Description
This soundtrack is mostly orchestral, with lots of strings, piano and orchestral percussion. There are elements of jazz also sprinkled in.

In the hypothetical A Dash From Home, the main character lives a peaceful life with their family at home. They laugh, they play and life is good. However, their home is attacked and you run for your life. You run from location to location, searching for a new home all whilst being chased by criminals who drove you away.

There are three songs that are based on the leitmotif I simply call “Home”, and the three “Running Through…” songs are all based on their own leitmotif I called “Run”. I took inspiration from Bravely Default 2, where the main overworld music is the same basic song, but has different styles depending on which area you’re currently exploring. So, all of my “Run” motif songs are all the same melody but with vastly different styles. This made it easier to make music under the time constraint, have a solid connection between songs, and serve as a fun way to practice writing in different styles.

I used Reaper for all the tracks and many different sample plugins mostly a part of Native Instrument's Kontakt Komplete and Spitfire Audio's LABS along with some other one off plugins.

Track 1: Farewell
This track plays when your home is attacked, forcing you to start running. I envision this being a sad moment that needs time to breathe. The instrumentation is very simple, consisting of a piano, string section and solo cello. The solo cello swells with the “home” motif, marking its first appearance. While this is a sad moment, I didn’t want to start the soundtrack on a somber note, especially when there is a lot more to go. I picture the hopeful ending to the piece reflecting in game as an optimistic remark that maybe you won’t have to run forever.

Track 2: Running Through the Woodlands
This is a very typical “forest” theme with pizzicato strings and woodwind sounds. This is the first of the three “Run” themes, and it’s quite playful with the bouncing strings and mallets. In the game, this would most likely be the first area you would be traversing through. A dense forest is the perfect playground to get accustomed to controls and obstacles after all.

Track 3: Running Through the Seaside
The next running track is a completely different style. To exhibit the feeling of a seaside adventure, I heavily leaned into Latin Jazz percussion. Lots of Congas, Bongo, Maracas, Claves and more. All of the percussion was made very easy thanks to NI's Cuba plugin, which has a simple way of editing a groove and looping it allowing various instruments to exists on one track. The rhythm section stays busy on this one. Piano, Acoustic Guitar and Accordion take over as melodic instruments and are trading the melody and countermelody constantly. This is personally my favorite one of the OST, the Accordion sound mixed with the groovy rhythm just makes it really fun to listen too.

Track 4: Running Through the Frozen Glades
Slowing things down is the final running piece based on running through a field of snow. I envision this as a final area in the game. The chilling environment, the barren landscape and thick snow making it hard to move serve as a perfect challenge to transition to the final parts of the game. This track is quite simple to reflect the bareness of the area, with all instruments playing in the upper registers. Though to add a bit of texture, hand bells softly play throughout the whole piece and pan from left or right. This helps keep things interesting and gives a feeling of loneliness or being lost.

Track 5: Run Away!
The penultimate track is the final showdown. After making through the treacherous snow lands, your pursuers finally catch up to you. This is the final stretch of the journey, so all you can do is run away one last time.

Track 6: Home Away From Home
An almost reprise of Farewell, this track wraps up the adventure with a triumphant piece. It fits very well as a finale piece with a lot of expression with tempo.

I hope you enjoy!

Message from the artist:
This was a lot of fun. I really love doing music and I learned a lot thanks to this experince. Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciated as I'm still learning a lot about Music Production. I'm excited to listen to everyone else's submissions. Thank you for listening!

Theme:

How does it fit the theme?
The story of the game is about someone who is forced to run away from home in search of a new one. Each new environment they run through has a unique style too the central theme.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/soltairus/sets/a-dash-from-home