Sukuba Ensemble: Game Music by Beautiful People

Game music is often just as important as the story or mechanics themselves. In this interview, Kuba from Sukuba Ensemble tells you what it’s like to not only play game soundtracks but to rehearse and create them too!

For those hearing the name for the first time: What is Sukuba Ensemble? Tell us about it!

The Sukuba Ensemble is a loose collective of beautiful people and fans of fantasy, folklore, and history, but above all, soundtracks from digital games of all genres and eras. That "loose collective" (and the word "Ensemble" in the name) mainly means we don't just play in our full seven-member lineup; sometimes we play in smaller groups—it depends on the type of event, the atmosphere, the mood, the technical setup, and the time.

What led to the band's formation, and why is game music in your repertoire?

As a gamer and a musician, I had been flirting with the idea of connecting these two great passions long before the Sukuba Ensemble. I also always wanted to play the main themes from The Elder Scrolls series or Assassin’s Creed.

The first spark for this desire was a friend's wedding, where they asked me and another singer to perform Lullaby of Woe from the The Witcher 3 soundtrack for their dance routine. I grabbed the opportunity, and we rehearsed a few more songs. They were other tracks from The Witcher, some from Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout, etc.

Then came the pandemic and lockdowns. To keep my mind busy and maybe learn something new, I bought a new recording microphone and recorded a cover of Lament of Orpheus from the game Hades. It was a huge challenge because it’s sung entirely in falsetto, and I don't think I’d ever sung that high before. I mixed the cover, started a YouTube channel called "sukuba" (because "su Kuba" – "it's Kuba", haha!), uploaded it to the almighty internet, and shared it on social media. Fortunately, the game music community is quite strong globally, and covers of this style are fairly popular. I received mostly positive reactions and even a "like" from the composer Darren Korb himself, which was validation for me that it wasn't total garbage. :)

Our current violinist and technical guru, Karel, also reacted to the video. At the time, we were playing together in a folk project called "Jáma s hranostajem" and organizing a gaming festival in Brno called Gamer Pie. He asked if I wanted help with more songs because he’d enjoy doing something like that, and I accepted with enthusiasm.

We recorded two more videos, and more and more people around us started asking if we wanted to do a live concert. Meanwhile, Karel and our percussionist Ondra were putting together a new band that I was supposed to be part of. We gradually transformed into a new group and started calling ourselves Sukuba Videogame Ensemble because we played strictly game music. After a while, we shortened the name, partly for practical reasons and partly so we wouldn't have to be so conservative with our repertoire.

Which video games and soundtracks do you play most often, and why those?

Fantasy games or games inspired by the Middle Ages probably suit us best. It’s down to our lineup. We all play acoustic instruments, with the exception of the bass guitar, and we also use flutes, a harp, and a cittern (a historical string instrument I call the "poor man's lute"). But we aren't afraid of anything.

We look for sung songs a lot, whether they function as background music or are sung by the game characters themselves. This is where all those bards standing in taverns in games are very rewarding, or games by Supergiant Games, where, for example, you play as a singer in their game Transistor.

Sometimes we take a song and glue it to another, other times we completely change the musical style compared to the original, etc. In short, we play and we play around. :)

Who decides which new tracks you rehearse? And how does that process actually work?

Everyone decides, and we agree in the vast majority of cases. We often put together a list of various songs we’d like to play, I make a shortlist, and then we test what works and what doesn't at rehearsals.

Usually, we write down an idea for an arrangement in advance, where it says "now the harp starts playing plim plum plam," and then we polish and refine it at rehearsal. Or we scrap it. We reach for sheet music when it comes to more difficult melodies or arrangements, and we either write the notes ourselves or get inspired by one of the many fan transcriptions. But generally, we don't reach for sheet music that often. Listening is more important.

What are the biggest challenges when performing at different types of events where the number of band members and available equipment changes?

The biggest challenge is probably the equipment, because sound-checking seven people, where the vast majority of members sing and most of them play more than one instrument, is no joke. We are fully aware of this, and when possible, we try to accommodate technical limits as much as we can. That's why we sometimes perform in a smaller lineup or bring our own equipment from our aforementioned violinist Karel, who works in sound engineering. For him, however, it's an even bigger burden when he has to play, sing, and sound-check us on top of that. As for the varying number of members, that's not such a problem. We just don't play some songs, or they sound a bit different in different lineups. But the core remains.

