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Carnyx Horns and Rebab Enter the Fray: Derivière Recruits Cypriot Choir for A Plague Tale: Resonance

The soundtrack for A Plague Tale: Resonance drops on streaming August 17, with composer Olivier Derivière bringing in a 20-member Cypriot women's choir and an array of ancient instruments to score the game's Greek mythological world.

Yu-Ting Lin, Managing Editor
Carnyx Horns and Rebab Enter the Fray: Derivière Recruits Cypriot Choir for A Plague Tale: Resonance

A Celtic war horn called the Carnyx, a bowed string instrument called the Rebab, plus a 20-strong women's choir — this isn't the lineup for some world music album, it's the roster behind the soundtrack for Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, the newest entry in the A Plague Tale series. The game launches August 27 on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S, arriving day one on Xbox Game Pass, but the score gets a head start, releasing digitally on Monday, August 17, hitting Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.

Serving as a prequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence, Resonance follows young Sophia's journey to Minotaur's Island, where she confronts mythical creatures and ancient curses. Composer Olivier Derivière is no stranger to the series — he scored both previous Plague Tale entries, along with South Of Midnight and Dying Light 2. This time he's brought in The Amalgamation Choir, a 20-voice Cypriot-Greek ensemble led by Vasiliki Anastasiou, along with solo performances from Anastasiou herself and Giorgos Kalogirou.

The instrumental lineup is worth jotting down: Evgenios Voulgaris on the bowed Yaylı tambur and Rebab, Samuel Meric on Carnyx, Giani Caserotto on Bouzouki and guitar, plus Derivière's longtime collaborator, cellist Eric-Maria Couturier. Stack these names together and what you get isn't your typical orchestral score formula — it's Mediterranean and Greek folk instruments woven directly into a dark fantasy narrative.

Derivière described the full soundtrack in a statement as "a musical journey that moves between an intimate human story and a mysterious enigma," with a structure deliberately mirroring the game's own narrative arc. Still, he emphasized that what truly guided the composition was the music's "spiritual dimension" rather than simple plot-matching. He also gave special thanks to all the musicians for bringing "their own culture, craft, and personality" into the work, calling it a distinctive interpretation of some of the oldest Greek myths rather than just a score album.

Three singles are already out for a preview listen: "Patera," "The Land," and "The Flight Of The Braves." With the full soundtrack dropping just ten days before the game's official launch, this weekend is the last window for anyone looking to catch up before diving in.

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