For your ears only: How music brought the new James Bond game to life

For your ears only: How music brought the new James Bond game to life 25 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Mark Savage Music correspondent IO Interactive The Flight - aka Alexis Smith (left) and Joe Henson - are the musicians behind the latest incarnation of James Bond (centre) "Save your lips, because they are a finite resource." Abbey Road studios, November 2025. Conductor Matt Dunkley is testing the limits of the London Chamber Orchestra's brass section. They've got just one half-day session to record 32 minutes of music for the new James Bond video game, 007 First Light. And that means four hours of non-stop puffing and blowing. "It's mostly action music, so if you hate us by the end of it that's totally understandable," composer Alexis Smith warns the musicians as the day begins. Smith has been working on the score for the past two years with his co-writer Joe Henderson (the son of Sherlock actress Una Stubbs). Today's the day it comes together, as 24 musicians breathe life into the music they penned in their cramped east London studio. "The things you can do with software orchestral instruments nowadays is amazing," says Smith. "We absolutely need that as we're mocking things up, but then you come here and you have the best brass players in the world... It's mind-blowing." As the session starts, the duo – who go by the name The Flight – can't suppress their smiles. "Take that to the bank," whispers Henderson after a the first run-through. Behind the scenes with James Bond and The Flight at Abbey Road In the Bond universe, the music is almost as important as 007 himself. Monty Norman's surf guitar riff and John Barry's sweeping orchestral scores spawned an entire genre of spy music – full of minor key suspense and piercing stabs of trumpet. If you're one of the three million people who've already bought First Light, you'll know how successfully The Flight have tweaked that template for Bond's latest escapades. The game presents an original take on the secret agent's origin story. When we first meet him, he's a tender-footed Navy aircrewman, thrown into a terrifying hostage rescue in Iceland. His instincts are impeccable, but he's yet to acquire the sophistication of Ian Fleming's character, much less a licence to kill. Because he's nowhere near achieving 007 status, The Flight reserved the big musical cues for later, and scored the scene like a movie. "My favourite bits of the Bond films are always the opening sequence, so I really enjoyed the Iceland mission," says Smith. "It's set in this dark, craggy, bleak landscape, and we had the permission to be really electronic and avant-garde. That was really nice, to go somewhere people aren't expecting us to go." IO Interactive Bond is barely recognisable as the game starts, and the player has to earn the 007 title as they progress through MI6 training and various missions As the game progresses, Bond is recruited by MI6 and familiar sounds creep in. The Flight had permission to u