Journey’s Gorgeous Soundtrack Reimagined With Help From The London Symphony Orchestra

Austin Wintory was 24 years old when he began composing the soundtrack to Journey, the groundbreaking video game that not only propelled his career to new heights, but also launched a new era of indie gaming on the PlayStation 3.

He was 27 when the game was released. He poured three years of his life into the game, working closely with ThatGameCompany’s team of developers and artists on the title.

It was a curious process. The team would come up with the idea for a stage and then Wintory would compose some music to set the mood. Once the stage was close to complete, he’d play through it, composing as he went, fine-tuning the sound to fit every possible situation a player might find themselves in.

The result was groundbreaking and profound.

Journey remains one of my personal favorites, and it’s a video game I recommend to everyone, whether or not they’re a gamer. It tells such a powerful story in a way that could only be done via this medium. There is no dialogue, no text, just the game. The narrative unfolds through its visuals, through its puzzles and platforming, through its fascinating and surprising cooperative multiplayer and, of course, through its music and sound design.

Journey released on the PlayStation 3 way back in March of 2012—a gentler, simpler time. Now, ten years later, to celebrate the game’s legacy on its 10th birthday, Wintory has released Traveler: A Journey Symphony (though he prefers to just call it Traveler). This is not just a re-release or remaster of the game’s original soundtrack. It’s something entirely new; not merely re-orchestrated, but often reimagined entirely.

Wintory took the original and composed each song for a full orchestra—the London Symphony Orchestra, to be precise, which had reached out to Wintory about working together on a project. It wasn’t until sometime later that the idea of an orchestral version Journey occurred to him. So he set to work composing and then flew out to London and spent a week recording all ten tracks. Wintory self-financed the entire project and co-produced it with Andrea Pessino.

It’s quite something. The original score is beautiful and often quite sparse in its beauty. The new version is bigger, more complex and dramatic. You should listen to it for yourself, of course, and can do so on Bandcamp (for free, though you can also purchase Traveler for $7). If you’ve played Journey this will make you want to play again.

I spoke with Wintory before the release of Traveler for my podcast and it’s a pretty fun conversation. Austin has so many stories and a great deal of enthusiasm for his craft and it’s a bit infectious. You can give it a listen here (or on iTunes) or watch the video version below.

This isn’t just a celebration of the game, either. Wintory is paying homage to the game, of course, but this is also a love letter to the fans. In our conversation, he was effusive in his gratitude toward the community that made Journey a hit. “I hope the people who hopefully find the album recognize that it is for them and wouldn’t have been possible without them,” Wintory tells me. “And that’s not a platitude.”

“My hope is that this album indulges that fantasy of feeling something old as if for the first time,” Wintory says. I think he’s achieved that goal.

ThatGameCompany is also celebrating Journey’s 10th Anniversary with a 50% off sale on Steam and the PlayStation Store. If you haven’t played it yet, do yourself a favor and go buy it and play it right now. In one sitting. It’s a masterpiece.

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