Maria del Rocio Mendez, better known as La Santera, is a key piece of the Santa Blanca Cartel’s influence operation.

Growing up Catholic in Mexico, she was obsessed with the martyrs of Roman times. She convinced herself that it was the Church’s responsibility to cleanse the world of heretics.

When she was in her teens, she learned about Santa Muerte and became immediately fascinated by the belief that followers must repay Santa Muerte for their good luck or face punishments. Maria found herself drawn to the fact that many of Santa Muerte’s worshippers follow her in fear.

El Cardenal, head of religion and leader of Santa Blanca’s influence arm, found Maria leading her own Santa Muerte sanctuary. Maria had grown a sizable following. El Cardenal admired the way she used fear to manipulate her followers, and introduced her to cartel head, El Sueño. El Sueño enlisted her to share the message of Santa Muerte throughout Bolivia, and to use the fear she instills in order to keep the civilians in line with Santa Blanca Cartel’s interests.

Sam Strachman, our narrative director, had this to say about La Santera:

"If El Cardenal is the light, generous side of Santa Muerte, then La Santera is the dark, hedonism. She’s taken this Saint and twisted her into something sinister for Santa Blanca. She’s managed to convince her followers that if they want a spot in the afterlife, they must kill the cartel’s rivals. Through La Santera, the Santa Blanca Cartel manipulates Bolivian citizens’ fear and religion to strengthen their influence. She is an important, yet dark, source of power for the cartel’s operations."



Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

Maria del Rocio Mendez, better known as La Santera, is a key piece of the Santa Blanca Cartel’s influence operation.

Growing up Catholic in Mexico, she was obsessed with the martyrs of Roman times. She convinced herself that it was the Church’s responsibility to cleanse the world of heretics.

When she was in her teens, she learned about Santa Muerte and became immediately fascinated by the belief that followers must repay Santa Muerte for their good luck or face punishments. Maria found herself drawn to the fact that many of Santa Muerte’s worshippers follow her in fear.

El Cardenal, head of religion and leader of Santa Blanca’s influence arm, found Maria leading her own Santa Muerte sanctuary. Maria had grown a sizable following. El Cardenal admired the way she used fear to manipulate her followers, and introduced her to cartel head, El Sueño. El Sueño enlisted her to share the message of Santa Muerte throughout Bolivia, and to use the fear she instills in order to keep the civilians in line with Santa Blanca Cartel’s interests.

Sam Strachman, our narrative director, had this to say about La Santera:

"If El Cardenal is the light, generous side of Santa Muerte, then La Santera is the dark, hedonism. She’s taken this Saint and twisted her into something sinister for Santa Blanca. She’s managed to convince her followers that if they want a spot in the afterlife, they must kill the cartel’s rivals. Through La Santera, the Santa Blanca Cartel manipulates Bolivian citizens’ fear and religion to strengthen their influence. She is an important, yet dark, source of power for the cartel’s operations."



Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

Not much is known about Karen Bowman from her life before her operations in Bolivia. The name “Karen Bowman” itself is an unofficial cover name. The Ghosts themselves don’t know anything about her previous life, or her real name.

 


 

Bowman has been undercover as an employee of a fake non-profit organization in Bolivia for the past seven years. Her real job is managing an operation to destabilize the Santa Blanca Cartel. Her duties include meeting with informants and assets, along with intelligence work related to covert US military efforts in the provinces.

Karen Bowman is highly intelligent, and is dedicated to learning as much about drug trafficking organizations as possible. She sometimes takes her obsession with learning everything she can about her enemies to an extreme.

Sam Strachman, our narrative director, had this to say about Bowman:

“What I love about Bowman is that she genuinely loves Bolivia. She loves the culture, the people, the history, the food, even the music. But she is also a true patriot. So over and over again, she finds herself torn in these two directions, between these two countries.”

Even though Bowman conducts herself in a very professional manner, she is tough and not above swearing like a sailor if she thinks it will help get her point across. Her drives are her work and getting missions accomplished. Karen Bowman is not one to discuss her personal life, and her non-work relationships tend to be intense, but few.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

Not much is known about Karen Bowman from her life before her operations in Bolivia. The name “Karen Bowman” itself is an unofficial cover name. The Ghosts themselves don’t know anything about her previous life, or her real name.

