Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: Bandcamp (w/music info), iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon, Steam
Info
Here’s a randomized puzzle adventure game in a weird house that I understand is kind of like a puzzle hunt but video game-ized. I’m very interested in playing it at some point if I can, so don’t none of you tell me anything else about it.
The soundtrack was done by Dutch duo Trigg & Gusset (with three tracks co-written by synth programmer Jurren Mekking) in not just their first game score but their first score for any kind of media, it looks like. They’re a combo of a keyboard/synth player (Bart Knol a.k.a. Trigg) and a sax/clarinet player (Erik van Geer a.k.a. Gusset), and their music tends to be a combo of slow, emotive wind lines crossed with synth pads for a very drone-y, atmospheric vibe. They also like to explore more noir jazz and dark ambient territories, so they frequently work with brass players, drummers, and so on to round out the ensemble.
They didn’t bring in any other players for this soundtrack though beyond some non-obvious electric guitar in one track; otherwise this is all synths and clarinet, all day. A few tracks are more active or melodic but for the most part this is very ambient music, droning with subtle movement. Overwhelmingly the feeling is lonely and melancholy, very relaxing with a palpable sense of abandonment throughout.
I mostly just thought it was OK. There are some good synth noises here and there, but the sound design doesn’t ever get super wild and you’ll hear a lot of similar textures from track to track. Compositionally there are some occasionally nice moments where the clarinet is multitracked (or maybe just played with some synths) with some pretty writing, but aside from that there wasn’t a whole lot that wowed me. It does nail the mood, though, and if you like the mood there’s a whole lot of music here that’ll show you that mood.
Recommended tracks:
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“In Fog We Are Lost” (Bart Knol) has some pleasant clanging in the background
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"Stairways and Steam (Knol) is one of the most dark ambient tracks with the synth buzziness and tense figure that comes in at 1:20
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“Mortua” (Knol) was the nicest of the clarinet-heavy tracks to me
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“Ovinn Nevarei” (Knol & Erik van Geer) is one of the most overtly uplifting tracks, not extremely so or anything but definitely a lot more compared to the rest of the soundtrack
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“The Baron of Mount Holly” (Knol & van Geer) has some light percussion and an electric piano laying down some chords, which automatically makes it the most lounge music sounding track in the game
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