Lena Raine, the composer for Celeste and the cancelled Earthblade, has released the soundtrack on Bandcamp. You can listen for free or buy it for yourself for just $7, and 50% of all earnings will be donated to a non-profit organization. While it’s not the same as getting to play Earthblade, Raine says the music for the game is “highly dynamic” and is arranged to represent and match the emotional arc of the game.
Raine says the soundtrack is heavily influenced by composers like Vangelis, Joe Hisaishi, and Yoko Kanno — much of it coming from classic anime like “Nausiccaa of the Valley of the Wind” and “Cowboy Bebop.”
“Because we’ll never get a chance to tell that story in game form, I decided to cobble together every bit of music I’d written for the game to the point of its cancellation in order to tell my own version of it,” Raine writes on the Bandcamp page.
The nine songs make up roughly half an hour of music in total, and many of the tracks are deeply atmospheric. The songs utilize stringed instruments blended with synths to create a unique, interesting sound that makes for fantastic ambient music. “Defy,” in particular, incorporates binaural audio, tickling each ear with alternating tones that make listening to the song feel like a physical thing.
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The quality of the soundtrack is no surprise. Celeste was nominated for Best Music at the 2019 BAFTAs and for Best Score/Soundtrack at the 2018 Game Awards.
Raine composed and performed all of the music herself, with the help of Nahor Gomes on trump and Cesar Roversi on Soprano Sax. The album art is from Amora B.
The soundtrack suggests a rich, moving game, and makes the cancellation of Earthblade all the more disappointing. It was first announced in 2021, but disagreements among the development team over Celeste ownership resulted in the cancellation of Earthblade in late 2024.
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