This is our first musical review ever at DualShockers and it is with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to listen to “Calling All Dawns” composed by Christopher Tin. I will start off by saying that my musical tastes are fairly wide, quite frankly, I infrequently trend towards the classical genre or orchestral scores, but Calling All Dawns has the power to keep you listening.

The album opens up with is broken into three sections each with its own theme Part I: Day, Part II: Night and Part III: Dawn. In total there are twelve tracks that span all kinds of moods and languages, such as Japanese, Swahili, Farsi, Portuguese, Latin, Polish and Hebrew. Each track has a very distinct sound and emotion, which allows you to go off into different settings and really experience the music. One thing that I enjoyed immensely was that the words to the songs along with an English translation is included in the insert, this just gave each song greater meaning than just listening to the beautiful harmonizations and music, but allowed me to understand the messages in the songs.

The title track and probably the most famous track of Christopher Tin’s career is Baba Yetu, a track that originally debuted on 2K Games Civilization, and is deservingly so the first track of the album. That track alone makes this CD a must have, I can listen to that song over and over and every time it inspires me. I challenge anyone to close their eyes throw on a good pair of headphones and listen to Baba Yetu featuring the Sowetto Gospel Choir and not be moved. Bab Yetu is Swahili for ‘Our Father’ and actually is the Lord’s Prayer set to a grandiose sound.

The entire score is produced with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the sound and raw power that they bring to the pieces is incredible. Part I of the Calling All Dawns offers you raw power, Part II a more serene mellow feel, while Part III brings you full circle back to a new beginning and songs that convey hope and a new beginning. The entire album takes you on a trip that you may or may not be expecting, you will listen to a Traditional Maori Blessing in Kia Hora Te Marino and even a Polish Catholic Hymn in Hymn do Trojcy Swietej.

I must admit that I am not your typical fan of this style of music but this is a CD that I am happy to have on my iPod (a nice break to Jay-Z and BluePrint III) and really enjoy listening to the inspirational songs when I need to clear my head or even need to get revved up and inspired to write. These tracks have a certain epic factor to them and after thinking about it they could easily be used in any large scale video game such as a Halo, Disney movie like a Lion King or any cinematic piece like a Titanic, quite easily. My favorite track, aside from Baba Yetu, is the tenth track, which is sang in Farsi and when translated is ‘Journey Together’. The last line in the song translates to “We are mere ghosts, revolving, the flame surround Journey together!” now that is deep and powerful and the best way to describe this album.

I have even included the official video of Baba Yetu which was debuted back at Game On! for you all to enjoy and get a sampling of what is on this album.

Here is the entire track listing:

Part I: The Day

12 – Kia Hora Te Marino

01 – Bab Yetu: featuring Soweto Gospel Choir

02 - Mado Kara Mieru: featuring Lia, Aoi Tada, Kaori Omura

03 – Dao Zai Fan Ye: featuring Jia Ruhan

04 – Se E Pra Vir Que Venha: featuring Dulce Pontes

05 – Rassemblons-Nous

Part II: Night

06 – Lux Aeterna

07 – Caoineadh: featuring Anonymous 4

08 – Hymn Do Trojcy Swietej: featuring Frederica von Stade

Part III: Dawn

09 – Hayom Kadosh

10 – Hamsafar: featuring Sussan Deyhim

11 – Sukla-Krsne

12 - Kia Hora Te Marino

  • Album title: Calling All Dawns
  • Record Label: Tin Works Publishing
  • Release Date: October 1, 2009