Game info: Website
Listening: iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon, Steam
Info
So like a lot of people, I caught the early buzz for the cat-in-a-walled-city exploration game, but I had absolutely no idea who was responsible for the music until someone added the soundtrack to VGMdb, at which point I checked the entry and did a massive double take. Yann van der Cruyssen! I love that guy! French composer, also known as Morusque and previously known as Nurykabe. Most of his music generally falls into the categories of “jazzy, electronic ambience with cool textures,” “chiptune,” or “chambery music featuring strings,” and befitting a futuristic setting, this is mainly the first mixed with the second.
The first disc, which is the majority of the soundtrack, comprises the game’s general background music and is broadly a mix of either ambient or tense themes, heavy on synths, effects, and pitched & unpitched percussion. While I haven’t actually played the game, it seems like most, if not all, of the tracks are composed of several different cues from a sequence in the game and arranged into a suite to give you a sense of progression through the world. These pieces are very characteristic of his ambient style from other works like Saira and Knytt Underground, which is a sound that I love.
The second disc comprises diegetic music heard mainly on radios found throughout the game, so it’s mostly quite a bit more upbeat, jazzier, and catchier than anything found on the first disc, with a healthy amount of off-kilterness. I was really impressed by a number of these tracks on a compositional level; while his jazzier & funkier tracks in games like Blocks That Matter and its sequel have always been good, I think the ones here are among the best he’s ever written.
Recommended tracks:
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“Inside the Wall” is a warm introductory piece with a lovely little rubato section at 0:40
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“Fuse” starts off with this really cool mix of windy synths and percussive sounds, before switching to a sneakier theme halfway through
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The second half of “Last Night” features a very erratic synth line manipulated in a way I instantly identify with van der Cryussen, with frequent and almost random bursts of tone
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“Safe Mode” is all over the place rhythmically
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“Baby Download” starts off kinda unassuming but eventually builds into an absolutely stanky funk track with frequent rhythmic glitches that always work themselves back into 4/4
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