In an ocean, on an island, in a sea, on an island, in a lake, on an island, in a tower, in an ocean, on an island, in a tower, I will be.

I'm a nerd.

Yeah. You may not have realised this. But I can prove it. I play Dungeons and Dragons. It is in small writing because it is shameful. I play with a fine group of beautiful people (yeah, the photograph was touched up for a good reason) called the Chelon Rose, and we have been playing for seven years! So anyway, when one of the Dungeon Masters asked me to write some music for the game, I saw an opportunity to have a lot of fun musically. So I did, allowing myself to go completely over the top with a movie soundtrack to our anniversary game.

photograph and artwork by: Travis Williams (aka Calces, Eden and Taya).
You can have a listen to the soundtrack to the game below, by clicking on the play symbol or right clicking to download.

Enter the island.mp3

The full title of the piece is ''In an ocean, on an island, in a sea, on an island, in a lake, on an island, in a tower, in an ocean, on an island, in a tower, I will be.'' But you can refer to it as "Enter the Island" if you must.

It is a piece for small orchestra and has three distinct themes: The Chelon Rose Theme, Mion's Theme, The Overland Theme.

The Chelon Rose Theme began its life as a reference to the minimalist composer Michael Nyman's piece ''Knights at School". This is because, in previous years, we had used this piece as a kind of anthem for our games, and I wanted the crew to recognise it. However, after referencing this piece it goes off on its own journey, sounding quite regal and over the top, and unusually for me, I did not hold back on brass, cymbols and gongs.

Mion's Theme. My neighbour Harmony, sounding every bit like an ethereal Celtic lady of the lake, emerges from recordings of a beach, to do a beautiful job singing this theme. She composed a charming vocal melody that dovetails well with the accompaniment of cellos, french horns and clarinets. The theme, also the title of this piece, are clues to a dead emperors treasure horde (Mion), and are meant to be followed literally. The phrase ''In an ocean, on an island, in a sea, on an island, in a lake, on an island, in a tower, in an ocean, on an island, in a tower, I will be'' has been famous in our gaming group for years now, and the crew were charmed to hear it unexpectedly sung during the game.

The Overland Theme was a good opportunity for me to introduce some music that could accompany typical adventure games. For this I took influence from the Japanese animation films of Hayao Miyazake (a genius), and other adventure films popular among nerds, such as Conan the Barbarian. Such music had already been popular as soundtracks to previous games. I tried to invoke the steppes of Mongolia with a rolling bass line, enigmatic strings, an eastern theme on a Stradivari violin, a spacious counterpoint on french horn and discordant flutes for that wind swept feel.