Assassin's Creed II soundtrack

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The Assassin's Creed II soundtrack is a collection of music tracks composed by Danish composer Jesper Kyd that were used as background music in Assassin's Creed II.

It was released online on November 16, 2009 by Ubisoft Music. Players who pre-ordered the Black Edition of Assassin's Creed II received a bonus DVD containing a 14-tracks soundtrack, trailers, and wallpapers.

Background

After the success of the first game, selling over 8 million copies by 2009, the Assassin's Creed franchise began. Ubisoft quickly starting developing a sequel, Assassin's Creed II and brought Jesper Kyd back to compose. Assassin's Creed II, now set in Renaissance-era Italy with a different protagonist, Ezio, needed a different sound for the score. Kyd was also given much more creative freedom as they had learned from the creation of the first and experimented more with the music. Ubisoft did not want authentic Renaissance-era as they thought it would bore the players, instead instructing Kyd to modernize it slightly.

Assassin's Creed II creative director, Patrice Désilets described Kyd's soundtrack as being able to:

bring [sic] players into the Italian Renaissance by providing a true sense of depth for the poignant moments, while also giving a jolt of adrenaline to the action-packed sequences.

There was an unreleased track that was originally intended to be Rodrigo Borgia's combat theme. Jesper Kyd released this, along with four other tracks, on his Facebook page. The track was released on the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood soundtrack as a slightly modified version named "End Fight" and was listed as an Assassin's Creed II bonus track.

The soundtrack included with the Black Edition of Assassin's Creed II, although marketed as a "complete" soundtrack, had less than half of the tracks on Disc 1. Instead, it was actually a compilation of cues randomly selected from the above two albums, shown by the fact that few of the tracks even follow the arrangement on their original discs.

Composition

The prologue track "Earth (Heart)" introduces listeners to the game with its melancholic symphony of acoustic guitar and female voices full of sadness. In the second minute of the track, the composition changes rapidly, gathering momentum. After a few seconds, the track reaches its emotional peak adding in electro-guitar and a string ensemble. It ends in a rapid whirlpool of assertive percussion and electronic effects.

The second track "Venice Rooftops", begins with a concise introductory part containing dynamic rhythms as a basis and already familiar sound design: strings and violin, a drop of electronics and an abundance of vocal parts. The third track "Ezio's Family" is similar to "Earth (Heart)", being a calmer version of the prologue track without rhythm or an electronic part, but uses the same leitmotif and sealing the vocal part. Keyboards and solo strings are also present. The cues used in the prologue track, now represent a sense of danger.

"Florence Tarantella" was described as the most baroque-sounding track, evoking sounds of the countryside. Sections of it have some similarities with Irish jigs. "Home in Florence" has a more ambient beginning with keyboards and pianos in seemingly random loops before a calming choral pad soothes it all away.

The two tracks, "Approaching Target 1" and "Approaching Target 2" contain more tense ambient sections. With the second one having more clout than the first as the timpanist get into the mix with deep brass sounds. The need for the tracks to accompany the protagonist sneaking around is downplayed, however there is still a level of complexity to it with several more sounds playing out in the background instead.

The track "Venice Fight" was noted by Game-OST as sounding similar to Michael McCann, composer of another Ubisoft title Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. It contains a combination of both electronic sounds and general orchestral music. The percussion instruments give a sense of urgency to the track, and leads into the next, "Florence Escape". This track has multiple elements present, massive drums, discordant vocals, bending strings and heavy basslines.

"Tour of Venice" evokes emotions befitting the Italian city. There is also a delicacy to it, the track has a slow-motion feeling of descent into the depths below. A theme of haunting despair is heard due to the ever present angelic vocals against an uncertain backdrop of strings.

Track listing

Disc one

1. Earth (Heart) - 3:59
2. Venice Rooftops - 3:19
3. Ezio's Family - 3:58
4. Florence Tarantella - 1:52
5. Home In Florence - 4:30
6. Approaching Target 1 - 3:36
7. Approaching Target 2 - 6:07
8. Venice Fight - 2:02
9. Florence Escape - 2:50
10. Tour Of Venice - 3:16
11. Flight Over Venice - 5:10
12. Back In Venice - 1:33
13. Dream Of Venice - 4:24
14. Home Of The Brotherhood - 3:27
15. Leonardo's Inventions Part 1 - 2:12
16. Venice Combat Low - 1:44
17. Venice Escape - 3:27

Disc two

1. Darkness Falls In Florence - 4:50
2. Sanctuary - 4:06
3. The Madam - 1:05
4. Approaching The Target 3 - 5:53
5. Flight Over Venice 2 - 5:19
6. Ezio In Florence - 2:19
7. Venice Industry - 3:09
8. Stealth - 2:23
9. Venice Combat - 2:04
10. Notorious - 1:15
11. Night Mission In Venice - 2:12
12. Chariot Chase - 3:21
13. The Plague - 3:30
14. Wetlands Combat - 2:49
15. Wetlands Escape - 2:37
16. Leonardo's Inventions Part 2 - 2:48
17. Hideout - 2:40
18. The Animus 2.0 - 4:14

Black Edition bonus DVD

Assassin's Creed II Bonus DVD included in the Black Edition

Track listing

1. Earth - 3:59
2. Venice Rooftops - 3:18
3. Ezio in Florence - 2:19
4. Home in Florence - 5:02
5. Ezio's Family - 4:21
6. Sanctuary - 3:56
7. Stealth - 2:20
8. Florence Escape - 2:50
9. Approaching Target 1 - 3:34
10. Approaching Target 2 - 6:07
11. Leonardo's Invention, Part 1 - 2:22
12. Tour of Venice - 3:16
13. Flight Over Venice - 4:50
14. Darkness Falls - 4:05