No Man's Sky and 65daysofstatic

Yesterday was the release of the highly anticipated videogame No Man's Sky. A game that I followed closely for years, especially after the news got out that 65daysofstatic was on board to make the official soundtrack and ambient soundscapes. After watching the first images and gameplay in 2013, man, this videogame and the music of 65Daysofstatic is one big happy marriage. Amazing. Read about my first experiences with the game and the accompanying music. The images are screens I captured while playing.

No Man's Sky OST - Full

First and foremost: I enjoy playing No Man's Sky very much. It's THE biggest question at the moment: "Cool and all, but... is it fun!?""  Yes, it's great. The atmosphere and sense of wonder and discovery is amazing. It captures the same atmosphere as the movie Interstellar and 2001: A Space Oddyssey. It's a game that always leaves questions, you wonder what you'll discover next and what the purpose is of that discovery. Combined with the vastness of this game, every corner you turn, every moment in space is like a space-painting that's ready to screenshot your ass off. Man, I do make a lot of screenshots in this game. This game constantly scratches that "what's over there?"-question and before you know it, you forget to do all your other things during the day. Don't expect a lot of guidance and scripted events: the trigger of this game is to set your won goals and needs and pursue them. You're not the powerful spacemarine that "saves the world" The overarching goal of this game is to "reach the center of the universe" and that's a big lore to pursue. While pursuing this goal, I constantly deviate from that plan to do other discoveries.



The music of 65daysofstatic plays a huge factor in the atmosphere of this game. This game is as retro syfy as it gets and is a monument for that kind of stuff. The ambient soundscapes are beautifully done. While exploring and flying around space, the ambient music is soothing and mysterious. It adds to the sense of wonder and the delicate way in which the music swells while doing an important discovery or reaching a milestone, fits perfectly. You get the sense that you did something extraordinary. The beats do kick in when fighting space pirates, when you get attacked by drones and even the local animals / inhabitants (man, they look weird sometimes :)  ) and it puts you in high tension. My advice during the early stages of the game when you get raided by space-bandits: fly away and protect your precious cargo!



The release of 65daysofstatic's No Man's Sky OST is no slouch. It features almost 2 hours of fantastic music and ambient soundscapes that's of a quality you're used to with 65dos' music. The tracks are a bit more streamlined and less kinetic, but I like that. It's music with lots of atmosphere and with a melancholic vibe. I dare to see this could be the best collaboration between videogames and music, ever! Older work of M83's could (like "Lower Your Eyelids to die with the sun") be a great fit too, but this combination of No Man's Sky and 65dos works like magic. A huge shout-out to the hauntingly beautiful ambient soundscapes starting at the 48 minutes mark. Amazing piano, synth, noise and chanting.



What I absolutely adore is that 65daysofstatic received a lot of attention for their musical work on this game. They performed on  a couple of high profile (and more mainstream)  events and it seems their music receives unanimous praise. They're on a tour with the No Man's Sky album and it's highly deserved they'll receive some more mainstream attention. Let's hope a lot of gamers will visit their tour, I know I'll be there at October the 17th in 013 Tilburg! Enjoy the game and the music and witness one of the best collaborations between two mediums, ever! More info of their No Man's Sky tour right here.