Before Christmas 2014 I was contacted by Mick Gordon who was looking for someone to write Greek Lyrics for a new character for the game Killer Instinct by Microsoft Studios.
After the Holidays Mick send me the details: needed lyrics for the Aganos character, the music was composed (not produced yet) . Also I was if I could record my voice (on an smartphone or so) so that the singers could hear the pronunciation and sing it as closely. The theme was short so we did not need lots of lyrics, and the idea was to do a “crowd choir shout chant” thing. So I wrote a couple of ideas right away and recorded over the music backing Mick had sent me. Mick loved it. Done!

Or so… Mick liked what I did and my job was done, but I thought maybe I could just record some more of my voice (you know I don’t get ask often to record MY voice, so I may as well take advantage of it) for the singers to have a better idea … so I recorded and recorded and recorded… normal voice, high, low, shouts, growls oh well … and then… I asked my daughter to do the same… and my other daughter… and my wife …and some friends

Long story short: We did our “usual small choir” (as we did for Ryo Ishido’s One and Deane Ogdens’s Radio Mumbai)  and we are all in there somewhere shouting our lungs out. And I say in there somewhere, because  Mick’s crowd choir consists of 461 individual voice recordings singing the Aganos chant.

The lyrics:

Μάχη, Πόλεμος, Νίκη, Πόνος

Δίκη, Πόλεμος, Τρόμος παντού

translate to :

Battle, War, Victory, Pain

Justice, War, Fear everywhere

 

Here’s the YouTube link on Mick’s channel.

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About the author

Panos Kolias is a film, tv and concert music composer and musician.
He regularly produces cues and other commercial music for major television programs like CBS, ABC and others.
He's a part of the electronic duo DubLion Project and works also as a musician, educator, orchestrator, and technical consultant.
Besides composing for TV and film and composing concert music, he holds a lecturer position at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, teaching Music Technology and Film scoring courses.

10 comments on “Killer Instinct’s, Aganos Chant: Lyrics and Voice Recordings”

  1. Phoenix Reply

    Absolutely adore this work and every time I listen to it (which is a lot) I can’t help but chant along with it. Fucking AWESOME work man!!

  2. Sven Reply

    I’ve been reading about ancient Greek philosophers, and bringing that mindset and this song into the gym makes for a great workout.

    • Panos_Kolias

      That’s a clever idea Sven. It also fits with “a healthy spirit in a healthy body”.
      It’s amazing how much the Greek Philosophers defined the modern world and declared truths that are still valid.

  3. Lucas Reply

    Absolutely epic! It’s like having pure liquid hype poured into my ears!

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