"I understand why players feel that strong French identity in the soundtrack," says Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's composer, especially in that one Mime song: "It felt like both a duty and a guilty pleasure to include the accordion"

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an RPG adventure that sticks with you in more ways than one. There's oodles of clutch boss fight victories thanks to its twitchy parry and dodge battle system. The emotions that swell as the party faces twists, turns, and tribulations through its narrative. And, of course, the ever-present score that accompanies all of it, the beautiful (and sometimes quirky) music looping in my head long after hitting credits. I got the chance to speak to composer Lorien Testard about how it all came together.

Oscar Taylor-Kent: Lorien, thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33!

I loved the game, and the soundtrack really stuck out – I'm still humming the themes. How did you get involved with the project? What did they tell you about it going in?

Lorien Testard: Thanks for having me! I joined the project after Guillaume sent me an email – he had discovered my music on SoundCloud, where I was posting one new song each week. One day, he listened to some of my tracks, loved them, and reached out to ask if I’d be interested in composing for the video game he was creating.

At the beginning of the project, he showed me a trailer for We Lost (initial name of the project) and shared some early ideas about the gameplay system, the story, and the world he wanted to build. We realized we shared a deep artistic connection and a similar vision of what our "ideal game" could be.

OTK: Game genres can be so different from one another – what specifically do you have to keep in mind when composing music for an RPG?

LT: In RPGs, I love the adventure and the feeling of traveling a long road filled with beautiful landscapes and intertwined stories. Those ideas of expedition and adventurous journey were kept at the heart of the music. I hoped to make the player feel like they were exploring a fantastic world full of wonder and secrets.

OTK: As games are such long experiences – even short ones are often longer than movies – do you think there's something extra powerful about the breadth a game soundtrack can offer?

LT: Yes, I do think there’s something special and inspiring about the scope of a game soundtrack. Games are long and immersive experiences, and the music has the time and space to evolve with the player and reflect their journey. It can build emotional depth over hours, weaving itself into the world and its characters.

OTK: I love the approach to the musical motifs here, especially the use of vocals in the soundtrack. What can you tell me about the approach, and why was it done that way?

LT: The voice is the instrument that moves me the most emotionally. It can express the full range of what the characters go through in the game, from fragility to anger, from despair to acceptance. I feel all the humanity in the voice of a singer, so it felt natural to create music with vocals at the heart of it.

I feel incredibly grateful and lucky that Alice Duport-Percier agreed to work with me on the project. She composed most of the vocal lines in the game – she has an incredible talent and an angelic voice. Her arrival was a turning point in shaping the tone and atmosphere of the game’s story-driven tracks.

The voice also allowed me to bring lyrics into the songs – and that’s something close to my heart. I enjoyed so much writing the lyrics for the game; it’s a way to speak directly to the player, to create a connection and a link within the world of Clair Obscur.

OTK: Clair Obscur might be inspired by JRPGs but its French identity comes through in the visuals and music especially – do you agree that the music is a big part of representing that identity for the game? Are there any specific elements of the instrumentation you were hoping would drive that home?

LT: I’ve listened to French music and French songs my whole life, so all those memories blend into the way I hear and compose music today.

Between my personal background, the Belle Époque feeling that comes from the game’s concept art, and the fact that most of the songs are written and sung in French… I understand why players feel that strong French identity in the soundtrack.

And one time I had fun pushing that even further. When I had to compose the battle theme for the mimes, who wear a marinière, a beret, and carry a baguette on their back – it felt like both a duty and a guilty pleasure to include the accordion in the song!

OTK: Creativity is a big theme in the game. At least two party members have a deep love of music, others for painting etc. Did that theming create any additional pressure, or sense that your music would have to stand out even more as a core game pillar?

LT: The artistic themes in the game were a source of inspiration for me. They helped me find the emotions I wanted to express in the music of the game, and they guided the writing of the song titles and lyrics.

Une vie à peindre, Une vie à t’aimer, and Une vie à rêver are deeply connected to that central theme – both in their lyrics and in their place within the game.

There are also parts of the gameplay that are closely tied to music or painting – like the Sirène sequence – that meant the music had to be carefully crafted to match that level and make the player’s experience as immersive as possible.

But it was actually a lot of fun, and I have great memories of composing those songs!

OTK: The music sequence with Ben Starr... How was it working with Ben for that? What's it like having to weave essentially an acting performance into a piece of music like that, which at the same time becomes a core narrative beat?

LT: The song Ben Starr performs alongside Alice Duport-Percier is called Until Next Life.

It’s a song I wrote while thinking about Verso. For a long time, the song was only sung by Alice, but the lyrics were closely tied to Verso’s story that, from the moment I wrote them, I had the desire to have Verso sing his song one day.

