Some comments on the music of the PC-game DIVINE DIVINITY (2002)
You can download the MP3-tracks in the download section at the right
Kirill just received honorable "Outstanding Achivement in Music" from IGN.com
Outstanding Achievement in Music : Divine Divinity - Larian Studios
With the quality of game music continuing to surge, this category had far more
worthy candidates than ever before. While it was very difficult to select just one,
our choice is the Divine Divinity soundtrack. Composed and created by Kirill Pokrovsky,
it very proficiently supports the changing moods and locations in the game,
never becoming either overwhelming or repetitive. http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/382/382567p2.html
The music within this game is also very appreciated and welcome. It is the type of music
that I would love to have a soundtrack of, as it is very appropriate in allowing you to experience
many different moods and emotions throughout your travels. Walk into a tavern, and you will hear
some very soothing music as you visit these areas. Travel through many of the villages in the game
and you will be treated to an assortment of very lively and finely created musical pieces.
The musical theme on the title page as you begin the game is also one of the game's finer selections
that you will not forget. Be prepared to turn the volume up the first time that you hear a musical
selection within this game, as it does a fantastic job in immersing the player within the game.
http://www.just-rpg.com/default.asp?pid=157
Atmosphere, Divine Divinity is packed with it, from graphics to the gorgeous music and audio
that accompanies your quest. The steady drip drip drip in the dungeon along with the rattle of the doors,
the life of a quiet village and the steady click, clatter of a skeleton in the dark – all serve to make
you more and more immersed in the game. Once again, it gets top marks from me and it’s not hard to see
why a lot of the fans want the music on CD. I’d pay for a CD of the soundtrack to this game.
It’s got a beautiful soundtrack that just oozes power and finesse. The composer I would rank up
there with the sublime Jeremy Seoul of Dungeon Siege and Morrowind fame."
Kilde: http://www.gamesxtreme.net/features.php?id=536
Best of all though is the Kirill Pokrovsky soundtrack to the game, with some of the most atmospheric and haunting
tunes to grace a game. In particular the main theme music you will hear at the menu is beautifully haunting,
with the operatic vocals sending a shiver down the spine.
Bloomin' marvellous! http://www.deadalfs.co.uk/d2k.php3?page=rev_divdiv
Overall Divine Divinity is good fun, with pleasant enough graphics and a simply quite
beautiful soundtrack. http://rpgvault.ign.com/news/2002-10-23.html
Second price for best music of the year, the first is soundtrack from 'Mafia' game
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/bestof2002/pc1.html
When you sit back and simply listen to Divine Divinity, it's difficult to believe
that a tiny group of developers such as Larian Studios could create an aural experience
that's every bit as majestic and immersive as anything you'll find among the year's A-list titles.
The soundtrack is full of thunderous, epic tracks that fit nicely in the fantasy realm, and although
they're not quite on par with Jeremy Soule's Icewind Dale or Morrowind scores, they're impressively close.
Some of the music in the game is just terrific
http://www.pcgamereview.com/reviews/roleplaying/Product_1888.asp?RVNum=-1T
The sound in DD is outstanding and second to none; Kirill Pokrovsky deserves kudos for
his work on this title. The background music is always appropriate and really sets the
mood and atmosphere for the game it’s some of the best music ive heard in an rpg.
The overall quality of the game made up for the voice acting and the music was phenominal.
The music score is also involving, from scary types of music when entering the cursed abbey,
or jovial songs when visiting the local pub, it just fits. Monster/creature sounds are also µ
fairly well done and are important as you may be able to hear a creature before seeing them
(based upon your hearing and seeing attributes), thus helping you to know their location.
The last component, the music, is a series of six or seven soundtracks that are well suited
to the environment. These are not cheaply made scores that sound thrown together but rather
are deeply moving compositions. It’s all to easy to become so involved in an rpg that one
nearly ignores the music. Don’t take my word for it, troop on over to Larian Studios web site
(http://www.larian.com/Site/english/divinity/music.html) and you can listen to them individually
on MP3 and I think you’ll agree that Kirill Pokrovsky has created musical backgrounds that
any rpg would be proud to have serve as background. My only complaint is they are too short but that is to be expected.
http://www.pcgamereview.com/reviews/roleplaying/Product_1888.asp?RVNum
The soundtrack is generally outstanding, musical, and affecting. …is made up for in the
consistently outstanding audio. One of the best soundtracks to come along in years.
http://evilavatar.com/redirected.asp?fromurl=http%3A//evilavatar.com/EA/Reviews/M41334
As for the music (which you have the aforementioned amazing mullet man to thank for),
never before in an isometric RPG has the score been so atmospheric that it's raised my
blood-pressure to dangerously high levels. R.Prachet
Divine Divinity Title Track : The title track from Divine Divinity is a special piece of music.
