The Maze of Games / The Maze of Games / The Maze of Games

Music composed, orchestrated and produced by Austin Wintory

Engineered by Lynne Earls
Mixed by Austin Wintory

Text by Mike Selinker
Translations by Christopher Kirk-Nielsen, Corinne Le Toquin, Mark Litzinger, Sara Müller, Matteo Marjoram and Adalberto Cavagnini

Album Art by Pete Venters and Elisa Teague

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MUSICIANS
Violin: Serena McKinney
Harp: Charissa Barger

English Horn: Lara Wickes
Piano: Mike Lang
Accordion: Austin Wintory
Mandolin: Tom Strahle
Viola: Rob Brophy
Bass Clarinet: Andrew Leonard

Violin (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13): Taylor Davis

Vocals: Holly Sedillos

Special Thanks: Mike Selinker and the team at Lone Shark Games (Marie Poole, Pete Venters, Gaby Weidling, Tanis O'Connor, Liz Smith, Evon Fuerst, and Elisa Teague) for their collective and rather blinding genius; the incredible musicians; Peter Rotter and Jasper Randall; Sarah Kovacs and the wonderful Kraft-Engel family; Emma Scott; Meg, Maw, Paw and Sis.

Music (c) 2014 by Austin Wintory
The Maze of Games (c) 2014 by Lone Shark Games

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"Welcome to Music from The Maze of Games, an album for the interactive puzzle novel of the same name by me and artist Pete Venters. I asked Austin to compose music that you could listen to as you read each of the six chapters of the novel. It grew into something more than that. As you partake in the auditory wonders, I encourage you to pay close attention to the compositions herein. Like with The Maze of Games, once you get in, it can be tricky to get out."
—Mike Selinker

As Mike so beautifully alludes to above, my involvement in The Maze of Games vastly surpassed any of my initial expectations. This project began as a simple conversation of "what ifs" regarding the intersection of an elaborately thought-out novel of puzzles with music of a similar flavor. What resulted was a series of arias that bent my mind further than anything else I could name. And what pure joy it was! Mike is without question one of the most brilliant and clever minds I've had the pleasure of working with.

I must also offer the highest praise to my cast of musicians here. The two core instrumentalists, Serena McKinney and Charissa Barger, delivered outstanding performances despite a grueling recording session of unrelentingly difficult music. Likewise, the additional musicians all credited below, stepping in briefly for each individual aria, played their parts beautifully. It's hard to describe the magic of seeing something pour out of a group like this, made seemingly so easy, and yet knowing how nightmarishly difficult it actually is.

And no amount of praise could sufficiently do justice to the achievement here of Holly Sedillos. I have had the privilege of working with her for several years now, but never has she impressed like this. These are sort of insanely difficult arias to sing, and as you'll hear, she navigated as only few could: with both precision and elegance, and an abundance of personality.

Times like this that I realize I'm a damn lucky guy.