-based sound design before leading into a haunting vocal chorus. The vocals themselves are sampled and therefore have a slightly inhuman quality, which benefits rather than detracts from the composition. This arrangement is meant to accompany a revelatory scene, in which the investigators make an important discovery or experience some shocking realization about the mystery at hand.
The last track, Trail of Cthulhu Theme - Purist Version is the counter point to the first. Trail of Cthulhu offers two distinctive styles of play: Pulp (the more adventurous, slightly more survivable style) and Purist (which is "truer" to Lovecraft's stories: stark, nihilistic, and much more deadly to investigators). The Purist theme shares the background of the Pulp theme, but replaces the strings with a pair of pianos and a distant bell to create a creepy, slightly off-kilter version of the theme.
All in all, Four Shadows shows a talent for theme and composition and the music is very listenable. It succeeds on it's stated goal of providing a product to expand and enhance the atmosphere of Mythos gaming. However, it's brevity also makes it somewhat awkward to use in play. It's certainly too short to play on a loop, and the individual songs are far shorter than the average roleplaying scene. On the other hand, the general availability of iPods and mp3 players makes modifying a playlist to suit the current scene a thing of relative ease.
I frequently use music to enhance my games, but I tend to simply pick long playlists of appropriate songs and let them play throughout the session. I can't imagine trying to fish for a particular song in the middle of a tense scene, or trying to fit the scene to the ebb and flow of the background music.
Regardless, Four Shadows is a very good collection of music. If James Semple decides to record a full length album of these compositions I'll be happy to own it, and to use it in my game. If you use music in your games, or if you're just a fan of orchestrated soundtrack music, you will find a lot to like in Four Shadows.
Finally, the composer's website (www.jamessemple.com) offers several samples of his work. These tracks give some glimpse as to the general quality of James Semple's work, however I think that the four tracks making up Four Shadows outshine anything currently heard on his website.
All in all, I think the music itself warrants a 5 for Style. However, the whole product contains less then 10 minutes of music and therefore I cannot rate it's Substance any higher than 3.