 


 

Bowman has been undercover as an employee of a fake non-profit organization in Bolivia for the past seven years. Her real job is managing an operation to destabilize the Santa Blanca Cartel. Her duties include meeting with informants and assets, along with intelligence work related to covert US military efforts in the provinces.

Karen Bowman is highly intelligent, and is dedicated to learning as much about drug trafficking organizations as possible. She sometimes takes her obsession with learning everything she can about her enemies to an extreme.

Sam Strachman, our narrative director, had this to say about Bowman:

“What I love about Bowman is that she genuinely loves Bolivia. She loves the culture, the people, the history, the food, even the music. But she is also a true patriot. So over and over again, she finds herself torn in these two directions, between these two countries.”

Even though Bowman conducts herself in a very professional manner, she is tough and not above swearing like a sailor if she thinks it will help get her point across. Her drives are her work and getting missions accomplished. Karen Bowman is not one to discuss her personal life, and her non-work relationships tend to be intense, but few.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

The beautiful landscapes of Bolivia are a definite feast for the eyes but the sounds of Bolivia are just as rich and captivating. Our audio director, Ghislain Soufflet, traveled with a recording team to Bolivia, in order to capture the symphonic beauty of the natural landscape. We also enlisted the talents of Alain Johannes to help capture the essence of the Wildlands through music. Together, Ghislain Soufflet, Manu Bachet, the Ghost Recon audio team and Alain Johannes have truly created a stunning audio experience.

Ambient Sounds of Bolivia

Ghislain and his team began by traveling to every ecosystem Bolivia had to offer to record the ambient sounds around them. They visited the jungle, the salt flats, the mountains, and the yungas. The group even split up at certain points, in order to record as much of the environment as possible.

However, recording the sounds and adding them into the game does not make the sounds of Ghost Recon® Wildlands an authentic reflection of the beautiful setting. All of the different environmental elements were taken into account. No single sound is static, but all the sounds are as dynamically breathing as the world around you.

 



 

Along with the environmental sounds, the team made sure the civilian music heard in game is as authentic as possible. The people of Bolivia are an incredibly musical people and, in their travels, the team found the whole cities filled with a rich culture of music. For example, the team stumbled across and was able to record Bolivia’s music as played by native musicians. The music heard in-game traditionally comes from Peru and Bolivia, using the same types of instruments that have played for generations.

Authentic Gun Sounds

We worked closely with Red Storm Entertainment and firearm manufacturers to ensure the authenticity of all weapon sounds in the game. Our sounds were taken from both close and distant ranges, in order to make certain each gun sound is authentic, no matter how far away your character is from the action.

 



 

The team also created a new dynamic echo technology—in order to provide the feeling of really being in Bolivia. Objects in the world are configured as sound reflectors in order to make the environment react as realistically as possible, even from an auditory experience. The final result is different sounds of gunfire depending on whether you’re in a canyon, on the salt flats, or deep within the jungle. Each of these areas has its own unique echo.

Soundtrack of the Wildlands

The score for a video game is generally written before it is recorded. However, Ghislain, Manu and Alain had their own vision for Ghost Recon® Wildlands. They wanted the recording experience to be as unpredictable and wild as the world itself—and it paid off in spades. Ghislain brought a recording team to composer Alain Johannes’ home in L.A., along with some video footage of the game. For an entire week, Alain and his fellow recording musicians (Joey Castillo, Nick Oliveri and Norm Block) watched the footage and improvised the soundtrack, according to how the footage made them feel.

The emotional experience of that week may have been intense and challenging, but they put their trust in each other. As they went about recording, it was obvious that Alain was indeed the right person for the job. Each of the artists expressed how lucky they felt to be involved in such a truly pioneering experience.