It sets the tone, the pace, the atmosphere for the whole game. It’s almost as angelic and prophetic
as it is deep, engrossing, and emphatic… the music helps you immerse yourself into the role of the Divine One.
Will you survive…? Will you fulfill your quests? Will you deliver? The music will set you on your way, but the rest is up to you.
http://users.skynet.be/kejero/divinity/main.htm
Some good sound effects serve to enhance the action and the ambience in the game,
but the musical score, credited to Kirill Pokrovsky, deserves special mention.
This haunting, memorable soundtrack stunningly uses strings, percussion, and choir
vocals to create an effect that enriches every aspect of the gameplay. Most every song
in the soundtrack sounds amazing, and yet there's tremendous variety in it, ranging from
minstrel tunes that greet you when you walk into a tavern, to lonely, atmospheric melodies
for when you're crossing through the dangerous countryside. There have been numerous great
soundtracks in games this year, including those of games like Medal of Honor:
Allied Assault, Freedom Force, Mafia, and Icewind Dale II. And the musical score of
Divine Divinity is right up there with them and is arguably the best yet at drawing
you into the experience. http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/reviews/0,10867,2881880-2,00.html
The music is wonderful and filled with many haunting and memorable themes.
http://www.techtv.com/extendedplay/reviews/story/0,24330,3406458,00.html
Acting is adequate, better for some characters, definitely worse for others.
Sound effects are fine. Music is excellent.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/376/376019p4.html
The Devil’s Orchestra Pit : Kirill Pokrovsky has spun together elements distinctly celtic,
classical, gothic, and ambient for Divine Divinity’s lush, and oftentimes intense, score.
Again, at the risk of sounding cliché, at times the music sounds somewhere comfortably
between the tribal ambiance of Diablo II and the orchestral grandeur of Baldur’s Gate.
Occasionally, some of the drum-heavy tracks can get tiring to the ear, but I never felt
the need to disable the musical score and load up ye olde WinAMP. While, compositionally,
Pokrovsky’s score is very strong, it seems as though he could have drastically benefited
from higher-quality samples. On occasion the strings sound too synth-like, spoiling the
overall effect, a further disappointment given how strong Divine Divinity’s atmosphere is.
About sounds and music : I love the music in this game. Any game where you walk into
a place such as a tavern or military camp and it SOUNDS like you walked into that place
gets a big plus. The only music that didn't seem to fit was the music for the wasteland
area near the ending of the game. At times it simply sounded too techno for a fantasy setting.
However, I liked the way it changed to a lonely ghost town western theme when you enter the
game's last bastion of civilization. Other than that one instance the music fit the surroundings
well whether it was the wistful and sad music in the Elf Ruins or the rollicking, feel-good
music when you stepped into the Dwarven Bread Inn. Kirill Pokrovsky should take a bow for
creating a truly fine soundtrack for this game. Even if you don't buy the game, go to Larian's
Divinity website and listen to the game music. http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10053&ID=430
The music within this game is also very appreciated and welcome. It is the type of music that
I would love to have a soundtrack of, as it is very appropriate in allowing you to experience
many different moods and emotions throughout your travels. Walk into a tavern, and you will hear
some very soothing music as you visit these areas. Travel through many of the villages in the
game and you will be treated to an assortment of very lively and finely created musical pieces.
The musical theme on the title page as you begin the game is also one of the game's finer
elections that you will not forget. Be prepared to turn the volume up the first time that
you hear a musical selection within this game, as it does a fantastic job in immersing the
player within the game. http://www.just-rpg.com/default.asp?pid=157
The background music is exceptional, with melodies that I found myself humming even when
I wasn't playing. Rpg voult
The soundtrack is generally outstanding, musical, and affecting. One of the best soundtracks to come along in years.
Evil operator
Ein eigenes Kapitel verdient in jedem Fall die Musik von Divine Divinity.
Schon beim ersten Hören des Intros war ich erstaunt, wie clever hier ganz verschiedene
musikalische Komponenten zu einem tollen und ins Ohr gehenden Titelthema verschmolzen wurden.
