Say What?

When the time came to sit down and work on a main theme for Lucidity, I knew that I wanted to use a lullaby and I knew that I wanted to use a language other than English.  There’s no real dialogue in Lucidity and I didn’t want to suddenly make it feel as though the game takes place in the US just because the theme was in English.

I considered French and Italian for a while, as they’re two of my favorite choral languages; but I wanted something less familiar to the general audience.  For a while now, I’d been looking for a project to work with a talented singer named Lisa Eriksson.  Lisa is one half of the electronic music duo Techno Squirrels and has a fantastically ethereal voice.  She also happens to be Swedish.  It was a perfect fit.

I started listening to Swedish lullabies across the internet, trying to find one with the right mood.  I really wanted something that felt ancient, the kind of lullaby that Odin might have sung to himself as he hung from the World Tree.  We have a number of Swedish employees here at LucasArts and, after having solicited recommendations from them, I picked the song “Byssan Lull” from the list that emerged because of its minor key and its lyrics about travelers, stars, and forests.

Unfortunately, even though everyone I spoke to said that it was an “old folk tune” and a classic Swedish lullaby, no one actually knew if it was in the public domain or not.  The internet also didn’t seem to know.  When I contacted Ulrika Gunnarsson at the Center for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research, I found out that even they didn’t know 100%.  According to them, it turns out that the first verse to the song is unquestionably ancient, but that the subsequent verses might actually have been written by a Swedish folk musicologist named Evert Taube.

This posed a problem since I can’t record anything that isn’t in the public domain without having to pay for the rights to it, but I can’t write more verses myself since I don’t speak Swedish.

The solution again came in the form of Lisa.  I explained the situation for Lisa, a bit about the story of the game, and she then wrote a second verse for the song that specifically references Sofi’s relationship with her Grandmother and the journey she goes on to find her.

“Byssan Lull” – traditional, arr. Jesse Harlin

Byssan lull, koka kittelen full

där kommer tre vandringsmän på vägen

byssan lull, koka kittelen full

där kommer tre vandringsmän på vägen

Den ene, e så halt

den andre, e så blind

den tredje har så trasiga kläder

Byssan lull, koka kittelen full

så kyligt på vintern de reser

byssan lull, koka kittelen full

tre stärnor som lyser genom skogen

den första är vårt lugn

den andra är vår dröm

i tredje båten sitter vi tillsammans

[English Translation]

Byssan Lull, boil the full pot

so cold in the winter, they are traveling

Byssan Lull, boil the full pot

three stars shine through the forest

the first is our calm the second is our dream

in the third boat, we sit together

Byssan Lull, boil the full pot

all alone in the world you are searching

Byssan Lull, boil the full pot

I will take care of you on the trip

I hold you so close and warm you up lovingly

I promise to always come with you