Gran Turismo
A three part musical refinement of an iconic racing video game.
I was eight, and my brother and I had just been given a PlayStation 3 for Christmas along with a copy of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Its menu music featured a range of bespoke recordings of jazz-infused downtempo and trip-hop, and, looking back, was a stylish and refined alternative to some of the higher-energy soundtracks from other similar games.
I’d been building up a collection of songs that fit this remembered aesthetic, while simultaneously curating a few other separate racing-themed playlists. The idea was to distill them into some concrete musical concepts to soundtrack a series of racing games like Gran Turismo’s, and tracking how a franchise’s sound could evolve through successive instalments.
Gran Turismo 1
We start with a reinterpretation of the original menu soundtrack, recalibrated and better suited to the higher production value and polish of contemporary game soundtracks. I wanted to retain that level of sophistication and luxury that sucked eight year old me into the world of Gran Turismo. Since playing that game I’ve always associated that tasteful downtempo atmosphere with an image of luxury: fast cars, hotel lobbies, linen suits and fancy watches.
Since the release of the Gran Turismo that inspired this soundtrack, messaging about these types of cars and racing in general has shifted towards a more technological focus. From electric cars and massive touchscreen interfaces, to intricate performance metrics, simply expanding on the nostalgic sounds of 2000s downtempo would not resonate today in the same way it did nearly two decades ago.
For this prospective new edition, the soundtrack draws on the artists synonymous with that era (Boards of Canada, DJ Shadow, Air), taking some of their lesser-known cuts to ground the musical identity in that period’s sound, while allowing it to feel enduring, rather than nostalgic. Work from international artists stemming from the same era has been introduced to add depth while retaining that timeless air (Susumu Yokota, New Composers, Takayuki Shiraishi).
These established artists are complemented with more modern downtempo interpretations to help bring a contemporary sharpness to the soundtrack (Maara, Fergus Jones, Guy Contact), as well as some pop-infused additions that introduce a more melodic accessibility (james K, Vegyn, Erika de Casier).
Gran Turismo 2
The second instalment had started as a compilation of songs that fit a dark, progressive ‘late night drive’ aesthetic. When deciding to incorporate it into this series, it was stripped back and then expanded with a focus on clean, minimal sounds imagining you at night, behind the wheel of a car gliding past flashing streetlights. The aim was to retain that same composed identity of the original, but turning it into a pulsing, dark alternative.
The soundtrack features club-focused songs with slow, methodical builds reminiscent of the repetitive infrastructure of streetlights, road signs and lane markings flying past at night. I also explored how loop-based structures could interact dynamically as the player moves through the game, in a similar manner to The Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar music video.
I tried to keep the songs sounding clean and well-lubricated, no harsh stops and starts, just careful momentum throughout. The soundtrack has German minimalism at its heart, featuring Berghain regulars (Fadi Mohem, Marcel Dettmann, Ryan Elliott) alongside some more paired back, deep techno selections (Wax, Second Woman, Donato Dozzy).
Work from musicians with an innate ability to engineer restrained but propulsive techno also features (Daniel Avery, Wallace, GiGi FM), while some slightly more experimental, left field producers are sprinkled throughout to prevent anyone from falling asleep at the wheel (Facta, Big Ever, Barker).
Gran Turismo 3
Where the second instalment shows a restrained approach to a club-focused sound, the third prioritises propulsion and pressure. It builds on the previous electronic development and leans into higher tempos and compressed rhythmic energy.
While more recent racing titles often opt for overt intensity, this final instalment takes notes from that idea, but retains the authenticity seen throughout the rest of the series by grounding it in boundary pushing UK bass lineage and its adjacent sounds.
The soundtrack uses tension and clipped percussion to build energy. Sharp, elastic drums are balanced with careful use of negative space by some of the most respected artists in the scene (Call Super, Objekt, LCY). While a fractured pressure build-up (Metrist, Wordcolour, French II) is released with more direct 4x4 propulsion (Impérieux, Vladimir Dubyshkin, Pangaea), as well as vast productions which lean more on emotion and space, rather than just percussion, to build and release pressure (Erik Luebs, CCL, Joy Orbison).
Gran Turismo’s sound evolves through three distinct stages: a refined opening reinterpreted for the modern day, a controlled and electronically driven progression defined by its restraint, and finally a propulsive, future-focused conclusion built on pressure and tension.
Through each distinct progression, tempo increases and sounds sharpen, but an underlying composure remains. By allowing its identity to adapt, without abandoning its core principles which have long set it apart from other titles, the series sustains a cohesive musical narrative which evolves through technological and cultural changes while preserving its unique elegance.