"A Nearly Peaceful Place" from The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings on the PC, Xbox 360, OS X, and Linux (2011)
Composer: Krzystof Wierzynkiewicz
Label: CD Projekt Red
Publisher: CD Projekt Red
Developer: CD Projekt Red
I can already tell you why I love this song, and it is probably not for any of the reasons that you are thinking of.
Yes, Krzystof Wierzynkiewicz does write beautiful music to fit whatever scene it is being used in, be it an orchestration for a dramatic cutscene, or a serene melody for a brightly lit forested region. "A Nearly Peaceful Place" is also one of the earlier songs to feature in and around the town of Flotsam, the first large city/area that the player is able to familiarize themself with after the prologue. My primary reason is that I just find it to be beautiful and indeed peaceful, but the secondary reason is that it reminds me of two other songs. The first is "River of Life" by Paweł Błaszczak from The Witcher, which sounds similar in the first half of "A Nearly Peaceful Place," and then the second half reminds me a lot of Michael Hoenig's music from Baldur's Gate, specifically the Main Theme, but how it is used in "Streets of the City."
One thing I did notice about this song, is that despite its title and the goings on in/around Flotsam, I do not detect an undercurrent of something sinister that is present in such songs as "Peaceful Waters" from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or even "Welcome Aboard the U.S.G. Ishimura" from Dead Space. And there is a lot of shadiness going on in the town of Flotsam, everything from remnants of Salamandra, potentially shady governors looking out for their own political gain, blatant racism, and a handful of other dealings not always worthy of a Witcher's eye. To me, "A Nearly Peaceful Place" is a truly peaceful song.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
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