I’m really glad Ben accepted to join us on the track. By bringing in Verso’s raw and human voice, it added the weight and weariness of Verso into the song.

OTK: The battle system in Clair Obscur features timing elements like parries, which have their own sound cues to clue the player into when to respond. At the same time, many battle music pieces are big and powerful in and of themselves. Did you have to think much about how your music would be interfacing against player input in this way?

LT: Yes! It took a lot of fine-tuning for us to balance all the audio elements in the game so that each one could shine at its full potential.

The way the game sounds is really thanks to the incredible work of the entire audio team. They used a variety of techniques to make sure everything – from voices to music to sound effect – could weave together and give each element its moment, in the most natural and seamless way possible.

So a huge shoutout to them, they made it all work!

OTK: I also can't stop thinking about the sequence with Sirene – a whole dungeon where you're constantly surrounded by musical performance and dance. How was it approaching that section of the game, about midway through, in particular?

LT: For Sirene, I received the concept art very early on, which really guided the music creation for that level. With the sirene at the center of the Colosseum and the player slowly circling around her until they finally meet, the main feeling I wanted to express was softness.

Because of the sirene’s charm and her story, I imagine the entire environment to be filled with tenderness through the music and her voice emanating from her and being heard differently depending on the player's progression.

I started composing the piece on classical guitar, played fingerstyle to capture an intimate expression. After I added the low whistle, I find that instrument has an incredibly soft tone, and it evokes me the feeling of wind slipping through the walls, making the clothes of the ballerinas and dancers of the level gently move.
Finally, we added the siren’s voice, spatialized in the level so that the sound feels like the voice [is] coming from her in the world.

OTK: On top of these wonderfully emotional moments backed by your just-as-emotive score, there are definitely moments of whimsy as well, like the bopping Gestral Beach music. How did you find shifting those modes, and how did you approach the sillier, whimsical stuff?

LT: There’s a lot of contrast and many different scenes to illustrate musically in Clair Obscur, so I wanted to have fun with it. I love so much the Gestrals!

I tried not to overthink things, I enjoyed writing funny music and experimenting with different ideas as I composed.

For the Gestrals and their chaotic, goofy energy, I imagined what it might sound like if they were the ones creating the music that defines them. It made the whole process really fun.

When I saw those Gestrals tracks in-game, like Megabot #33 or the Gestral Merchant. I loved the quirky and high energy feeling they gave me!

OTK: As well as 'Creativity', 'Performance' is another big theme of the game. There's a moment towards the end where a character has to play piano without really wanting to. Is that a feeling you can relate to? Is that theme of 'having to perform' something you're in conversation with musically at times in the game?

LT: It’s not something I experimented with while creating this OST. I feel incredibly grateful to have had the chance to compose for Clair Obscur, to bring this world and its characters to life through music. Over these five years, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy throughout the process. Sometimes mixed with difficulty, anxiety and stress of course, but now, looking back, what remains is mostly a deep sense of bliss and good memories for having lived this experience.

OTK: With the collected soundtrack, what's there to keep in mind for a produced original soundtrack mix versus how you might hear the tracks in-game?

LT: The full game soundtrack is available now on all streaming platforms. It’s made up of 154 tracks that follow the journey of the Expedition – from their departure in Lumière all the way to the end of their adventure.

When I was putting the soundtrack together, I really wanted to keep the feeling of that journey in mind. So the order of the tracks closely mirrors the progression of the game. That way, players can relive the entire adventure by listening to the eight-hour soundtrack from start to finish!

I approached it like a full album experience. I spent a lot of time listening to the transitions between each song to make sure everything flowed seamlessly. It took many iterations before I was happy with the flow and the rhythm of the whole album

I’m also really happy with the final runtime of the OST and each act. That took a lot of editing and preparation, but I love how it all came together!

OTK: Did you look to many other RPG game soundtracks for inspiration? Do you have any particular favorite RPG soundtracks?

LT: I tried not to listen to other soundtracks while working on Clair Obscur, to stay as close as possible to my own instincts and to what I was feeling for the game.

But I’ve loved video game music and listened to a lot of it when I was younger – Zelda, Xenoblade, Nier, and Joe Hisaishi’s work [a film composer best known for his Studio Ghibli scores and collaborations with Beat Takeshi], along with all the French music I’ve grown up with. That music has been part of my life for years, so it’s shaped the way I hear and write music.

OTK: Finally, if you could summon any instrument to your side with pictos power, but only one – which would it be?

LT: Haha! For the players, the answer is actually hidden in the game!

Sandfall gave us the incredible honor of naming NPCs and diaries after the developers, and they let me choose how I wanted to be represented in the world of Clair Obscur.

You can find me in the game playing the song “Aux lendemains non écrits” with my instrument of choice!

The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack is available now across a variety of digital platforms via Laced Records. Need some help? We've got Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 tips to help get you started!