Tavern Tunes - The Voyage of the Secret Shrine

Rare's Music Director Robin Beanland is the man behind some unforgettable Rare soundtracks – from Killer Instinct to Rare Replay by way of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Jet Force Gemini – and his work on Sea of Thieves is already taking it to the next level.

So by popular request we've been isolating the music made public in our trailers and Technical Alpha build so far and releasing it on YouTube, which has resulted in the following piratical mini-playlist:

• The Sea of Thieves (from the game's E3 2015 debut)
• We Shall Sail Together (from the E3 2016 Cinematic Trailer)
• Maiden Voyage (from the E3 2016 Gameplay Trailer)
• Adventure Awaits (from the Technical Alpha)

And now this, the full track accompanying our E3 2017 Gameplay Walkthrough:

As is traditional, we sat down with Robin and got him to divulge some details on the composition of this particular piece (and here's the Gameplay Walkthrough itself for reference to the events mentioned):

"The first stretch of this tune is mostly ambient and full of the kind of melodies and stings you can expect to hear during normal gameplay, before it kicks into high-stakes trailer mode during the escape from the cave.

"It also introduces the underwater shipwreck music early in the trailer as a player dives down to look for sunken chests. This is based on a whole tone scale, featuring a bass clarinet and legato basses on the melodies. When a shark appears and attacks, that in turn triggers a constantly rising Shepard tone on the nyckelharpa to increase the tension.

"During the section in the caves, you can hear a slow version of the Sea of Thieves theme being played on bass clarinet underscored with tremolo strings. The tune that plays when the shrine is activated was originally written just for this trailer, but is now planned to make it into the game after the Design team took a liking to it – an example of how things are constantly cross-pollinating.

"When the skellies attack to stop the player escaping with the chest, we hear the skelly music which has a bowed hammer dulcimer bed, overlaid with some heavily rosined nyckelharpa nastiness – and as more skellies join the fight, the music gets more unhinged. Again, something that you should be able to listen out for in the final game!"

Surely it's worth getting lost in music one more time with all these extra details in mind. So enjoy, and feel free to discuss this and any other Sea of Thieves thoughts swirling around your head on any of our social channels below!