While we don’t yet have No Man’s Sky in this house, it sounds like a game that would be a hit with my family, as the premise seems a mash-up of Minecraft and Destiny, two games that have been played a lot around here. To my older head, the concept recalls ancient epics like Starflight or Marc Miller’s Imperium in his sprawling Traveler RPG (that purportedly was one of the roots of Firefly).
65daysofstatic’s guitar-laden No Man’s Sky soundtrack, which pops with synthesized static and percussion, and hangs on human soprano played like and in tandem with piano keys, is an amazing thing that isn’t so much as the musical backdrop to a game, but a musical excerpt cut from a future world.
Just as the game pretends to contain a vast sea of suns, so also does this score traverse diverse genres in its presentation, from “Asimov,” which grinds its way forward like a rock anthem, to “Heliosphere,” which has a lighter touch reminiscent of Vangelis. Certain motifs and effects return throughout the soundtrack, not unlike dramatic characters in their recurrence; Brian Eno uses these dramatic echoes in his work on Dune (1985).
My favorite piece is “Escape Velocity,” in which a sentimental melody fights to stay afloat amidst a monotone storm, and survives to the end of the track by going through the madness.
“Red Parallax” begins by taking the first few notes of Phillip Glass’ Koyanisqatsi, stretching them through a black hole, and then building on that monofilament musical wire a foundation of 1970s-80s Doctor Who incidental music that ultimately supports an inspiring rock anthem.
In “Hypersleep,” we see 65daysofstatic paying their dues to Minecraft’s monumentally influential soundtrack, with the poignant and haunting bars of the Minecraft theme pinioned between guitar effects.
Overall, it’s an excellent piece of music that will hopefully find a life outside of the game that it’s paired with, as early reviews of No Man’s Sky on PS4 indicate a subpar achievement not on the epic level of the other sandbox games that it would emulate. The No Man’s Sky soundtrack, on the other hand, can immediately be shelved with classic pieces of science fiction music, as it is a visionary piece of music that advances the genre to a Delta Quadrant of alien harmonies.
