The two composers of the soundtrack for the first season of The Witcher are not (yet) stars of the film music genre, but they are certainly on their way there, given the phenomenal success of the series and its music. Giona Ostinelli is a Swiss-Italian composer, known for her work on a televised adaptation of a Stephen King novel (The Mist), whereas Sonya Belousova is a Russian pianist who was recognised in 2015 for the album Player Piano, produced by Stan Lee (Marvel). In 2019, they produced the soundtrack to The Witcher, an eight-episode-long series created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and broadcast on Netflix in the same year. The television adaptation is based on the literary saga of the same name, written by ‘Polish Tolkien’ Andrzej Sapkowski. The first season is based on The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, a series of short stories which precede the main saga of The Witcher.
Given the subject matter of The Witcher, it should not come as a surprise to find several pieces with Celtic and medieval connotations, whether they be dances with fiddle or tin whistle solos (They’re Alive, I’m Helping the Idiot), or ethereal voices accompanied by harps (Tomorrow I’ll Leave Blaviken For Good). Rodion Belousov’s expressive oboe solos deserve an honourable mention in Happy Childhoods Make For Dull Company and Rewriting History. As for the action music, even though the powerful rhythms are dominant, the traditional fibre remains running through the music (It’s An Ultimatum). Finally, if the music from The Witcher is so successful, it surely owes a lot of this fame to its songs, especially Toss A Coin To Your Witcher, the tune sung by the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) and countlessly covered and parodied on social media. Both the songs and the instrumental music from The Witcher possess a poetic and melodic power, rare enough to be worthy of note. To this end, they equally have an intrinsic interest, and you can enjoy listening to it away from the visuals. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz