We’ve just released the EUIV: Sounds from the Community: Kairi Soundtrack Part III!
This new Community Music Pack includes 13 new songs from Skye Kairi Sawler, a composer previously featured in two other music packs for Paradox Interactive’s flagship historical grand strategy game.
Inspired by the soundtracks of classic strategy games from the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kairi draws on the music from the many cultures you can play in Europa Universalis IV, crafting a musical landscape that mixes themes from Eastern and Western music in a way authentic to the Europa Universalis IV experience.
Get the pack on your platform of choice: click here Follow Kairi’s work on Soundcloud: click hereRead below for some words from Kairi regarding each of the music pack’s tracks.
Crossing the Seas Crossing the Seas was the first piece I ever composed with Europa Universalis in mind. It's funny, I think I ended up spending four full months to create it, and it got overshadowed almost immediately by other pieces that took far less time to compose. While it's not the most complex or intricate piece I've done, it holds a special place in my heart for being that first stepping stone into having my music in the game officially. It'll always be my favourite of the songs I've composed for EU4.~~~~~ | Prelude's March Prelude's March was a piece that was created in under a day, after Crossing the Seas was posted to the Steam Workshop and Paradox's Forums. The positive feedback I got flooded me with so much joy I think I ended up writing two or three songs in only a couple of days. This one in particular was the first time I had really played around with using a counter-melody as part of the main 'chorus' of the song, and I love how it turned out.~~~~~ |
City of the World's Desire My first attempt at doing music based around the Ottoman Empire, and surrounding landscape. I think it ended up becoming the more popular songs until I started reaching outside of Europe more. The number of instruments I'd never heard of until I composed the piece shocks me to this day.~~~~~ | March for the Empire March for the Empire got a complete re-work from its original. I was never really happy with the old version, but released it all the same to a middling response. For this project I decided to break it down and completely re-design the melody, while keeping the original feel of the song intact. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and it went from the songs I liked least from my original mod, to one of my favourites.~~~~~ |
Gaelic Summers I think Gaelic Summers is the only song I ever had multiple people directly message me to thank me for creating. It was a bit surreal at the time, just starting out as a composer; but now I just look back on it and smile. It's a simple piece, to be sure; but I felt I really captured it in the re-master.~~~~~ | Fine Day for Sacrifice I can clearly remember spending weeks trying to figure out a melody for this piece, my first delving into the Aztec Empire and surrounding area. I found it helped me a lot to focus more on the percussion initially, and let everything else just flow out. While the percussion itself changed slightly in the re-master, I was happy to find strange percussive sounds to add in to give it that original feeling back.~~~~~ |
Eastern Mists Eastern Mists I think was a huge stepping stone for me as a composer. Not only is it considered to be one of my better pieces from the original mod by a lot of folks; but it directly inspired my first soundtrack for EU4, which was also set in East Asia. For the re-master I kept true to that, and just focused on updating the quality, leaving the design and composition as close to original as I could.~~~~~ | Blood for the Old Gods Blood for the Old Gods was the second released track focusing on the Aztec Empire, but actually was the first I wrote. I had the percussion and base-line down weeks before starting Fine Day for Sacrifice; but couldn't figure out a melody until later on. Funny how that works. The bending woodwind notes ended up becoming so iconic for the piece I had to be sure they stayed in the re-master.~~~~~ |
Old Families For Old Families, I wanted to hone in on China, and the Ming Dynasty more than I had for Eastern Mists, I stuck to specifically instruments that were actually found in the area in the time EU4 is set; and while the re-master includes some additional instruments, that restriction is still accurate. I ended up keeping this theme of focusing on area-accurate instruments for a lot of my work going forward.~~~~~ | The Shogunate will Fall Japan! The Shogunate! I actually wrote this piece while playing as Takeda in EU4, and just became obsessed with the amazing instruments the time period had to offer. This ended up being the last piece I wrote for the original mod, as after that Paradox Contracted me directly for my first Soundtrack!~~~~~ |
Hundred Years War The Mod included three pieces based around great wars of Europe during EU4's time period, including the namesake for this piece. The original soundtrack Paradox commissioned was actually supposed to be five pieces based around the wars of Europe; but quickly into production we decided to swap things to an area the game's soundtrack didn't cover as much, East Asia. I ended up finishing this piece and releasing it into the mod later on; and at the time it was the piece I was most proud of, the harpsichord always floored me with how great it sounded.~~~~~ | La Bataille de Iberia Wow, France sure shows up in a lot of these, huh? This one for control of the Iberian Peninsula against Castile/Spain. I believe this was the first piece I ever composed that focused on a guitar, though the harpsichord definitely tries to overshadow it later on, as though the two sides were fighting with the melody itself.~~~~~ |
The Siege of Vienna The Siege of Vienna was the final piece that was in a rough draft before the first of the community soundtracks shifted focus; and it was my favourite. I wanted it to feel as though the H.R.E and the Ottoman Empire were battling in the music itself, as with the other 'War' themes; and I feel I really got that working. It was definitely tough to balance such contrasting sounds, but this remains a piece I consider to be one of the best I ever composed, even outside of EU4.~~~~~ |
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