Go behind the scenes of Arcane’s music design

Riot Games’ animated series for League of Legends, Arcane, has finished its first season to resounding praise from fans and critics alike. The soundtrack especially has caught fans’ attention, with superstars like Pusha T and Sting signing on to give Piltover and Zaun their signature sound.

In a recent video released by Riot, writer and showrunner Christian Linke and head of Riot Games Music Toa Dunn sit down to talk about the important creative process that helped Arcane’s music build the show from the ground up.

We sit down with Christian Linke and Toa Dunn to dive into the music of #Arcane. pic.twitter.com/uAzbFyKhzi

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) November 24, 2021

In the video, Linke and Dunn discuss how much music plays into a traditional entertainment medium like television or cinema, something Riot is well familiar with after years of steadily improving cinematics, Worlds anthems, and more.

The video uses one of the most iconic and beautiful scenes from the animated show’s first season, Ekko’s fight with Jinx on the Harbour Bridge as an example of this. The two creators discuss how they found signature sounds for both twin cities of Piltover and Zaun, adding grit, distortion, and grunge to the undercity’s scoring. Piltover, on the other hand, has a surgical, bright, and prestigious air to its musical accompaniment.

When did the Arcane’s music get made?

Arcane’s music was clearly a large part of the creative process from the beginning, as Dunn comments. The showrunners have made an active effort to incorporate visual and auditory mediums into one well-polished product, discussing the idea to have a miniature scale music video in each episode.

Riot Games’ music videos have been earning praise from fans and non-fans alike for a long time and it’s obvious why Riot would want to lean into that well-established brand with their first steps into television. The full Arcane soundtrack and score are available on most streaming music platforms right now.