In order to keep the music as authentic to the area as possible, many instruments local to the area were used. One example of a native instrument Alain used is the charango. Alain owns his own charango made from a cigar box and steel strings—just one item in a plethora of instruments he has to choose from, and he can play them all. He wanted the life and texture of the audio to match the beautiful environments he saw in the game.

In the end, the soundtrack they were able to record truly captures the emotional experience of the Wildlands.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

The Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands original soundtrack is now available for pre-order on the iTunes store.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

The beautiful landscapes of Bolivia are a definite feast for the eyes but the sounds of Bolivia are just as rich and captivating. Our audio director, Ghislain Soufflet, traveled with a recording team to Bolivia, in order to capture the symphonic beauty of the natural landscape. We also enlisted the talents of Alain Johannes to help capture the essence of the Wildlands through music. Together, Ghislain Soufflet, Manu Bachet, the Ghost Recon audio team and Alain Johannes have truly created a stunning audio experience.

Ambient Sounds of Bolivia

Ghislain and his team began by traveling to every ecosystem Bolivia had to offer to record the ambient sounds around them. They visited the jungle, the salt flats, the mountains, and the yungas. The group even split up at certain points, in order to record as much of the environment as possible.

However, recording the sounds and adding them into the game does not make the sounds of Ghost Recon® Wildlands an authentic reflection of the beautiful setting. All of the different environmental elements were taken into account. No single sound is static, but all the sounds are as dynamically breathing as the world around you.

 



 

Along with the environmental sounds, the team made sure the civilian music heard in game is as authentic as possible. The people of Bolivia are an incredibly musical people and, in their travels, the team found the whole cities filled with a rich culture of music. For example, the team stumbled across and was able to record Bolivia’s music as played by native musicians. The music heard in-game traditionally comes from Peru and Bolivia, using the same types of instruments that have played for generations.

Authentic Gun Sounds

We worked closely with Red Storm Entertainment and firearm manufacturers to ensure the authenticity of all weapon sounds in the game. Our sounds were taken from both close and distant ranges, in order to make certain each gun sound is authentic, no matter how far away your character is from the action.

 



 

The team also created a new dynamic echo technology—in order to provide the feeling of really being in Bolivia. Objects in the world are configured as sound reflectors in order to make the environment react as realistically as possible, even from an auditory experience. The final result is different sounds of gunfire depending on whether you’re in a canyon, on the salt flats, or deep within the jungle. Each of these areas has its own unique echo.

Soundtrack of the Wildlands

The score for a video game is generally written before it is recorded. However, Ghislain, Manu and Alain had their own vision for Ghost Recon® Wildlands. They wanted the recording experience to be as unpredictable and wild as the world itself—and it paid off in spades. Ghislain brought a recording team to composer Alain Johannes’ home in L.A., along with some video footage of the game. For an entire week, Alain and his fellow recording musicians (Joey Castillo, Nick Oliveri and Norm Block) watched the footage and improvised the soundtrack, according to how the footage made them feel.

The emotional experience of that week may have been intense and challenging, but they put their trust in each other. As they went about recording, it was obvious that Alain was indeed the right person for the job. Each of the artists expressed how lucky they felt to be involved in such a truly pioneering experience.

In order to keep the music as authentic to the area as possible, many instruments local to the area were used. One example of a native instrument Alain used is the charango. Alain owns his own charango made from a cigar box and steel strings—just one item in a plethora of instruments he has to choose from, and he can play them all. He wanted the life and texture of the audio to match the beautiful environments he saw in the game.

In the end, the soundtrack they were able to record truly captures the emotional experience of the Wildlands.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

The Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands original soundtrack is now available for pre-order on the iTunes store.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

 Among the many elements that create a full video game experience, music plays an important role. It is said to contribute more than half of the player’s feeling of immersion, and that’s why the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (GRW) team sought the best artists to compose the game’s soundtrack. This lead GRW’s Music Supervisor, Manu Bachet, and Audio Director, Ghislain Soufflet, to reach out to Alain Johannes, an amazing artist and star of the Californian rock stage, known for his work with bands like Queen of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, and PJ Harvey. Alain Johannes invited three of his friends to take part in the recording sessions: bassist Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, and Mondo Generator, to name a few) and drummers Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan) and Norm Block (Sweethead, Plexi).

