Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Remake)

Daniele Carmosino has reimagined the original game’s music, creating new arrangements based on old themes as well as a wealth of new bespoke music. In February 2024 the Italians Avantgarden released a reboot of the game, giving the Brothers universe an entirely new look and new features. Carmosino was brought in to match the brilliance of the new visual experience.

To begin such an undertaking, the first step was to create a conversation around a single question.

What would they have done back then if they could?

Because the original was so successful, it was important to carry over prominent musical themes — but update them both tastefully and creatively. A major step in doing this was to rearrange and re-record everything with an orchestra and full choir. For this phase, Carmosino brought in his longtime collaborator, Christofer Unterberger.

But merely enhancing the soundtrack was not enough. Carmosino spent hours watching Brothers’ gameplay, and through this hands-on experience it became clear that much more music would help build the players’ emotional journey as the story unfolds — creating a more dynamic adventure for everyone.

Pre-production involved a great deal of experimentation, recording numerous musicians and listening to the sounds of many ethnic musical instruments. Enter: Xavi Lozano, a player and collector of all manner of flutes. Lozano also thrives on experimentation, creating new instruments from animal horns, toys, whatever, carving them out by hand to achieve his desired tones.

And so the complete soundtrack began to take shape. Original electronic samples were created from the aforementioned recording sessions. New sonic themes were written to provide continuity across scenes. Each level of the game was given its own musical sound palette. Just as the plot progresses from the safe confines of the brothers’ village through an intense adventure, the soundscape builds and intensifies along with the characters’ and players’ own emotions.

Bridging the old and new, vocalist Emma B Sunbring was brought in for her unique singing style. Her delivery of the traditional Scandinavian herding calls (kulning) provided a particular mood to the original game and carries over well into the updated songs and arrangements.

The official video game soundtrack is available for purchase as a digital download on Steam, Epic, and GOG.