Another challenge besides the playing itself is the hosting. We try not to say that stereotypical "and the next song is called…" and really entertain people even in the breaks between songs. Karlík and I mainly take care of that, and sometimes it's a puzzle to guess the mood and taste of the audience. The worst moment is when you try to make a witty remark and nobody laughs. Then every millisecond feels like a whole month. :D But I think we've improved a lot since we started performing live; minor faux pas happen only sporadically now, and we always manage to play them off into some dadaist corner.

How does the audience react to your performances? Do you have any unforgettable concert experiences?

I have to say that the vast majority of the audience reacts very positively, even if they have no relationship to games or fantasy. For example, when we played in the courtyard of the Old Town Hall in Brno, older people would come up to us and say, "I don't know what you're playing, but I really like it!" It's probably because game and fantasy music is very close to folk; it's easily "digestible" and very melodic.

There are many unforgettable experiences, for example, our first public performance at the Brno gaming conference Game Access, where we played songs from The Witcher at a party at Špilberk Castle right in front of the developers from CD Projekt Red. I must also mention another year of Brno's Game Access, where we performed at the party again, and the authors of the game Dwarf Fortress were listening to us. We eventually found out that they already knew about us and had even seen our video covering music from their game.

It's always an experience when people start dancing. My nerd heart melts with bliss when I see them partying like crazy to, for example, tavern songs from the Pillars of Eternity series.

Do you prepare a new setlist for every performance? Do you adapt it to the theme of the event you are performing at?

Definitely! For every event or wedding, we have a special setlist where we take into account the theme of the event, the program, and the wishes of the wedding guests. We also adapt it to whether it's more of a listening concert or if there's a possibility that people could dance. We are constantly trying new combinations and sometimes change the order of songs on the fly.

What are your favorite game soundtracks? And just out of curiosity, is there any game melody you can't stand?

There are tons of favorite soundtracks. :) I have favorite composers like Austin Wintory, Darren Korb, Borislav Slavov, and many others. But soundtracks from all The Witcher games, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Pentiment, Disco Elysium, or perhaps the entire musical load for the game Alan Wake 2 are definitely very close to my heart.

I'm quite open-minded and like to explore different games and genres of music, and I don't think I've ever come across a soundtrack or melody I couldn't stand.

Besides covers, Sukuba also produces its own music. Can you tell us about some of your original compositions?

The first to approach us was developer David Broček, who asked us for music for his humorous point-and-click adventure Goblin’s Journey, which is still in development. You can listen to the song from the trailer, where we adapted David's lyrics. We often play it live at our performances. You can also listen to the main theme for the upcoming game Wind Rider, where our Maty excels on the flugelhorn.

We contributed a small musical cherry on top with violinist Karel to the Last Train Home soundtrack by the Brno studio Ashborne Games, on which I also participated as Lead UI Designer. We recorded a few depressing folk songs and a few original melodies for the legionnaires' journey home. You can hear them on the soundtrack and in the game, specifically when you look at the map of Siberia.

The newest addition is definitely the soundtrack for the Czech "embroidered" game Scarlet Deer Inn, which is the work of our bassist Lukáš and his wife Eva. I was cast in the role of composer, and Karlík contributes with his violin and advice on mixing. A few tracks have already been heard in the public demo on Steam, but we definitely want to process a few pieces into full-fledged songs for live playing.

What are your plans for the future? Are you preparing any new projects or collaborations we should watch out for?

The plans are definitely to finish all the soundtracks we've started working on. :-)

We also enjoy rearranging more Czech folk songs into a slightly more depressing form. The original idea for these arrangements was precisely the tracks for Last Train Home. Then we have a song called Ode to Gwent, where we set to music lyrics that Karel found in a graveyard. Well, in a graveyard in the game The Witcher 3. :)

Recently, we tried improvising accompaniment for a public reading of a gamebook at the Kino Art in Brno (a recording is on the Brnění YouTube channel), and we had nothing but positive feedback, so we'll try to repeat that sometime!

author Eva Lassler