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Years ago when we started making The Path with Kris and Jarboe on board to do the soundtrack I kind of dreamed of this day. Well now I can say the circle is round and this journey is complete. Not only can you get The Path Soundtrack on CD from us and from the wonderful publisher Paradigms Recordings, but now you can download the music from iTunes and emusic… And probably a few other music download portals as well! Not sure why, but it makes me unspeakably happy to see (and hear) the compositions they made out there among all the other music in the world. They do this album release thing all the time, but for me it’s a first! Having everything available, out there, being listened to by everyone now… makes it all feel more real.
Get The Path Soundtrack on iTunes!
Get The Path Soundtrack on emusic!
The Path original soundtrack CD is now available through our online store! Check it out here. We only have a few copies available but it will continue to be available through Paradigms Recordings until they sell out.
MP3 downloads will be coming soon!
Yes! This is really happening!
You can now pre-order The Path Soundtrack CD! Or choose the absolutely beautiful CD + T-Shirt package. All created by our friends at UK based label Paradigms Recordings.
The CD is a limited edition digipak. Only 500 have been printed. Paradigms will be shipping the pre-orders at the beginning of May.
Here’s the blurb:
Paradigms Recordings is very proud to announce a rather special new release – “THE PATH” is the haunting soundtrack to the boutique computer game of the same name, developed by Tale Of Tales Studios. Kris Force (Amber Asylum / Neurosis) and the legendary Swans vocalist Jarboe were comissioned to compose the music for, narrate and vocalise this dark horror concept. The result is one hour of truly mesmerizing, disturbing, blackened fairy tale sonics. From delicate songwriting to Jarboe’s demonic, possessed rasp all wrapped up in dense, claustrophobic atmospheres and harrowing stories, this is some of the most potent work from these two distinguished artists.
Needless to say we here at Tale of Tales are breathlessly excited to get the soundtrack out there! 😀
After a slight delay:
We received everything we needed for this edition yesterday. I spent today putting everything together.
leisurely making poster “tattoos” was a very pleasant way to spend the morning!
I hope everyone enjoys the personalizations on the posters. 🙂
Our main blog may be closed but The Path blog rolls on!
In fact, expect major announcements. Including the long awaited, coming of The Path Soundtrack album, coming later this month!
And here’s an overview of what went has gone on recently:
We published The Path postmortem chronicling the making of the game. This was a great way for us to look back on the history of the project, even if it is impossible to describe 3 years of development in a summary fashion!
On The Path blog there were 10 days of posts written from a very personal perspective to supplement the grand postmortem essay. These stories were full of insights about the Red Girls and their Wolves. And we uploaded tons of work in progress imagery, drawings and screenshots covering the entire development, on Flickr on The Path Archive. So if you are curious about the making of the game, have a look at all the Anniversary posts listed there.
The Path translations patch for windows received an upgrade. And these translations are now available for our Steam players as well.
We published 2 new interviews with artists that we consider inspirational and whom we wanted more people to know about.
The special Anniversary Edition USB stick version of the game +poster is still available in our online store.
And there is more to come. Keep an eye on this blog via RSS or follow us on twitter or facebook for updates!
When you reach Grandmothers House, it is night. But once inside you discover things may not be as you remember them. It is a memory of a house, of a relationship between two generations, and possibly another more sinister presence. You head through the corridors to the Bedroom. If you haven’t met the murduring wolf GAME OVER. Begin again. If you have, you find grandmother dead. And you are murdered as well. SUCCESS! Begin Again. Only this time, there is one less Red avatar to choose from.
–From the 2006 design document for The Path.
As you get closer to her house the sun sets. So her home is always shrouded in darkness. And you can see the forest also at night by entering closer to Grandmother’s House (thus the colors you see will vary depending on the ‘time of day’ you enter the forest.)
So what, exactly, is up with Grandmother?
In the fairy tales, Grandmother is a bed-ridden enigma. So we let it be in The Path. One must think of all the possible symbolism of her Bedroom (where the story ineveitably always ends.) and her Bed (which makes an appearance at every end-game.) In this house, the girls find a way to either remember or misremember or fantasize all their love for grandmother and angst for her unknown ways. Not to mention a place to revel in their own traumatic situations. But what traumas do young girls have. Trouble at school, dark places under the bed, coming to terms with growing up.
And thus her house becomes what the girls want to see. If no wolf has gotten there first then it is simply about the relationship between the girl and her grandmother. The house can get quite odd. The overlays you see when interacting with objects in the Forest all relate back to these, half remembered half imagined ‘memories’ the girls have, that they put into their ‘basket’ and bring with them to their Grandmother’s House. They invade her home as much as the wolves do. Leaving you to wonder if any of it is really happening at all in Grandmother’s reality.
these are the various reference sheets we used to clarify what each girl’s experience of the house would be.
Of course, if you meet the wolf in the forest the path to the bedroom changes. The wolf invasions superimpose themselves on the ‘Safe’ configurations of Grandmother’s House. Suddenly rooms which before seemed dark and eerie are now damaged and transfigured, seen through the lens of the each girls new experience. Her world is changed. The house is changed. The comfort of the normal ending at Grandmother’s side is lost to her forever. Yes, an intense experience. But in every case, we hope, an experience worth having.
And here at last, the last of the wolves. The Cloud Wolf appears, like the weather. He doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, he just is. He is beautiful like a thunderstorm. You can only sit back and admire the destruction he causes.
So indeed in his making I had strong ideas about him. But damn if I can explain anything underlying his part in the game in words.
If I had to pick a ‘favorite’ wolf of my own, it must be the Cloud Wolf. Beyond all words. Every time I see the scene with Rose on the lake tears come to my eyes.
No I don’t know who he is. No one does, least of all her, or me. She aspires to know. She loves. Because pure love is all Rose knows.
[audio:tippysdemise.mp3]
and some music to take us out.
