Bruno Brôa – The Night is Grey – Original Soundtrack (Album Review)

The beautifully chilling OST for new point & click adventure/thriller game ‘The Night is Grey’ by Portuguese composer Bruno Brôa, is entirely captivating and immersive in its haunting cinematic ambience that only adds to the game’s dark narrative.

Brôa, who was previously involved in various bands, scoring video adverts, short films and theatre productions, has proved that his talent in music composition knows no bounds, particularly when setting out to craft an absorbing listening experience for his audience.

The game ‘The Night is Grey’ follows a man and a lost young girl that must flee from a pack of wolves in the forest. Brôa’s score brilliantly underlays the challenges and puzzles players must face throughout the game, and lends ‘The Night is Grey’ a mysterious atmosphere that is suitably unsettling and curious.

The album’s 1st track, ‘A Forest of Disquiet’, perfectly illustrates the dark and tense environment players are introduced to in the game; the beginning eerily distant string intro crafting an intensity that sounds terrifying and somehow disorienting. A quiet piano melody lends a delicate edge to the gentle string background, which only further achieves drawing listeners into a world that seems far too still, as if something unidentifiable is lurking nearby. This is a fantastic introduction to the main threat of the game: the savage wolves. The somnulently steady tempo of the track also matches the game’s night setting and provides the listener/player with an ambience that charms with a mystic energy.

The following track, ‘Together We Wander’, seems to characterise the start of the game’s two protagonists’ tense journey to find the girl’s missing mother. Brôa’s diverse background as a multi-instrumentalist shines the more the players get into the soundtrack; the wide collection of instruments and arrangements adding further intrigue and depth to the narrative of the game. This 2nd track opens with an echoing percussive intro which melds seamlessly with the growing volume of the strings. Guest instrumentalist André Bispo on guitars and synths in both ‘Together We Wander’ and ‘A Forest of Disquiet’ allows the soundtrack to prey on the listeners’ lilting sense of loneliness and unease during the game.

‘Cave Dwellers’ vamps this hollow ambience up to the next level with its thunderous burst of low strings and vacant pattern of synths that layer together in a mesmerising fashion. A heavily reverbed guitar sings a sad and frankly spine-chilling lullaby over this, mapping out the characters’ dangerous and solitary journey in the dead of night. Similarly, the foreboding piano bass notes played in ‘Judge and Executioner’ demonstrate a very clear threat that dominates the players’ mind while carrying out tasks and missions in the game.

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The dreamy acoustic opening to ‘Blissfully Unaware’ is perhaps a slight shift in an atmosphere previously ruled by its thrills of tension and potential scares. While this track is lighter both in tone and delivery, there is still a faintly lingering feeling of unrest, which is suggested through the slight dissonance between a sweeping string background and the leisurely melody of an electric guitar.

The action element of the game is bolstered in ‘A Nice and Steady Heart’ by a marching drum beat, courtesy of guest musician Filipe Paradela, which is paired with a lively chorus of horns. Although, the 7th and 8th tracks ‘All is Fine By the Shoreline’ and ‘What the Shore Dragged In’, again switch up the tone of the soundtrack completely with the return of a gorgeous beachy guitar, Brôa manages to maintain the crucial element of thrill in ‘The Night is Grey’, while adding layer upon layer of complexity and depth into his soundtrack. This is both to reflect the changing thoughts and feelings of the characters during their mission, and also to reference the dark topics raised subliminally throughout gameplay, such as abuse, trauma and abandonment.

‘A Handful of Nothing’ is a harrowingly sobering piece; an emotionally performed string arrangement alongside Brôa’s recognisably mournful guitar dramatically leads listeners into the game’s finale, which reaches its climax in the final track ‘The Night is Grey’. A sombre piano leads the way for the album’s closing track, which is shrouded in a sombre mystery that no doubt frames the game’s shocking twist ending in an unforgettably haunting ambience.

Score/Excellent: The game ‘The Night is Grey’ is not just worth acclaim for its hand-drawn animations and engaging narrative, but also for Brôa’s eerily beautiful score. While never too much, the soundtrack achieves in contributing a mesmerising dramaticism to the game, which in turn emphasises the twists and turns of the narrative as well as the physical and mental peril the characters face. Players and listeners alike, once you have heard the soundtrack to ‘The Night is Grey’, you won’t be forgetting it in a hurry.

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