 Watch the video below for an insider’s glimpse of the recording sessions that took place in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about Alain and the composing process for the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands soundtrack by reading the interview below!

 

VIDEO

 

Alain, thanks a lot for joining us for this interview – we’re really happy to have you here. Before we go any further, can you tell us what your story with music is?

It’s a long story! (laughs) I started music very young, and I remember music before anything else. I’ve lived a long life so far and I was able to be creative and be blessed to be with amazing artists and find myself in situations where I’ve been a part of some pretty amazing bands. There’s also been some rollercoaster rides in my life in many ways, and music was always saving me.

Manu and Ghislain contacted you to compose for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. You have a lot of experience in many creative fields, but it was actually the first time you were asked to compose for a game. What was it like?

I had this romantic vision of being a composer in a movie where you get to be part of it from the beginning. Composing for a game is like a massive movie: this amazing relationship between sound and visuals, that are like interlocked... the open world and the vistas, the different emotional tonalities, the danger, the freedom of going wherever you want… it’s such a wild breath of musical expression that is possible, it’s really amazing, it pushes you to do the right thing.

The exciting part for me was to be able to react naturally and to improvise a lot on the game images, like Neil Young did for the movie Dead Man. With Manu and Ghislain, and also Nick, Joey, and Norm, we were blessed and lucky for everything to happen. It’s an open dialogue about an approach. The tone and the feel of it was always right. We recorded more than 10 hours of music and the reason that worked is that everyone was focused on how to make this great. You were able to feel a great chemistry between all of us.

For those who don’t know them, can you please introduce Joey Castillo, Nick Oliveri, and Norm Block, the other members of the band, to us?

In thinking about the chemistry, when I had to choose who I wanted to play with, I immediately though of Nick, Joey, and Norm. Joey was in Queens of the Stone Age with me and we’ve worked together on many different projects with this amazing chemistry. I met Nick when my band Eleven was opening up for Queens of the Stone Age in 1999. We became very friends. He’s an incredible bassist, guitar player, composer, and singer. Norm is an amazing drummer. He played with Sweethead, Mark Lanegan… I just had the feeling that it was unusual to have two drummers but I thought those two would complement each other.

 

 

With Manu and Ghislain, we were like this stone rocker family and we had this chemistry that would come with us: this ability to understand the situation and be able to react in the moment. There was this amazing natural thing that happened. We get started, watch some gameplay, we come up with a little piece of music to start, and then we’d immediately go in and then jamming to it and then record straight away and find our way. It was quite an amazing feeling to have three other people reacting together. We became this one big musician, a four-headed musician.

Alain, you are a multi-instrumentalist. How many instruments did you use for the soundtrack?

Most of the sound textures for the game are based on acoustic instruments: charango, cigarbox guitar, flamenco guitar, percussions of all different kinds… at some points some wood flutes, cello, upright bass, viola… and I’m sure I’m forgetting some! Ah, we also had that shaman drum that you play with a rabbit’s foot, some dried leaves… there are so many different things in my house! I think we picked the right palette for this game.

What’s your favorite track so far?

Oh, it’s really hard for me! I really enjoy the sunrise and the vista tracks. As these moments are very short in real life, we need to come in with a story in a minute. I also remember the chases, all the stuff with the vehicles. That’s why having two sets of a drums was very impactful.

Do you have any message to give the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon fans?

I hope that you guys enjoy this amazing world and also that the music is part of the big inspiration and excitement of playing the game. Just enjoy and have a good time – it’s gonna be amazing!

 

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

The Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands original soundtrack is now available for pre-order on the iTunes store.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.

 Among the many elements that create a full video game experience, music plays an important role. It is said to contribute more than half of the player’s feeling of immersion, and that’s why the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (GRW) team sought the best artists to compose the game’s soundtrack. This lead GRW’s Music Supervisor, Manu Bachet, and Audio Director, Ghislain Soufflet, to reach out to Alain Johannes, an amazing artist and star of the Californian rock stage, known for his work with bands like Queen of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan, and PJ Harvey. Alain Johannes invited three of his friends to take part in the recording sessions: bassist Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, and Mondo Generator, to name a few) and drummers Joey Castillo (Queens of the Stone Age, Mark Lanegan) and Norm Block (Sweethead, Plexi).

