AMON TOBIN - Chaos Theory: Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack

While waiting to follow up "Out From Out Where", his 2002 album and the last of a series of works (five in seven years) with which he skillfully and brilliantly managed to fuse dance music, jazz and classical arrangements, Amon Tobin threw himself into various side projects. After a remix album and a live set, Tobin was commissioned to write a soundtrack for a video game, "Splinter Cell 3".

In cases like this, a double assessment of the musician's work should take place. The first, in the case of purchasing the video game, looking at how the music fits with it; the second, in the case of purchasing the soundtrack, judging the music "naked". And this is exactly the situation for someone like me, holding this "Chaos Theory: Splinter Cell 3" in my hands. Yet what needs highlighting from the outset is the praise due to Tobin regarding the first of these two scenarios. The dark, repetitive atmospheres, crafted with great skill and care, manage brilliantly to convey that sense of claustrophobia the game needs as its backdrop: "The Lighthouse" unfolds over a cello line, insistent and assailed by electronic noise, skilled at painting an obsessive environment, with drum pulses marking the rising tension; "Ruthless", meanwhile, slowly carves out space with its grim little bells, but never lets go, unfolding at a jittery, breathless pace. A real godsend for a gamer, as I was saying.

The "casual" listener enjoys it far less; in fact, doesn't enjoy it at all. Tobin's ideas, while accomplished, are held back by an excessive focus on functionality: the initial spark is never followed by the development it deserves, and everything lingers in mannerism. That's the pattern throughout: the nocturnal village mood of "Kokubo Sosho Stealth" (piano notes, drums and that usual, highly personal classical/electronic backdrop) quickly grows tiresome; its wartime counterpart, "Kokubo Sosho Battle", with horns and tribal drums, comes across, on record, as needlessly gaudy. A few other tracks are simply bland in themselves, like "El Cargo", built around a plain bassline that isn't adequately supported. There's no shortage, however, of the odd surprising flash of brilliance: Tobin manages to captivate even while boxed in, when he opens up into landscapes steeped in dark romanticism: we're talking about the gorgeous "Theme From Battery", with its swirling strings and lyrical choirs, and the brief interlude of "Hokkaido", swept by a pitch-black wind.

In conclusion. The potentially interesting moments are in the majority, but that's as far as it goes - mere potential - since Tobin translates very little of it into substance, stretching out his ideas with a thin broth of classiness that really cheapens the purely musical side of things. Given that it's also likely the album doesn't capture the fruits of his best inspiration, the regret grows or fades depending on your point of view. "Chaos Theory: Splinter Cell 3 Soundtrack" can happily go back on the shelf: better to wait for tomorrow's chicken.

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30/04/2026