“Save your lips, because they are a finite resource.”
Abbey Road studios, November 2025. Conductor Matt Dunkley is testing the limits of the Chamber Orchestra of London.
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 Henson (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 Henson after a the first run-through.
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.”
Even with that scaffolding, the scale of the Bond project was daunting.
The Flight have won multiple awards for games like Alien: Isolation, Assassin’s Creed and the Horizon series.
But with a background in pop and electronic music (their credits include Bjork, Mel C and the Freestylers), an orchestral suite was a big step.
“It was a huge thrill but also nerve-wracking, because it’s quite a responsibility,” says Henson.
“You don’t realise until you’re working on Bond how much a part of you it is.”
Smith adds: “The pressure comes from all those Boxing Day afternoons, sitting on the sofa with your dad, watching the old films.
“And even if you’re going to have something like this, which is a new angle on the franchise, it’s still got to live with all those other great scores as well.”
As the session draws to a close, energy starts to flag.
“Can you bear to do one more of those, ladies and gentlemen,” pleads Dunkley, “while there’s still blood left in your top lips?”
In the control booth, engineer Jake Jackson suggests the high notes are taking a toll.
“If it was down a fifth, it’d be easier,” he observes.
“Yeah, well, I love F sharp,” laughs Smith.
The trumpeters persevere valiantly but, by the end of the day, everyone’s wrung out.
“We had to do a lot of music very quickly, so we’re tired and emotional,” says Henson, “but the band were incredible.”
“My least favourite thing in music exams was sight-reading, so these guys are just amazing,” adds Smith. “They need one take to get the feel, and the second take sounds perfect.”
Thanks in part to The Flight’s music, the game is so cinematic that fans have been petitioning for voice actor Patrick Gibson to play Bond in the forthcoming, Denis Villeneuve-directed film.
The potential for a real-world crossover puts Smith in a philosophical mood.
“It’s funny,” he says, “because on a computer game, often the only thing that’s actually real is the music.”
