It is said that good things come in threes, and today is no exception. We at PlayStation are excited to focus on our latest trio of vinyl soundtrack releases, brought to you by our friends at Milan Records: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Ghost of Tsushima: Music from Iki Island & Legends and Returnal.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
The Ratchet & Clank: The Rift Apart soundtrack features the effervescent, BAFTA-nominated score of Mark Mothersbaugh and Wataru Hokoyama, plus the brilliantly performed, award-winning song, “Join Me at the Top,” from the latest contribution in Insomniac Games’ critically acclaimed franchise.
For the vinyl design, we were lucky enough to land the amazing illustrator, Shan Jiang, who really knocked it out of the park with its rotatable panoramic cover.
As Shan describes: “The cover concept focuses on duality and traveling among parallel universes. I learned that the core idea of the game is to find out who you really are by understanding yourself. Rivet and Ratchet became better versions of themselves through those adventures “they experienced together. It’s like Ratchet and Rivet looking in the mirror, but in the mirror is a different universe. So you can see the cover from Rivet’s or Ratchet’s point of view, depending on how you want to hold the cover.”
The interior panels showcase the main characters and their diminutive counterparts in a rare, thoughtful moment, giving us an intimate portrait of the Rift Apart team while taking a breather from the game’s non-stop action.
The album is available from Milan Records and a number of retailers, each offering exclusive, eye-catching disc color variations.
Ghost of Tsushima: Music from Iki Island & Legends
Following their 2021 release of the BAFTA-nominated score for the original game, Milan Records is delivering another volume from Sucker Punch’s epic with Ghost of Tsushima: Music from Iki Island & Legends.
With Ilan Eshkeri’s iconic Jin Sakai theme woven into beautiful new compositions by Chad Cannon and Bill Hemstapat, the album is wrapped in striking key art from the titular Director’s Cut extension and multiplayer DLC.
The image of a lone Jin against the bright tones of Iki Island provides a dramatic contrast to the dark, ominous reds of the Legends world. Inside, we are pampered with moody concept art by a ship cemetery with stunning character portraits on the disc labels and a wonderful “monkey onsen” foldout poster by Sucker Punch artist Ian Chiew.
This release is also available in a range of collector’s colors from Milan’s retail partners.
Return
The BAFTA-winning score for Housemarque’s Returnal completes the line-up and sees Bobby Krlic’s atmospheric, intense music sit alongside specially designed works of art by acclaimed artist David Mack.
The harness is the core of the design, allowing the observer to bring their interpretation of her journey across Atropos to the artwork. The score is a combination of oppressive synths and beautiful strings; Mack’s artwork is a similarly beautiful depiction of Returnal’s deceptively beautiful challenge.
When it came to inspiration, for David Mack, it was a “discussion with the creators that nurtured the images. They were kind enough to give me a list of words and ideas that served as catalyst points for the cover image. Based on the words, symbols, and music.” “I made several drawings to try to crystallize the dimensional ideas. From our discussion of them, I made paintings based on what everyone reacted best to.”
As our friend Colin Yost at Sony Masterworks sums up: “These three vinyl offerings are some of the best that come out of our collaboration with Sony Interactive Entertainment. We’ve really tried to capture the essence of the characters and narratives in each piece’s unique art direction. Collaborating with Sony game developers, the PlayStation Music team and the visual artists to produce something fresh yet familiar is such a rewarding way for us to bring these notes to fans in a way that pays homage to these unforgettable games and characters from a new “I can not wait to share more news about additional PlayStation soundtrack releases that will be available in the future from Sony Masterworks and Milan Records.”
All three vinyl soundtracks are currently available for pre-order at the links below and will be released this summer.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart: https://ratchetandclank.lnk.to/vinyl
Ghost of Tsushima: Music by Iki Island & Legends: https://soundtracks.lnk.to/got2vinyl
Return: https://soundtracks.lnk.to/returnalvinyl