The score, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra (Phantom Thread, You Were Never Really Here), features an intimate string section, woodwinds, piano and harp, as well as unique extended playing techniques such as ‘Spectral Scrubbing’, for an airy floaty feel. Additionally, Desai utilized modern classical music techniques, introducing an element of chaos and visceral edginess.

I have always had a love of the spy, thriller, covert intelligence, hacking genres, so for me this was a dream project. I believe this hybrid form between film and gaming is the future of entertainment. We kick started the process by creating a musical mood board drawing on a variety of film and musical inspirations such as Francis Ford Copolla’s The Conversation and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to Philip Glass and many other noir and modern classical music references – it really helped us hone down the core of what we were trying to say emotionally. I didn’t want to utilize any synthetic electronic elements – this had to be pure and raw where you hear the intimate relationship between the player and their instrument. The intention was to connect the player directly to the emotional core of the story, so as the game was being developed, Sam and I had in depth conversations about the characters, the multiple facets of their personalities and their dramatic arcs. I felt organic textures that had a dark beauty about them would suit the overall vibe of the game. Working purely from the script with no visuals at all was an inspiring challenge. I didn’t have a visual mood board or film to watch, so I had to rely on the words on the page to pick up the essence of each character. Distilling each character down to a single piece of music was the big challenge but Sam is extremely collaborative, open minded and gave me great illustrative analogies to work with.

GAMASUTRA

THE GAMES

THE ESCAPIST MAGAZINE

AFFINITY MAGAZINE

LEVEL AND GAIN

SKNR MAGAZINE

"The moody, almost neo-noir atmosphere, and a gorgeous, cinematic score—composed by Nainita Desai, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra—makes it a game you can really lose yourself in"

PC Gamer - Andy Kelly

"Nainita Desai's chamber orchestra soundtrack for Telling Lies by director Sam Barlow is pretty much the only honest thing in this intriguing live-action thriller"

WSHU Public Radio

"Composer Nainita Desai's score is a dreamy orchestral embrace that simultaneously invokes the mystique of Hitchcock, the foreboding of Fincher, and Lynchian surrealism. The score fades in from time to time, never too suddenly or over-powering, to subtly pull you deeper in. Again, the music functions as part of a whole that completes this fully realised experience."

The Gamer Eric Switzer

"Sometimes you stumble across a small but perfectly packaged collection of music that wraps itself around a thread or emotion and pulls you in. That is exactly what happened to me when enjoying the soundtrack to the new FMV story-rich game Telling Lies. Nainita Desai in six tracks creates a beautiful orchestral representation of the phrase ‘bending the truth’.

At just 25 minutes and six tracks, Telling Lies is a short soundtrack but each piece, whilst melodically different, follows a familiar feeling. Nainita takes each theme and through key changes, bending notes and giving the strings a tiny quiver, introduces an element of unease. The melodies initially sound quite pretty and then in comes a string slope, or a high pitched quiver and the whole feel of the track changes. True to the nature of the game itself, not everything that is going on is what is being told and whilst the tracks paired with the gameplay do wonders, the tracks stand up by themselves too. ‘Control’ and in particular ‘Order’ relish in this style and the pizzicato strings also nod their head towards 70’s super sleuths like Columbo.

What Nainita Desai has created is an emotional music mirror. As the chord or melody shifts slightly, so does the tone and by interpretation so does the intent. It’s a clever oddity, lush in orchestration and tippy-toe sleuthing moments. Whilst its brevity may see it overlooked by some, this is a soundtrack that would be perfect for any murder mystery evening or Cluedo experience."

Higher Plain Music 8/10

"phenomenal acting and a deep central mystery make this voyeruistic adventure game something special."

game informer

"Sam Barlow has another masterpiece on his hands."

gamesradar

"lose yourself in one of this year’s best video game stories."

ign

"an atmospheric, brilliantly written and acted detective thriller that tells a compelling story in a unique way."

pc gamer