How Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown’s Soundtrack Found its Voices

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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown embraces its Persian setting like no other game in the series, setting aside “Arabian” fantasy tropes to blend Persian history, mythology, and iconography with ultra-stylized anime and superhero influences. The soundtrack to the hero Sargon’s adventure aims for a similar blend of Persian tradition and pop-culture influence, bringing together the talents of Iranian-born, Berlin-based composer Mentrix (aka Samar Rad) with those of veteran game composer Gareth Coker (Immortals Fenyx Rising, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the Ori series).

The two didn’t collaborate directly – Coker joined the project around the same time Mentrix was finishing her work on it – and they each bring something distinctive to the soundtrack: Mentrix’s ethereal compositions provide the audio backdrop for the game’s exploration sequences and some of its boss fights, and incorporate such traditional Persian instruments as the tar (a guitar-like string instrument), kamancheh (a bowed instrument similar to a violin), daf (a handheld drum), and ney (a wind instrument that dates back to ancient Egypt), along with western instruments and Mentrix’s own vocals. Coker’s pieces have a bigger, more orchestra-heavy sound, and accompany most of the boss fights, some of the exploration, and the game’s cinematics. There’s one place where their work directly overlaps, however: the game’s main theme, which blends Coker’s composition with Mentrix’s vocals.

“We have two universes, from the music’s point of view,” says Raphaël Joffres, music supervisor on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. “We have some very subtle and well-crafted music from Mentrix, and it’s really nice because she used a lot of traditional Persian instruments, and