Gleiches gilt auch für alle anderen Hauptthemen der verschiedenen Level. Klassik, Folk,
manchmal modernere Klänge ergeben eine ganze Reihe durchweg hochklassiger Musikstücke,
die manchmal auch mit einem kleinen Augenzwinkern die jeweilige Umgebung charakterisieren,
so hört man beispielsweile im letzten, weitgehend aus Wüste bestehenden Abschnitt,
unverhohlen arabische Tonskalen. Ihr Schöpfer ist der aus Russland stammende Kirill Pokrovsky (Hörproben),
dessen schillernde Vita unter anderem die Mitgliedschaft in einer der wenigen auch international bekannten
(und sehr kultigen!) Rockbands namens Aria, aber auch klassischen Kompositionsunterricht am Moskauer
Konservatorium umfasst. Ich hoffe sehr, dass der gute Mann weiterhin viele Gelegenheiten bekommt, s
olch phantastische Musik für PC-Spiele zu schreiben, die allein eigentlich schon das Geld wert ist,
auch wenn man die einzelnen Tracks auch aus dem Netz laden kann. :)
http://www.yiya.de/cgi-bin/views/viewrw.pl?id=divd0101 (Mountainking)
der wahre Höhepunkt von Divine Divinity liegt bei der Musik.
Das Spiel bietet zahlreiche Stücke die alle samt unterschiedlich sind und auch nicht
nach mehrmaligen Hören langweilig werden.
Auf der Larian Studios Homepage kann man sich ein paar Probestücke downloaden und schauen
ob sie einem gefallen oder nicht. Außerdem wünschen sich viele Spieler, unter anderem auch ich selbst,
einen Soundtrack von dem Spiel. Das alles deutet auf die großartige Leistung von Kirill Pokrovsky,
dem verantwortlichen Musikkomponisten, hin.
http://www.schattenjaeger.de/index.htm?divinedivinity/divinedivinityfazit.htm
TRACKS FROM THE PC GAME DIVINE DIVINITY (2002)
Music Kirill composed for this PC-game at Larian Studios in 2002
You can download some MP3's here (rightclick and save)
Title Track 
The title track from Divine Divinity is a special piece of music.
It sets the tone, the pace, the atmosphere for the whole game.
It’s almost as angelic and prophetic as it is deep, engrossing,
and emphatic… the music helps you immerse yourself into the role of the Divine One.
Will you survive…? Will you fulfill your quests? Will you deliver?
The music will set you on your way, but the rest is up to you.
War and Peace
This piece of music was created with live violins in which two emotions are represented,
passion and the cold power of magic. The music was recorded with percussions playing live and an acoustic violin.
This piece of music appears in the game, in the town Verdistis.
The song very clearly represents the tension that exists in the city between
the few forces ruling it and the rest of the citizens who are poor and have no power
to defend themselves. The citizens are not happy with their conditions and therefore
the music is very tense and sad and the same time, its rhythm clearly represents the busy life.
Desert Fight
This particular song is set against the background of the Wastelands,
one of the areas the player will travel through while playing Divinity.
It was composed and produced by Kirill Pokrovsky, the russian composer
who creates the entire soundtrack for "Divine Divinity".
Forest (Courtesy of Larian Studios)
This is one of the many themes you will be hearing while travelling the forests of Divinity.
The difference with the other songs is quite drastic,
and gives you an idea how we try to evoke the right emotion at the right time.
Demona's Run
This music is ripped from one of the many "story" scenes in the game,
this one being "Demona's Run". Imagine a heavy thunderstorm on a dark day.
Suddenly, apparently out of nowhere, three figures materialize, a witch and her two skeletal minions.
The skeletal warriors position themselves in front of the witch, and the three of them
march rapidly towards the keep of the powerful wizard Zandalor, who is not exactly their friend...
Bitva (Battle)
This is russian for 'battle'. Bitva is a very complex piece of music and Kirill,
the composer, spent almost three months recording and mixing this piece.
He used not only choirs, orchestral sounds, but also bass guitar, electric guitar and rock drums.
There were a lot of doubts and discussions, but Kirill believes that it is a truly postmodern way
of combining things that were not possible before, and it is his first composition for the 21th century.
You will hear russian and celtic influences in the song.
Voin (Warrior)
This piece was our first internal test of how the blending system might sound.
You are hearing different parts of different pieces attached to each other.
While for this song it was done manually, the blending system in the game sounds similar.
Voin is Russian for 'warrior'.
Please visit the Larian Studios website :
