[Interview] Mirror's Edge Composer Magnus Birgersson

We know it's a lame question, but do you have any favorite parts of the game or tracks that you're really proud of? It's mainly an excuse to gush about the puzzle theme in The Shard, but we're genuinely curious about any favorites that might have bubbled to the surface after so much time with the audio.

For now the entire track Kate is a little favorite.

Shard puzzle is a quite emotional peace of music also.

Depends on what mood I’m in I think. :)

How did you and Lisa Miskovsky get together for the game's main theme, and what kind of tweaks did you make to the instrumental version that plays on the main menu?

I got the stems from the original track, Vocals and instruments. I didn’t use the original sounds so much, Lisas vocals was the bigger part I used. I put the vocal tracks through some granular reverbs in a system called Symbolic Sound Kyma and remade some melodies with a very special harmonizer from that same system. Some other parts from the stem package I also used to keep it in the same spirit. But around 90% was created from scratch.

Okay, we have to ask, and we know you probably have to be diplomatic here, but how did you respond to the remix album? Despite having some artists that we love (particularly Junkie XL), none of the tracks came anywhere close to matching the more ambient feel of the game's music for us. Were there any other artists that you'd like to hear give the theme a once-over?

Thank you for that, happy that you enjoyed it.

I would have liked to see less electronica artists doing remixes or remakes of the track. More variations in the different genres.

Any plans to score other games, or was it an experience that was more trying than normal composition? Perhaps even easier in some ways?

For sure it would be a big pleasure to continue on projects like this, it was a great challenge and I had really fun doing this. Quite big difference when composing my normal Solar Fields music for albums.

Game audio is one of those areas that a lot of folks in the gaming press tend to gloss over. Was it frustrating to see a lot of the comments in reviews relegated to just a paragraph, or do you subscribe to the idea that if it's not mentioned, the music filled a space that would've otherwise felt lacking?

I think I got a very big and great response for the in game music from all over the world. Of course game sites and magazines doesn’t put to big focus on reviewing in game music, but I’m more than happy and thankful with all the nice feedback around the world I got in my mailbox.


We really can't thank Magnus enough for taking a little time out of his day to answer our questions. We know we came off a little fanboyish, but at least he didn't seem to mind all that much. Rest assured that when the formal announcement by EA of the sequel hits and more info is made available, we'll be giving a certain composer a call.

To hear more of Magnus Bigersson's work as Solar Fields, you can check out his official site or listen to select tracks over at his MySpace profile. Thanks again, Magnus!