This week’s music selection from the soundtrack of Escaping Wonderland accompanies the gruff-but-kind supervisor of a mineshaft staffed by sentient light bulbs. (As happens frequently in the game, there’s a metaphor at work here.) The music conveys a benevolent kind of surliness in an environment rich with dark humor.

(Click below to play… or jump to Spotify or Apple Music.)

This music from Escaping Wonderland accompanies the player firing a slingshot with fruit ammunition in a cave. For reasons known only to my subconscious, I composed for marimba and woodblock.

(Click below to play… or jump to Spotify or Apple Music.)

I know, “Mr. Mole’s House” rolls off the tongue more euphoniously, but said mole lives in what could be described as warmly-decorated cave, and I strive for maximum accuracy in music titling.

This is all part of the VR adventure game Escaping Wonderland (which has been getting nothing but rave reviews, a few of which even mention music!) Speaking of music, today’s score excerpt is an affable and folksy guitar-and-bassoon tune for Mr. Mole, the player’s advisor throughout her journey.

(Click below to play… or jump to Spotify or Apple Music.)

Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of my favorite score tracks from Escaping Wonderland, a just-released VR game that takes place in an Alice-in-Wonderland universe. It’s a delightful game with unexpected story depth (all is not as cute and whimsical as it seems!), and so created great opportunities for music.

This week’s selection is a dreamy vocal melody that plays a recurring role throughout the score. Here it’s presented as a hummed duet, courtesy of Phoebe Engelbert (who also did some voice acting in the game) and Alison Borodzicz.

(Click below to play… or jump to Spotify or Apple Music.)

This week’s music selection is the opening from Emerald, Texas, filmmaker George Adams’ modern-day reinvention of The Wizard of Oz.

In this cue I lay out the instrumental palette of the entire score: acoustic blues guitar, solo strings, drums, and – to use the technical musical term – weird surreal floaty stuff in the background.

As the film plays with the boundaries of the waking world, the music keeps one foot in down-home existence and one in a more dreamlike place.