 Watch the video below for an insider’s glimpse of the recording sessions that took place in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about Alain and the composing process for the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands soundtrack by reading the interview below!

 

VIDEO

 

Alain, thanks a lot for joining us for this interview – we’re really happy to have you here. Before we go any further, can you tell us what your story with music is?

It’s a long story! (laughs) I started music very young, and I remember music before anything else. I’ve lived a long life so far and I was able to be creative and be blessed to be with amazing artists and find myself in situations where I’ve been a part of some pretty amazing bands. There’s also been some rollercoaster rides in my life in many ways, and music was always saving me.

Manu and Ghislain contacted you to compose for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands. You have a lot of experience in many creative fields, but it was actually the first time you were asked to compose for a game. What was it like?

I had this romantic vision of being a composer in a movie where you get to be part of it from the beginning. Composing for a game is like a massive movie: this amazing relationship between sound and visuals, that are like interlocked... the open world and the vistas, the different emotional tonalities, the danger, the freedom of going wherever you want… it’s such a wild breath of musical expression that is possible, it’s really amazing, it pushes you to do the right thing.

The exciting part for me was to be able to react naturally and to improvise a lot on the game images, like Neil Young did for the movie Dead Man. With Manu and Ghislain, and also Nick, Joey, and Norm, we were blessed and lucky for everything to happen. It’s an open dialogue about an approach. The tone and the feel of it was always right. We recorded more than 10 hours of music and the reason that worked is that everyone was focused on how to make this great. You were able to feel a great chemistry between all of us.

For those who don’t know them, can you please introduce Joey Castillo, Nick Oliveri, and Norm Block, the other members of the band, to us?

In thinking about the chemistry, when I had to choose who I wanted to play with, I immediately though of Nick, Joey, and Norm. Joey was in Queens of the Stone Age with me and we’ve worked together on many different projects with this amazing chemistry. I met Nick when my band Eleven was opening up for Queens of the Stone Age in 1999. We became very friends. He’s an incredible bassist, guitar player, composer, and singer. Norm is an amazing drummer. He played with Sweethead, Mark Lanegan… I just had the feeling that it was unusual to have two drummers but I thought those two would complement each other.

 

 

With Manu and Ghislain, we were like this stone rocker family and we had this chemistry that would come with us: this ability to understand the situation and be able to react in the moment. There was this amazing natural thing that happened. We get started, watch some gameplay, we come up with a little piece of music to start, and then we’d immediately go in and then jamming to it and then record straight away and find our way. It was quite an amazing feeling to have three other people reacting together. We became this one big musician, a four-headed musician.

Alain, you are a multi-instrumentalist. How many instruments did you use for the soundtrack?

Most of the sound textures for the game are based on acoustic instruments: charango, cigarbox guitar, flamenco guitar, percussions of all different kinds… at some points some wood flutes, cello, upright bass, viola… and I’m sure I’m forgetting some! Ah, we also had that shaman drum that you play with a rabbit’s foot, some dried leaves… there are so many different things in my house! I think we picked the right palette for this game.

What’s your favorite track so far?

Oh, it’s really hard for me! I really enjoy the sunrise and the vista tracks. As these moments are very short in real life, we need to come in with a story in a minute. I also remember the chases, all the stuff with the vehicles. That’s why having two sets of a drums was very impactful.

Do you have any message to give the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon fans?

I hope that you guys enjoy this amazing world and also that the music is part of the big inspiration and excitement of playing the game. Just enjoy and have a good time – it’s gonna be amazing!

 

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be available on March 7, 2017, for PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One, and PC.

The Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands original soundtrack is now available for pre-order on the iTunes store.

For more intel on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please keep an eye on GhostRecon.com and be sure to visit our official forums and subreddit.