Game info: Wikipedia, The Obscuritory
Listening: YouTube
Credits
Music and Sound by Thomas Dolby & Headspace
Composers: Blake Leyh, Thomas Dolby, Kim Cascone, Paul Sebastien
Sound Design: Blake Leyh
Sound Editor: Kim Cascone
Info
Guess which weird ’90s CD adventure game I just played. It’s this one! And it kicks ass, highly recommended. The game’s audio was done by Thomas Dolby’s (yes, that guy!) audio company Headspace; they also composed for a few other games and developed some music technology for use in games and other software.
The game’s a surreal trip through a bunch of random, dreamy environments, and the developers wanted the music to reflect that:
Matthew Fassberg – In areas where the player might spend a long time we had to make sure the music wouldn’t drive them crazy. So we’d talk about the mood we were after and then try and put in an ambient sort of soundtrack (like in the plane) In places where we wanted to build towards a climax and didn’t think anyone for would stop for long (climbing the statue) we could be a bit more dramatic.
Howard Cushnir – Everything needed to be just right and also a little bit off-center. Like the muzak in the cubicle maze or the jazz in the gallery. It needed to draw you in and comment on itself a little and also be something you can listen to for hours.
An “ambient sort of soundtrack” that’s “a little bit off-center” is definitely a good way to describe the overall feel. The music is MIDI and not CD audio tracks, and the team did a good job with the medium in creating interesting ambient soundscapes and weird sounds. The soundtrack unmistakably has the vibe of a weird ’90s adventure game, a couple of tracks even ever so slightly reminded me of Planet Laika. I do also want to shout out how there are a bunch of weird jingles for one-off events, like picking the wrong file out of a cabinet or winning a board game.
Recommended tracks:
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“Approaching Obsidian” (Dolby) plays during the intro area and establishes the tone of the music pretty early; this is the only track in the game with MIDI meta text explicitly identifying a composer
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“Dialing the Phone” has some really weird brass and wind parts
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“Wave Puzzle” has some extremely slowly panning string pads
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“Zoetrope” is a low-key jam with some repeating rhythmic figures, which is actually super appropriate for a zoetrope now that I think about it (also don’t tell anyone but I kind of want to date the robot shown in the video image)
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“The Conductor” has a bunch of cool, high-tech noises and recapitulates the game’s main theme
(track titles are unofficial)
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